My First Fujifilm Camera Is Toast
This was not my first digital camera as I had a few different one through the 1990s. This was definitely not my first camera as I had been using film cameras since the 1960s. This was, however, my first Fujifilm camera and although my primary camera has been a Sony camera for the past ten years, Fujifilm has always been very special to me and perhaps my favorite cameras.
This camera was the first one I found to be an affordable digital camera that had some film-like qualities so it definitely had its place in my long line of cameras through to today. I stopped using this camera around 2007 but it was still my first Fujifilm digital camera.
I had tried a few other brands of digital cameras in the late 1990s but, honestly, they were garbage. Their only advantage being that I didn't have to purchase film and pay for developing. The colors produced by those other brands of early digital cameras were very wonky in those years. But the biggest advantage of digital photography was that photography was now instantaneous. Photography had moved into a new and exciting era.
Unfortunately, I recently found out that my first and very early Fujifilm digital camera is now toast. The sensor is fried. Sensors have a limited lifespan but the lifespan is not the least bit predictable. The lifespan of my camera was suddenly over.
Well... I can't really claim "suddenly" in the way most people would probably think since I've had this camera for about 22 years but sometimes sensors hit the end of their life after a few short years while others last decades. However, they do seem to fail suddenly... one minute working fine, the next minute the sensor is toast. So, in this way, it does seem sudden even though this camera is 22 years old.
I used this camera for a few years before purchasing a newer improved Fuji model... the Fujifilm S9100. The S9100 had the same Fuji Chrome colors but sported a higher resolution sensor, a better lens, a larger zoom range, and improved sensitivity. That being said, compared to today's cameras, these early digital point-and-shoot cameras were extremely basic and devoid of any extra features and were really only useful in good light. Then again, I was coming from film which also was really only useful in good light. My S9100 was long since retired and replaced with an even better and much larger Fuji S100FS... I accidentally fried that S9100 camera while shooting macro images of flowers with the sun directly in the background... the macro lens acted as a big magnifying glass and fried the internals resulting in, quite literally, a smoking camera!
Now, although no fault of my own, my first Fuji camera, the S5000 Zoom, is also toast. I have to say, however, that this is my first sensor failure so I really can't complain!
I recently attempted to test the camera and found that the sensor has bitten the dust. All I get on this camera now is what is shown in the photo below... (that is one tiny LCD!... I think just 1 inch)
For a few years, however, I managed to capture some decent photos even though these images were quite small. This camera was only a 3mp camera that upscaled images to 6mp. For reference, a 3mp image on my 4K monitor is just a thumbnail while my current cameras are in the 24mp, 42mp and 80mp range.
Here are some of my photos from this very old Fuji S5000 Zoom camera...
Considering the timeframe and the fact that this was a very tiny point-and-shoot camera with an immense zoom range compared to film cameras (10x zoom), this camera was able to produce some nice images in good light as can be seen in the photo collage above. And, the color was typical Fuji color accurately reproduced from Fuji film.
About a decade later, I would pickup a used Olympus E-500 from the same timeframe (2005) as my early Fuji digital cameras specifically because of its much larger Kodak sensor. Kodak was actually the first camera manufacturer to truly accurately reproduce digital color just like high quality film had done at this point in time. I still occasionally pick up this old Olympus camera with its Kodak sensor to shoot some photos because the colors are so nice and lush. I am definitely no fan of Olympus (not in the least, actually... Olympus Imaging no longer exists anyway) so I'm definitely not promoting Olympus cameras but that Kodak sensor was/is amazing.
In fact, around the same time period that I picked up the used Olympus E-500, I primarily used a newer Olympus E-620 which had a Panasonic sensor and I absolutely abhorred that camera.... the ergonomics were horrendous, the viewfinder was too small for people wearing eyeglasses, the lack of fine control in settings, slow lenses, relatively expensive lenses, a lack of a decent selection of lenses, and constant shutter shock problems which ruined most of my photos with motion blurring. Consequently, due to the constant shutter shock problem, I could add that it had lousy image stabilization too. After using that camera, I vowed to never, never, never purchase another Olympus product and I have not. Olympus subsequently had lost their imaging division but I can honestly say that no other manufacturer was more deserving at the time. So, personally, I never lost any sleep whatsoever over their demise. I've moved on to far, far better options.
Things have improved so much in digital imaging over the past decade that, honestly, losing this old S5000 Zoom is no loss. There is absolutely no reason to use this old relic in today's digital world. That being said, it is a loss of my first Fujifilm camera and it has sort of only been a museum piece of mine.
One of my favorite cameras of all time is my compact Fujifilm X30 from 2014 so Fuji cameras are special to me. Even my old Fuji S100FS (from 2008 which replaced my S9100 in around 2009) is something special.
One day I'd like to pick up another used but much more recent Fuji camera simply because their film simulation modes are exceptional. Fuji is known for their film simulation modes and this is one of the main reasons my Fuji X30 is one of my favorite cameras of all time.
Nothing lasts forever though... especially not digital cameras!