S700 to S100FS worth it?

[tyroelite]

My girlfriend is looking to upgrade. Currently she has the s700 and has taken some great photos with it. She is basically a nature photographer and enjoys pictures of scenery, flowers in supermacro and wildlife. She is looking to upgrade her camera now largely because she had some photo ops while on vacation that didn't turn out. (wildlife about 10 feet away but couldn't get close enough with zoom to really bring out details) She's also run into several opportunities where the autofocus couldn't manage what should have been a decent shot and not enough time for the manual focus on the s700 (anyone who's used it will understand). She is still an amature but would love to move to professional someday. While I was looking around the web, I found the newest Finepix the s100fs. It looks like its a fairly good upgrade and designed specifically for the nature photographer with image stabilization and a good lense. Its a wide angle lense 28-400mm equiv. I think this should be good enough for her to get in close on say a bee landing on a flower a few feet away. But the s700 had a 35-380mm lens and wasn't close enough photos. (I dont really understand how that all works exactly) The s700 is only 7MP and the s100fs is 11MP. Its also got the film simulation which seems to me a great feature. She's only used digital so the concept of different film types is a little new to her though. The s700 is f3.5-f13.6 where the s100fs is f2.8-f11. I'm trying to help her decide if the upgrade is worth it. ($500 for the s00fs) Has anyone got experience with these two to say if its worth the upgrade? I don't think it would be possible to get an equivalent dSLR and better lense for that price? If so, is there one you can recommend? Especially the super zoom part. 400mm seems to be a pretty beefy and getting something like that and a good supermacro lense that can focus at .4 inches away would be expensive.

Here are the reviews/specs on the two cameras for you pro's to compare:
s700: http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/spec...nepixs5700.asp
s100fs: http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/spec...ilm_S100FS.asp

Thanks for helping a photo Newb!

[victor.ghost]

Honestly, I say go for it! I don't really know how the S100FS acts, but i have a s9600 and it is much better than the s5700. Besides, the Velvia & Provia looks the S100FS can emulate is a great feature heavily asked for by photographers who miss these films. The aperture again is a great plus for the S100FS, 2.8 will blur background elements more. As far for the s9600 I cannot use the Super Macro feature on anything except the widerange(28mm) so, for extremely close shots she will have to be extremely close . Hope this helps!

[tyroelite]

That does help. Thanks for your input. My brother has the 9600 and loves it too.

[wannabehorsephotographer]

Originally Posted by tyroelite

My girlfriend is looking to upgrade. Currently she has the s700 and has taken some great photos with it. She is basically a nature photographer and enjoys pictures of scenery, flowers in supermacro and wildlife. She is looking to upgrade her camera now largely because she had some photo ops while on vacation that didn't turn out. (wildlife about 10 feet away but couldn't get close enough with zoom to really bring out details) She's also run into several opportunities where the autofocus couldn't manage what should have been a decent shot and not enough time for the manual focus on the s700 (anyone who's used it will understand). She is still an amature but would love to move to professional someday.

IMO I would save up and buy a DSLR. She has a camera to play with for awhile and she could buy the body and a kit lens on a good DSLR for $500 now, and get the other lens as she can afford them. That may just be my desire for a dSLR coming out though
(I understand the manual focus frustration - I finally figured out how to use the thing - didn't think it was working because it took sooooo long - I do however love this camera (FujiS700) it just has its creative limitations).
~wannabe

[Can-eye]

As I remember the Fuji8000 would Not accept Filters, No way to put them on.

Question: The Fuji S100FS will this Camera Accept Filters, My brother purchased the 8000 and was very upset when he could Not use Filters with this camera. I hope someone has one and can let me know.

Thanks

[LandPirate]

I bought a S100fs a few months ago and I'm starting to work with it. I recommend downloading the manual from the Fujifilm USA site. Easier to read then the small print paper one that comes with it. Page 35 shows it accepts 67mm filters.

You only get the one attached lens so I highly recommend keeping a filter on it to prevent scratching!

I had a little trouble getting good pics at first. Went through the manual and set the different items from the menu and it's working great.

[Dunstickin]

I have recently bought this camera, and what a cracker it is too! .. Landscape down to macro .. this camera does it all!...Best of all no lens changing!..

[Candomagic4u]

Originally Posted by wannabehorsephotographer

IMO I would save up and buy a DSLR. She has a camera to play with for awhile and she could buy the body and a kit lens on a good DSLR for $500 now, and get the other lens as she can afford them. That may just be my desire for a dSLR coming out though
(I understand the manual focus frustration - I finally figured out how to use the thing - didn't think it was working because it took sooooo long - I do however love this camera (FujiS700) it just has its creative limitations).
~wannabe

I'm the same as wannabe....

I have S700 and wouldn't mind seeing the work that your GF has done.
I am seriously considering a dSLR as I see the limitation in not being
able to switch out lenses to what you want to achieve. Then again perhaps
we are only limiting ourselves.

I would say take the 500.00 sell the s700 (if you can) and get as wannabe
mentioned above. I'm doing the same thing, but just looking to see
which dSLR will give me the best bang for my buck and experience level.
A friend of mine recomended the Nickon D90....I also seen some great
deals on the Cannon EOS....

Any other thoughts on this?

Anyone have a portfolio of S700 to share?

[milosh]

The S100FS is a great camera, but if she's into photography (and if it is likely that she will be more and more interested in photography as time pases), maybe you should consider a dSLR camera instead.

S100FS is great, but like any P&S camera with a fixed lens, it has its limitations, and even a second-hand dSLR with a kit lens is going to outperform it if used correctly.

Considering the price needed to upgrade, I would certainly be thinking about a dSLR.

P.S. I was planning to buy a S100FS but went with a Nikon D60 instead, and never regretted it.