Fuji S5 vs. Canon 5D question

[Dick Parrish]

The June issue of Popular Photography has a review of the S5,with comparisons to the Canon EOS 5D and the Nikon D200.

I've been using the S5 for about a month and a half, and it is AWESOME!

[DougAxford]

Just to close this thread off - I got a S5 a week ago and still doing testing. The initial reaction on a few family portraits taken so far is that the tonal range is MUCH better and file size of a comparable portrait in jpg is double that of a 20D. Detail in whites are simply much better than older cameras (pre-2007) in a similar price range.

My studio shots were WB at 5300K with +1 Cyan and +1 Yellow adjustment in camera. This ended up needing 2 CC Cyan and 4 CC Green on printing. This needs to get closer, but not bad for a pre-set WB without even doing a custom WB. We're normally off by no more than 2 CC total on a custom WB, but I think I can get it dead-on with some more tweaking. 1 CC is hard to see by anyone but a color expert, just so that non-lab people can relate.

Anyone who calls this a 6 mg camera is plain nuts. I don't care about how Fuji doubles their pixels or the technical goobledygook, I care about what the skin tone, tonal range and fine detail looks like.

This is the first camera I have been forced to read the manual carefully. Most good reports I've read are on the money. Menu set-up is awkward, slight delay in seeing LCD image, images probably need to be on sharpen 1 in camera and camera is noisy (noisy camera, not image). Also, file size forces you up to bigger cards, but gee, if I shot raw, it might be a problem for me. None of these are deal breakers for me when you balance the great auto WB that is what I need for weddings and the better tonal range. Also, I am emailing with other guys who are making use of the bar code inputs to have name, ID, package number, etc. added into the exif info at time of the shot. This is great for event or T&I guys like me.

This does not mean that I'm selling all my Canon gear. More likely, I would expect Canon to meet or beat this quality on the next set of releases. Perhaps that's why we saw so little new Canon at PMA. Perhaps they knew what was coming and need more R&D time. This is good for everyone. Quality is up a definite notch.

I will post more details as promised when I get a chance. It is super busy for our sports now, so it'll get done when it gets done.

BTW, the Nikon D200 body is nicer grip than Canon. More secure feeling with the better rubber grip. There's nothing like feeling the camera start to slip on a swealtering day.

Doug

[edwind]

I have been very interested in these threads about S5 and 5D because two of my colleagues recently switched from Nikons to Canon 5D's and can't stop crowing about them, while I have been having a lot of trouble with the quality of JPEG's from my Fuji S3. So much so that I now only shoot Raw on my S3 which as you can imagine slows things down a little.
The S3 is due back any minute now from Fuji after asking them to look at my complaints so I may find they have fixed a problem or if not maybe I will decide to go to Canon. My S2 gives much better JPEG's than the S3 but the Raw images off the S3 are fine. I figure it is in-camera JPEG writing that is corrupt.
I'm rambling. What I wanted to ask was, hwo are the JPEG's ofrom the S5?

[edwind]

Fuji S3 came back more damaged than when it left. Thoroughly dispirited with Fuji. Bought Canon 5D and wow! Now I feel I can concentrate on the art instead of the equipment performance.

[foamcore]

I have been shooting the S5 since two days after it's release. I have two bodies. I shoot weddings, commercial, editorial and portraiture. When I shoot weddings I always work with another wedding photographer as a second shooter. Two of those I work with use the 5D and the 30D. The skin tones of JPEGs are great on the 5D, even better than the S5, in the right lighting conditions. The S5 is better at skin tones when there is mixed lighting and when the speedlights are used. The S5 is a great camera and I really think that if I did not start out as a Nikon user and invested so heavily in Nikon glass I would switch to Canon. I have noticed a few things about Fuji and Nikon that bother me. The quality of parts. My lens hoods for the 80-200VR lens has broken twice now, The rubber has come off my 17-55 lens and both of my PC connections on my S5s are loose. My Fuji S3s wore out in only two years and had to be sent in to be repaired twice, once for each body. All that being said if I had to choose between the Canon 5D and the Fuji S5 and my decision was based on quality of images and nothing else I would go with Canon.

[foamcore]

I shoot weddings with several different photographers as my second shooters. I shoot the Fuji S5 and my second shooters almost always use Canon. I will not work with shooters who shoot Nikon (skin tones are not correct in JPEG). The Canon 5D creates great images, especially when the light is not mixed. But when you are shooting in mixed light situations the AWB on the 5D is way off, too red. The S5 outperforms all of the Canons in getting a correct AWB in JPEG. The drawback with Fuji is RAW is too slow and the quality is lacking compared to JPEG. Another thing I have noticed with the S5, when I shoot the 12megapixel setting the images are not as sharp and have more noise. So I shoot it on 6megapixels and JPEG and the images are perfect.

[Ronald Garrett]

I do not have a 5D, but do use the S5 a lot. When I first got it I used it shooting everything, {new toy}. I was well satisfied with it except that contrast and saturation did not seem to be on par with my other cameras even when maxed out. Not far off, but noticeable. Simple tweak in elements got the job done to my liking.

The camreas skin tone and color accuracy is better than anything else I have. I use it to take portraits of horses with spectular results.

Low light noise is also better than my D2x or D40. At ISO 800 it is invisable............. to my eyes, and to my noiseware software too. I also use it as a backup for the D2x.

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