It was the perfect afternoon for us to ramble along a walking trail through century old goldfields nearby. I’d decided to pack the Nikon D40 and the Fujifilm S6500fd. I totally forgot about the Sony RX100 sitting in the zipper pocket of my camera shoulder-bag – the usual go-to in case an old camera flakes on me. I’ll say this about the Finepix S6500fd: the combination of the tiny Super CCD sensor – ancient in digital photography terms – and the long, sharp lens, produce some really interesting photographs at times.
Setting the camera to the Fuji-chrome setting and Fine JPG seemed to enhance the blues and purples in this photo. Maybe it was the combination of the cloud, sunlight, shade, subject, and white balance, but there’s a really strong look to the image. I haven’t added additional colour in editing.
For the above photo, I decided to set the camera to generate RAF files – CCD-RAW in the settings menu. I wasn’t even sure they’d open in Lightroom, but they did, and I’m pretty pleased. This provides more latitude and flexibility during editing. As you can see above, I was able to draw out pretty good detail in the shadows and sharpen the image in specific areas. It’s not easy to see without magnifying in Lightroom, but there’s some beautiful detail and tonality in the bark. Hard to believe from this piece of old gear.
Finally, one of my favourite features on old bridge cameras is the Macro and Super-Macro modes, at the touch of a button. It’s so handy for getting up close when there’s good available light for a decent shutter speed. I usually wander handheld, so there’s no tripod involved. Steady hands and good light are a must under these circumstances. It’s a JPG (wish I’d set to CCD-RAW), but the colour and range of tonality is still impressive. The best photos from this camera, like the S7000, seem to have a versimillitude about them. Note to self: set this camera to make RAF files from now on!
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Incidentally, I pretty much always shoot handheld (without image stabilization anything these days) and find work through serendipity as well. My compact camera’s a Canon Powershot G11 and the capability to do macro, telephoto, and wide views with it have me carrying it most days as a backup/side camera or with the film camera if I’m doing that so I have something to work with after shooting film on the rare occasions where I do that. I’ve been pretty shocked by how powerful the G11 is for a 2009 era CCD camera (but then again I’ve done some of my best work on a CCD Nikon D60 as well- picked it up used for $49- even if my most powerful camera is an X-T2).
I’m also finding I really love using rather old vintage lenses with dumb adapters and modern manual focus only lenses on the X-T2 for some reason. It’s nice to be able to manipulate everything with physical dials and controls and aperture rings.
Really nice work here by the way!
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Thank you, first of all. There’s so much marketing and over inflation of certain must-have features on new releases that photography often turns into a gear obsession. As we know, older caneras are very capable in many cases. I like vintage lenses too and have many. Since my Nikon Z5 purchase, I find I have not used any of them much at all. One thing I do like about the Z5 is that as soon as I snap an M42 adapter onto it, focus peaking turns on automatically. Really must take some M42 lenses out! I really like my Takumars, for a start.
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You’re welcome. And I have to agree, I don’t need most of the features they’re cramming into new cameras, though they do make life easier I guess. I just took a Takumar lens out today that I picked up on eBay the other day, it works fine (Super Takumar 135mm f/3.5, cost all of 25 USD, seems to be in excellent condition after blowing the dust off it). I’ve also been having a lot of luck with contemporary TTArtisan manual focus only lenses without electronics- they’re all metal and glass, really solidly made, inexpensive, and effective.
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Oh, that’s a nice Takumar. I’ve seen quite a lot of those at good prices. I have one too. My fave is the 35mm 3.5 Takumar. I’ve yet to try any TTartisan lenses, but I do have an eye on the remade 100mm Trioplan from one of the new wave manufacturers. I don’t mind not having the original since it’s stupidly expensive. Doubt I’ll add to my Meyer Optik collection due to the silly prices now.
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So I have the TTartisan 100mm bubble bokeh lens…it definitely works with the optical defect intact and does great portrait/floral work so far. I think it’s basically the equivalent of the newer Meyer Optik remakes anyway. I will say getting that kind of bokeh requires shooting wide open or just about (f/2.8-4) with certain lighting conditions (especially a backlit background) that is really hard to pull off but when it works it’s awesome.
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