Fuji S9600 - Limit?

[Valiant]

So over the last few days I've been getting to know my new camera, tis a Fuji S9600 Bridge camera, and I have to say I am muchly impressed by it, it was a replacement for me Fuji 58000 which I managed to loose. It's hard not to take good photos with this thing, I reminds me of my old P200 which was a point and shoot that took some amazing photos, this camera is almost as easy to use but takes better photos.

Anyways, I have noticed something though, it's a 9MP camera, with what I'm led to believe is fairly decent innards. When I take photos, they look amazing at screen size, but at 100% they look a mess. I'm not good at saying what I mean but I'll post up photos in a few seconds to show what I mean. Is it a limitation of the camera, or jpg compression? Will it be better in RAW?


Scaled down 9MP image.


Section at 100% of 9MP


It's worse in black and white on the camera which I don't understand.


Scaled down 9MP B&W


Section at 100%. How the fook can it be worse then colour?



Scaled down 6MP image


Section at 150ish%. It still looks better than the 9MP B&W

[bomber]

I decided to have a nose at the EXIF data and according to that the camera is a nikon D50 slr

[Biggsy]

Reducing the size of a picture increases the apparent quality of the detail - because you don't see the detail!

The colour 100% crop is very good.  You can't complain at that.

I don't know why the b&w one is worse.  Something got messed up.

RAW is better than JPEG for post processing as it contains far more data to play with.

Anyway, stunning pics and model!

[David Martin]

It depends when the in camera sharpening is done. If you do B&W conversion first then the result may be softer than if it is done last.

..d

[tiermat]

Am I understanding correctly that you are getting the camera to do the de-saturation? if so, STOPPIT NOW!!

Digital cameras are optimised to take photies in colour, not to do all the jiggery pokery that users tend to like, and most users would be happy with, indeed most would not notice the issues you talk about.

Best bet would be to take ALL pics in colour then use PS/GIMP etc to de-saturate later, but then you probably knew that anyway.

the other problem you mention, i.e. the image quality is probably linked to the CCD type, if it is a 9MP sensors and small the quality will be a lot different to a large sensor 9MP camera, such as is usually found in DSLRs

Must admit I have seen such "fuzziness" around colur transitions with both our old Fuji S3200 and my FIL's S5000, I would say it's probably down to the compression it uses to create the JPGs (in fact I am sure I have seen similar effects when viewing badly compressed jpgs) and as such, if possible you should maybe try setting the default save type to RAW.  And buy some bloody huge xD cards!

[Valiant]

I decided to have a nose at the EXIF data and according to that the camera is a nikon D50 slr

That's my copy of Thumbplus it's corrupted (to be fair I didn't pay for it lol), I don't know where it got D50 from, D60 would have been more accurate as I've got one of those. I do need decent photo managament software though as this one messes up the order and has a habit of renaming the folders as temp. I'm guessing the DB is messed up.

Am I understanding correctly that you are getting the camera to do the de-saturation? if so, STOPPIT NOW!!

Aye I was but I was just getting to know the camera.

Here are the orginals.

http://www.selfharmony.co.uk/hosted/DSCF1319.jpg
http://www.selfharmony.co.uk/hosted/DSCF1321.jpg
http://www.selfharmony.co.uk/hosted/DSCF1347.jpg

[Zipperhead]

That's my copy of Thumbplus it's corrupted (to be fair I didn't pay for it lol), I don't know where it got D50 from, D60 would have been more accurate as I've got one of those. I do need decent photo managament software though as this one messes up the order and has a habit of renaming the folders as temp. I'm guessing the DB is messed up.

There's a rebuild db function (probably under file.)

I've never had any corruption in my db, but I have rebuilt it occassionally to reduce its size after rearranging things.

[Valiant]

Oooh do you have a CD?

[Zipperhead]

No, I've only ever downloaded it from Cerious Software

[Wombat]

Sadly my S9500, which I was very happy with, has recently died with a dead focus motor, after about 5800 photos.  I needed a replacement pronto, so bought a Fuji S100fs.  Very nice indeed. 

Hey, I've got the genuine Fuji wide angle attachment for the 9500/9600 going spare now, as it doesn't fit the new one.  Cost £100, never seen it discounted, going for £50 plus postage.

[tiermat]

Sadly my S9500, which I was very happy with, has recently died with a dead focus motor

Same happened to us with a S5600, such a shame as i meant we *HAD* to buy a D40....

[hellymedic]

Sadly my S9500, which I was very happy with, has recently died with a dead focus motor

Same happened to us with a S5600, such a shame as i meant we *HAD* to buy a D40....

Is focus motor death a common mode of demise of digital cameras?
At least my Canon Ixus had the decency to pack up when only 6 weeks old and still under warranty.
Cause of death error 018...