On Sat, 24 Mar 2007 09:51:10 -0500, Ralph D. wrote:
> I am considering getting a used 3800 for my kid. He's learning some about
> photography and doing well with it, but I don't want to invest much as he's
> still a kid (read, prone to be forgetful) and if it goes bad it wasn't much
> of a loss.
>
> I also have seen many shots from 3800's that are of the type he has interest
> in and am impressed with them and in particular the quality of shots it
> takes in Sports Mode. He does, however, have a few times a year that he
> likes to take tripod shots in low light.
>
> Question: I see the specs for this camera say sensitivity is ASA 100. Is
> this correct, ie the only setting it has is 100? Can this camera not be set
> to, at least, 400?
For taking shots in low light on a tripod you may get better
results if you use ISO 100 (ASA is an equivalent term used for
film). But that would probably require a much longer shutter speed,
and many P&S cameras have no "bulb" setting for the shutter, and
limit the shutter's maximum to something like 8 or 15 seconds. The
better cameras for night shots usually have a Noise Reduction
setting that is used to produce much better results when taking
shots requiring long exposures. This has a side effect of doubling
the exposure time when Noise Reduction is in effect. I don't know
if the Fuji 3800 has this feature but I suspect that it doesn't
since my Fuji S5100 doesn't have it. There's a review of the 3800
here:
http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/F3800/F38A.HTM
I see that it's quite an old camera from 2003 (it sold for $450
back then), so unless you can get one for an *extremely* low price,
you'd probably be much better off with the Fuji S5100. Although it
has also been discontinued, it has a 4mp sensor vs. the 3800's 3mp
sensor (not very important), has a 10x zoom vs the 3800's 6x, but of
much greater importance is that the 3800 lacks full manual exposure
options that are available with the S5100. Prices of these cameras
such as these have dropped significantly since 2003. You can get a
new S5200 for about 1/2 of the 3800's original price, and can
probably get a used S5100 for much less than that. Like the 3800,
the S5100 and S5200 (aka S5500 and S5600 for versions sold outside
of the USA) have exceptionally long battery life, even using
inexpensive AA batteries. There is an extensive multi-page review
of the S5100 at:
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/fujifilms5100/
> Also... has anyone ever determined if this camera can handle XD 512 cards?
I can't answer that, but I've filled 1GB xD cards several times
with the S5100 (both Type M and Type H) with no problems, and it
appears to work with a 2GB Type M card, although I haven't used it
very much.
Late note: If there's any chance that the camera will be used for
videos, the 3800 would be a poor choice. It is only able to capture
very short movie clips at low resolution, and possibly at a slow
frame rate. Back then, frame rates of 15fps or slower were common.
This was copied from the Imaging-Resource review:
> The 3800 can also capture movies with sound for a maximum
> of 200 seconds at the smaller resolution setting or 60 seconds
> at higher resolution, while in Movie capture mode. Movie files
> are saved in the Motion JPEG format, at either 320 x 240 or
> 160 x 120 pixels.
By way of comparison, the S5100 and S5200 have no limit to the
length of the videos they record, other than the limit imposed by
the memory available on the xD card, and they can record movies at a
resolution of either 640 x 480 or 320 x 240 at 30 frames/second.
With a 1GB card this would allow movies from almost 15 minutes to
almost 1 hour, depending on the movie mode used. For best results
with movies, cards other than the slower Type M should be used.
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