Camera, Yes, Again, But My Needs Are Specific

[Simon]

Right, after going to various places, and seeing people take photographs, which frankly, turn out shit, and where I'm standing there going "well, if you stood here, had a flash here, this long exposure", i believe its time i actually tried.

Right, basically, doesn't have to be a SLR, as i want to try my hand at this shizzle first, but what it needs is a good set of manual settings, exposure time for low light, a flash, but, this is the most crucial bit, i would love the ability to have a slave flash, if possible, a kind of powerful one, that can be used up to around 4-5 metres away from the camera. The ability for both to be mounted on a tripod is essential as well.

Now, as you can tell, my knowledge of this is limited at best, but there we go.

PS, it wont often be action shots, ie, trials, will more be stills, mainly cars, but as I've mentioned, my knowledge is limited at best, so wouldn't even know what is required to get good action shots, so if the camera isn't good at action shots, its no big deal, but it would be nice.

I would love to spend below 300, as I'll be selling my video setup to put towards this new expenditure.

To recap;

• Doesn't have to be SLR, as long as the next point is followed
• Must however good manual settings
  • Long exposure for low light?
  • Good picture quality when using flash, ie, not like, OMGOSH SUN BLOWING UP
• Zoom wont be required, so isn't important at all
• Must be digital
• Slave flash
  • Wireless
  • Work behind objects
  • Up to about 4-5 metres away
• Tripod mountable - flash and camera
• Under 300 quid if possible, but other possibilities considered

[Joe Papasnap Maher]

£300... lol

you wanting new or 2nd hand??

[Simon]

Don't care.

Remember, i said if it isn't enough, then just fire away possibilities, as long as they meet what i need. Will give me something to aim for next month then.

EDIT: As it turns out, what i want is actually quite expensive.

No need to reply really now, realised this idea of mine will have to wait a bit.

[F-Stop Junkie]

The off-camera flash bit is tricky, but not impossible. You have two options, both will involve an amount of faffing though.

EDIT: Ok, just reread. Why does the off-camera bit HAVE to be wireless?

1) Buy a Canon G-series camera (a G5 or G6 would be good). The G7 is £330ish new (though any previous one with a flash mount should be suitable), and a great camera. Full manual control, metering options, etc...

Buy a Canon off-camera flash cord. They're pretty cheap if you buy a generic one off eBay. You then need to cut the cord and solder in a length of wire to get the distance you need. Then you just need somewhere/someone to hold the flash while you take the shot.

Oh, and you'll need to buy a Canon compatible flash. The Sigma EF-500 DG Super is pretty good, but about an extra £100.

1) Buy a Canon G-series camera (a G5 or G6 would be good). The G7 is £330ish new (though any previous one with a flash mount should be suitable), and a great camera. Full manual control, metering options, etc...

Buy an adapter to put on the hotshoe to give a PC cord output. This is a generic interface that will only trigger a flash. You'll then need a PC cord, and a flash with either a PC socket, or another adapter piece to put on the flash.

The advantage with this way of doing it is that you can use any flash, including the old and the cheap. The problem is though is that the PC cord will only trigger the flash and not set the power for you. Therefore you'll be doing test shots to get the flash power right until you either get some experience, get a lightmeter, or both.

[Simon]

Was worried about the length of wire, and it being visible in the shot, because the flash will be round the corner of things, or underneath things, wire routing will be quite difficult, but i'll definitely look into those ideas.

[F-Stop Junkie]

Depending on how long the wire is, it *may* appear in shots, but a thin wire would be dead easy to clone out of shots, or hide...

[mat hudson]

mark had some cool one that senses the flash off the camera and then flshes, dunno what that is at all haha. it was also pretty dinky and apprently rechargable!

[Max Quinn]

I got my D50 kit for £350 refurbished a while back (still with full warrenty) and my friend recently got one from the same shop for £300. Obviously doesn't come with the offboard flash but means you can relatively easily set it up in the future. I've just brought an SB-600 flash for £150 and it seems really good- powerfull as. I'm also getting some wireless slaves off ebay for around £19 which will allow me to run it offboard. The kits go on ebay fairly cheap aswell.

As you don't want a zoom you could get just a body only (theres one on ebay now with 33 minutes left going for £200 with all the extras and a remote etc.) and then something like a 50mm f1.8 lense for around £90. This is alot less wide angle then the kit lense (18-55mm) though so you might be better off with the kit lense to start with- i certainly couldn't live with only a 50mm). I know it will end up a bit over your budget but if you find a bargain not alot or could even be under (excluding flash setup as that's just unrealistic ) and i think DSLR's will have a higher resale value aswell?

People may reccoment the Fuji Range aswell for a non DSLR that suits most of your options for around £200 but i'm not sure about wireless flash with them

[minitrialer]

you can get a slave cell flash unit thing from jessops which fires your slave flash from your on camera flash. Don't know id anyone has said that, haven't read the whole thread They work pretty well. I got one but they don't work with DSLR's because of the pre-fire flash etc etc. Or as f-stop said use a cable.

[Davetrials]

fuji s5600

or what ever the new one is

or fuji s9000

[Gavyn.]

fuji s5600

or what ever the new one is

or fuji s9000

i've got the s5600

Its pretty good, a fair amount of manual settings, decent picture quality and cheap. I got mine for £119 which doesn't sound much but there are loads of things you forget when buying cameras, batterys, tripods, memory cards, carry cases and a decent rucksack are all essential and all cost a fair amount mine totalled up to about £160 so there's the majority of your £300 gone.

The only bad thing about the camera is that the lense is not interchangeable, but saying that you can get loads of different screw on lenses for the camera from ebay.

not too sure about the off-board flash i think it can be done but i'm not sure i'm off to have a look just now.

Gavyn

[Davetrials]

i used to have an off board flahs on my fuji

worked like a treat.

could only trigger it with my onboard flash though.

.

[monkeyseemonkeydo]

Hey guys, I was just about to post a new topic on virtually the same thing... good thing I searched! I'm in the market for a similar camera- basically as close to SLR without the $$. I'm off to Kenya over Easter so wanter a new camera with lots of optical zoom to take pictures of lions and shizzle. I'd narrowed it down to a Sony DSC-H2 or a Fuji S6500 . Any thoughts on these? Having read the posts, it looks like the Fuji S5600 might be an even better bet though.

Cheers,

Dave

[Gavyn.]

nah the S6500 will be better than the s5600 my mate had that sony but he changed pretty quickly to a 400d i'll ask him and see what he thinks of it.

[GlynnP]

If you are looking for a decent camera that isnt slr i would defonatley recomend the Fuji Cameras

Any of the S seris i.e s5600 , S6500 , s7000 ( maybe only able to get second handbut would be super cheap and is an awsome camera) ,S9600

All really good cameras, Great manual setting most have flash mounts and tripod mounts

[Joe_photographer]

fuji s5600

or what ever the new one is

or fuji s9000

If you are not worried about being secondhand then get the slightly old Fuji S9500 it has a hot shoe so you can seat the flash on top or get a wireless transmitter off ebay and put the flash wherever you want. The flash does not need to be specific as log as you are patient and find the flash speed then you will be fine.

You can definitely pick these cameras up for under 300!!!! and the rest will cost you 50 if you look around

Joe

[JonMack]

You can get an S9500 for £250 on the PC World website.

[Simon]

You can get an S9500 for £250 on the PC World website.

It has a hotshoe and external flash capabilities. Excellent.

[Rob_P]

The S9500 is really really noisy, probably the worst fuji out of the lot.

[Simon]

Was just reading that on dpreview.com, so would the S6500 be a better bet? Got my camera light, which should do the job really, in the absense of a hot shoe on the S6500.