Nine Weddings and No Funeral

Mike McNamee talks to Gary Galt about his Fuji S5 Pro

Having reported on Gary’s initial experiences with the FujiFilm S5 Pro we thought it worthwhile to revisit the matter, now that some time has passed by. The camera is now a veteran of nine weddings (and no funerals) most of which have been conducted in the rain! This certainly benefited from the S5s weather proof seals but has given Gary less opportunity to see the highlight-handling capabilities of the new chip (although he recovered a miss-hit shot from 2 ½ stops under-exposed the other day, with impressive results). He is finding that the highlight recovery of the chip is working well, although he has a little more contrast to deal with that from his other cameras.

Initial concerns over the speed of operation of the S5 have largely been worked around, the only time Gary worries is just before a ‘confetti’ shot, when he ensures that the buffer is clear before he starts the sequence. That done, he finds no problems, even though the S5 is slower than the Nikon D200 (his other camera) – the price you have to pay for the more sophisticated data handling off the dual chip.

Battery power is also proving to be long-legged. With the add-on battery pack, Gary recently shot weddings on Friday, Saturday and Sunday without the need to change batteries – very impressive! (Still carry spares though)

For more of Gary's work see www.gallerystudios.eu