Do you shoot at 12mp(L) or 6mp(M) on your S5pro? Jpeg or Raw?

[bigbird17]

this question has beeen bugging me.. how many here shoot at 6mp and how many 12?

[jacob]

12mp for me all the time.

[photobum]

6MP most of the time for me, just as I told you before.

[madmacs]

i use 12mp. due to the orientation of the photosites i figured it wouldnt be much diff to shoot 6mp or 12mp. so i went with 12mp

[photobum]

Originally Posted by madmacs i use 12mp. due to the orientation of the photosites i figured it wouldnt be much diff to shoot 6mp or 12mp. so i went with 12mp

There is a 'very slight' difference. I find the dynamic range slightly better with 6MP. This difference is obvious if I shoot a white wedding gown with Speedlight.

[bigbird17]

Originally Posted by photobum There is a 'very slight' difference. I find the dynamic range slightly better with 6MP. This difference is obvious if I shoot a white wedding gown with Speedlight.

true true.. i shoot but cant really tell the difference yet aha

[madmacs]

Originally Posted by photobum There is a 'very slight' difference. I find the dynamic range slightly better with 6MP. This difference is obvious if I shoot a white wedding gown with Speedlight.

possibly but i seldom shoot weddings. anyway for the more critical shots i will use raw.

[fWord]

Haven't had the S5 for too long but have always used RAW. It's a habit that carried over from the previous camera I was using.

[Fotophilic]

6MP, if not, RAW.

[Dr Bob]

To get the very best from an S5 (Or any Digital SLR) you must be shooting RAW, and Auto DR @ 12 Mp setting.
Gives you the full DR and tonal functionality as both S&R sites are utilised.

My analogy of a JPEG = Digital video with 70% of the frames removed before playback

[socksiong]

Originally Posted by Dr Bob To get the very best from an S5 (Or any Digital SLR) you must be shooting RAW, and Auto DR @ 12 Mp setting. Gives you the full DR and tonal functionality as both S&R sites are utilised. My analogy of a JPEG = Digital video with 70% of the frames removed before playback

how about RAW, F1b @ 12 mpx? will i get equal results as ur settings?

[Dr Bob]

I never use the film settings: they always seem too much in a wrong way for me.
I use standard and vary the WB fine tune sliders to suit differing situations; both on land, and underwater (with strobes/without strobes).
These can be saved in compartments and then accessed from the WB menu on the top LCD. hold WB left button whilst rotating rear shutter dial to PRE, then rotating front aperture dial to choose the stored compartment 1,2.3.4 or 5.
Tone: standard-Medium
Colour: Standard-Medium
Sharpness Soft-Standard-medium (I do prefer to sharpen off camera - Less Noisy and more control afterwards).
This is what I love most about the S5 over every other, it's a whole bag of options in one tidy package. With much less work flow compared to the rest.

Of course "It's only good for weddings..." My favourite moronic anti statement

[photobum]

Originally Posted by Dr Bob To get the very best from an S5 (Or any Digital SLR) you must be shooting RAW, and Auto DR @ 12 Mp setting.

This claim of yours is not necessary true for the S5 Pro. Most of the time, I have got just as good, if not better, results with JPEG images.

One of the main reasons why I have been using the Fujifilm S Pro series DSLRs for so many years is because of its "near perfect, straight-out-of-camera" JPEG images. My clients love them, they pay me money, and both parties are happy.

I have no comments with using Auto DR, but whether to use 12 or 6MP, it varies on situations, shooting environment and purposes based on my almost 2 years of experience using this camera.

I do not agree with that "to get very best of S5 you MUST......" statement. This is misleading to those newbies who have just bought the S5 Pro and are learning how to use it for their photography.

[Dr Bob]

Yes, the JPEGs from Fuji's are probably the best in the business... However, I totally disagree about newbies being mislead by my statement.
A newbie is far more likely to salvage much better quality images using RAW than JPEG, and without degradation as would be inevitable whilst trying to correct shortcomings in JPEG.
A JPEG conversion from a RAW file is another story...
I helped Fuji with the preproduction release S5's in and out of the water and most of the magazines that the results were published into were such 7 & 10 mb conversions, printing to A3 (DPS).

[fWord]

Originally Posted by photobum I do not agree with that "to get very best of S5 you MUST......" statement. This is misleading to those newbies who have just bought the S5 Pro and are learning how to use it for their photography.

That's true...with a lot of things there is no 'must', just recommendations as everyone has generously given here. For a true idiot like me who likes to pick a setting and then forget about it and just use the shutter release button, RAW + 400% DR seems like the most defensive measure. Shooting RAW also creates a 'digital negative' for archival purposes. As technology in computer processing software improves there is a potential for increments in quality in the future (even if minute).

On some sites there is a mention that if you choose 400% DR for a scene that doesn't actually require it the results will turn out looking flat. Honestly, I've only done 'test' shots with the S5 to date but haven't had any issue with using 400% DR all the time. After all if I choose the Auto setting it will bloat the RAW files to 25MB anyway, so might as well be extra sure and set it myself at 400% DR.

While shooting RAW I also have people here to thank for the recommendation of Adobe Lightroom. Processing speed is more than acceptable and I'm collecting all the 'test' shots I can of various lighting conditions in order to make my own 'presets'. This quickens the workflow substantially because I can just click on my desired preset and get the result I want. As more 'test' shots are collected I just need to tweak the user presets accordingly till the best balance is reached.

The thing that constantly amazes me is, as the folks here have mentioned, the amount of detail that can be retrieved out of a shot. If the DR tests at DPReview are to be believed the S5 produces remarkably deep shadows (without clipping) and very bright highlights (again without clipping) at 400% DR. Take these two test shots for example...a single RAW file just processed differently in Lightroom, the first being processed 'as shot' and the other with some tweaks of the curve, saturation etc:





The sky behind the scene was a BRIGHT blue. This was an experiment that allowed me to produce my own preset in Lightroom and to a certain extent the final result 'sees' the scene better than my own eyes could because of the sheer amount of contrast.