Egypt4u

Horses for courses, or more to the point which camera for the job?
While sitting at my PC and thinking about my recent videos, I was mulling over the most convenient way of taking video whilst on the move. The recent ones were taken using my little Nikon which being so small tends to be in my pocket ready for the odd shot when required, it was only recently that I started to use it for taking videos, mainly because I was out and about when the idea to do a video came into my head.

I do own a dedicated digital video camera that records on those very small tapes, it is a Sanyo and it does make reasonably good videos and all of my Egyptian stuff was taken using it. It also has a function to take single photograph images the same way as a normal camera does, but the quality cannot match a modern day digital camera. I have not used it for many years mainly because I got into having better digital cameras that could also record live video, so it tended to get ignored. I did check it out today and it is still in pristine condition to look at although the battery packs may be shot by now, but those are reasonably cheap at under a tenner or so. I have also misplaced the charger unit to it, but it must be about the house somewhere, even so I decided to buy another one and then test out the existing batteries to see if they work, if not I will buy another one. It is not too heavy and fits into my palm, so if it works I may give it a go for another video project.

I then had a look at my other cameras, I have four including the little Nikon and each one is in perfect working order and each has tended to be put aside as I have upgraded my latest camera to something better. I have also noticed that at each camera upgrade the camera itself has become heavier, probably due to having better and heavier glass in the lenses as all of them are ‘Bridge’ cameras with built in zoom lenses. My latest one is the Fuji X-S1 which is the best of them all as it was made in Japan rather than somewhere like Indonesia and is quality built, unfortunately this shows in the weight. It is by far the heaviest of them all, so although it takes excellent video it is heavy to hold with one hand.

I then thought to use my next best camera which is the Fuji HS-10, another good camera with a great zoom and again it takes excellent video, it is also lighter than the X-S1. Now both of the above cameras can do far more than video, they are both capable of taking good images and have a multitude of functions and a huge range of zoom and macro capability between them both. The problem of using either of them is having what is a very good camera hanging around my neck which may get knocked about a bit during my walks, the alternative is to carry the cheap Nikon and put up with all the faults such as no viewfinder and limited zoom if I want to take a still image rather than video.

So looking further I dug out my Fuji 6500f, another good camera in its day with a reasonable 10.7 times zoom. It has a fixed rear LCD of only just over 2 inch diagonal and not such a high mega pix, but the advantage is it is a lot lighter than all the others except the little Nikon and if memory serves me correct the video is not too bad either. The other bonus is that as it is my oldest camera I suppose I will not be too put out if it get a little knocked about at times (not that I intend to be careless with it). So that is what I have decided to try, hang the 6500f around my neck and use it for some video and if need be the odd picture if I need it.

Ah, the Fuji6500f, I had one of those Horus, sold it on ebay when I got the Nikon. As you say it is much lighter than your X-S1 or my HS50. Good camera though.
One of my ebay selling pics

I am only just beginning to get into video and have the two Fujis that I use regularly (might sell the Nikon, seldom use it now). The little X10 is compact and light and with the live viewfinder it is my preferred everyday camera. The HS50 comes into its own with its 1000mm zoom. Another great feature vis a vis video is the fact that it has an ever ready video button so no settings to change, just point and push the button. Whichever camera I use I find it hard to match your 'steady hand' H and usually have some judder. On balance I personally will stick with the compact X10 because I still need the live viewfinder and in bright light the EVF is unuseable..

That's the one Grandad
Just got back in from a short walk with Annie to try it out on video and a few stills around the churchyard that the ladies keep asking me about. The batteries I left with the camera were the Eneloop long life type, but they were still a bit low when I tried them, so I gave them a quick boost and took another set of rechargeables out with me. The none eneloop ones gave out quite quickly as they were near enough flat to start with so I dropped them into my open camera bag and swapped them for the boosted ones. Somewhere along the way they must have dropped out Oh well they were passed their best anyway so no big deal.

You boys and your toys you certainly seem to know what your speaking about

I'm not sure "I" know what they're speaking about other than cameras!

Now come on ladies, you know we will explain if asked nicely

Yes we boys like our toys

Here is a collage of some of my old cameras that I happen to have pictures of; there were quite a few more. My all time favourite was the, middle picture, Yashica 635 twin lens medium format camera for which I had quite a few accessories. They all went back home to Japan via ebay
One I wish I had kept. I still have the Canon, top row centre, but it has a fault.

Ask did you say Horus? you want to get my brain muddled more than it is now

Grandad you should have went to Flog It with all em old cameras .