Finepix S3 Pro

[d_studiolab]

try to give mscolor a call. Mscolor was offering me $2550 a few months back while cathay said it was impossible at that time and offered me $2750.

I thought the price of s3pro dropped quite a lot recently, overseas at least. You should at least wait for a bit to see if the price drop will come to singapore. (quite possible as fujifilm singapore prices the s3pro quite similar to overseas, historically speaking)

Everything about the s3pro is slower than competitors. Continuous shooting, AF speed, playback, even changing ISO. But as slower is a relative term, as long it is faster than I can compose it is fine with me.

The image quality to me is the most impt factor and it does make up for all the disadvantages. But I haven't really shot much with my s3pro. :dunno: just a lot of test shots so I can safely say the s3pro has better image quality compared to my previous cams, D70, minolta 7D and oly E1. It has better resolution, lower noise and higher DR which is quite impressive as it did not trade off onse aspect for another.

Thanks for the valuable info. I think this camera will suits me well. I am a slow shooter myself and I am concern about image quality then camera full performance. Afterall, the images is the one that I will like to keep for a long long time, not the camera. I will take your advise and wait a little longer hoping the price will adjust south.

You been a great help.

 

[nightpiper]

Hi,

I am considerating buying the FinePix S3 Pro. Did anyone here have experiences with this camera? Good and bad experiences?

Thanks!

what i suggest u to do is to ask urself what u like to shoot most, then look at the range of DSLR out there & pick the one thats strongest in that area. a simple illustration: if u like cotton looking flowing water & landscape, which cam will u pick? ok, Canon is mighty strong in the hi ISO noise BUT which cam gives u the lowest ISO? which cam out there today can claim an ISO value of 6? its the Kodak & it boost a FF 14MP for great detail rendering. no doubt its crap in many area & no more support come 2008, what the heck, use it for what its worth. after 2008, when the cam breaks down, its time to get a new one & i bet u 1000:1, a FF DSLR in 2008 will cost less than a 5D today. u get what i'm saying?

myself as an eg. i chose the E1 knowing that its 2x smaller than FF. i take advantage of it, its good for macro work. which cam today boost a 2:1 macro capability? once i mount a 1:1 macro film lens, the macro becomes 2:1 & longer reach as well. shoot birds & wildlife, my Leica 90mm lens becomes a 180mm. ok, not that long reach but is pretty fun.

bottom line is to take advantage of the cam strength. or turn its weakness to strength, if u look at it the other way.

here r a few pics:

i want wide angle, so a 28mm FOV is not too bad:

bottom line is, use the cam for what its good at. if u want the S3 & the price matches ur wallet, go grab it. but be warn, i heard S4 is juz around the corner. :bsmilie:

 

[Witness]

Thanks for the valuable info. I think this camera will suits me well. I am a slow shooter myself and I am concern about image quality then camera full performance. Afterall, the images is the one that I will like to keep for a long long time, not the camera. I will take your advise and wait a little longer hoping the price will adjust south.

You been a great help.

another thing u may one to note is the size of the raw files....and the use of the hyperutility...

i've got no idea wat u are chaning from...but at 12mb or 25mb a file...the s3pro's raws are gg to be a drain on your system resources..... that is of coz....unless u dun shoot raw....

 

[jOhO]

dun forget the 3 frame raw buffer (and thereafter how many million seconds flush time.....) as of now i don't hear anything of the upgraded buffer for s3.. with the blue tag.

 

[Witness]

i heard about the buffer upgrade...549 from fuji if i'm not mistaken.... i should have asked them whether if they will change my tag to a blue one if i upgrade hahaha...

 

[Azure]

...I am a slow shooter myself and I am concern about image quality then camera full performance. Afterall, the images is the one that I will like to keep for a long long time, not the camera. ....

If image quality is your criteria, then you may want to consider if the punchy kind of images (Velvia-simulated) and colors is your cup of tea. Likewise, the filmy-portrait (Astia-like) capability is not necessarily suited to everyone. Lastly the ability to tweak the dynamic range is something that may or not work for different people. To some Photoshopping HDR is the way to go. And to some (probably rarer and fewer), out-of-camera works better.

Images from any digital tool, given proper archival, can be kept for a long long time. So any tool can still work for you.

From personal use, the images from the S3 is easily capable of matching any of the other pro-range dSLRs out there. It all boils down to the user and his/her workflow. If you want to see actual outputs, can always look me up, and we can meet up over a cuppa around town or in the south. I do have quite a few 12x18 prints of my personal photos now.

 

[yowch]

I have 12"x18" shots from the S2pro. Heck I have published shots of 3' x 4' or thereabouts of the S2pro. and the S3pro is CERTAINLY a better imager than the S2pro. There is this guy down at www.s2pro.com that has his shot from S2pro cropped down (maybe to half the area???) and printed to be a banner on the wall of a building in the States. Size doen't really matter, as long as technique is there. Er... maybe a good shot must be there first! hahaha.

 

[Witness]

haha..... for the record....i have printed 12x15 straight from the camera...in terms of sharpening or colours....all are definately fantastic....

 

[jOhO]

SUNFLOWERWORM

you PMed me and your inbox is full, of course i didn't know that, (u prob didn't too) and after typing a LONG STORY, i get a error message saying u cannot receive it.

so i had to do a search for this post ni this peak hour lag, becos u didn't reference it, and here i am replying to u in the main thraed.

i almost killed myself especially when your PM isn't all that exactly easy to answer, but i try.

what do you want me to do? use my stop watch and time how long each camera focuses?

i WILL NOT reply to anymore "s3 vs the rest of the world" PMs anymore (yours is the 50th one, and i'm not bullshitting, ok maybe 49th - not that it's ur fault of course).

i'm am SURE anyone who needs info on s3 vs everythign else can get it online here in CS and other photography resources on the net. please do a search. sorree if i'm coming across as unfriendly or arrogant...

anyway, here is your PM to me:

hi joho,

from what you said below, can you tell me how slow focus is s3pro compare to d70, d100 & d200. And how is the colour that s3pro compare to d200.


like sam said, it's all relative.

i own a d2hs as well.

if u compare the speed of these two cams.. the s3 would cry all the way home to mama.

but when i post an unedited image from both, the other one would cry to papa... ok lar u know wat i mean, d2hs is also a good cam lar.

basically, are u the kind of person that looks at an image and disregards how it was shot, or with wat equipment, u just love it for it's communicative power or visual aestetics, or are u a person more concerned with getting the shot the best possible way?

both cams can do both that i mentioned, just that one is probably better than the other depending on what you're shooting or like to shoot.

nikon die hards will kill me, but nothing beats the fuji colours man... dammit!

and here is my reply, that i unsuccessfully tried to send:

hi there,

it's a little bit difficult to express in words only the differences of these cameras. and the best "technical" test is to have those cameras mounted using the same lens shooting the same thing, and repeat this experiment over various situations and do calculations using the histogram and RGB values, with a reference chart in the image.

but i have never done all that. wat i have is real world experience with the s2 s3 d200 and d2hs. i have no numbers to give a comparison.

another thing with focus speed is not just that the camera locks faster. locking faster is an absolute value, but the fact that the camera might take longer to lock might result in NO LOCK at all. imagine handholding a 300mm and trying to focus on a small spot on the vf. if u move too much the camera cannot lock, becos u are not constantly pointing at the spot. but if u can JUST hold it still for 1/10 of a second and the d2hs locks, but the s3 takes 1/5 seconds to get a lock then u have to REFOCUS again for the s3 to lock, but the d2hs already fired maybe 5 frames @ 8fps.

THOSE are real world examples.

BUT, when u print the image out, no one's gonna know if u got the lock on the first or second time, or wat camera u took it with, but they will know it's a damn nice image.

so which one are u? the one that get's highly irritated when needing a second focus, or the one that gets a high looking at great images? don't get me wrong, that i'm insinuating that image quality is all that matters. when u are shooting an event that the company only needs photos becos to "give face" to sponsors, then who gives a crap about quality, use the d2hs. fast focus spot on exposure full support with nikon speedlights, P mode all the way if u want.

anyway of the 4 i mentioned above, my choice is the d200, in overall terms. fuji as a company sux becos they are ALWAYS one (or more) step(s) too slow. rumours has it that the S4 will be housed in an F6 body. if that happens i will chop my left testicle, becos that's wat i would give to own such a body. don't quote me on that ;p

NOTE : nothing personal against you sunflowerworm, but i'm just highly irritated and needed to let it out. feel free to continue asking whatever you need here in this thread, for all to learn (or rather for all who wants to learn AND bothers doing a search). there are plenty of fuji users here who quite honestly, if they have the time and energy, are more "qualified" to give a better and more accurate explaination. believe me, i'm NOT a very technical person. maybe that's why i prefer what i SEE, than wat i can CALCULATE.

 

[Pro Image]

like sam said, it's all relative.

i own a d2hs as well.

if u compare the speed of these two cams.. the s3 would cry all the way home to mama.

but when i post an unedited image from both, the other one would cry to papa... :bsmilie: ok lar u know wat i mean, d2hs is also a good cam lar.

basically, are u the kind of person that looks at an image and disregards how it was shot, or with wat equipment, u just love it for it's communicative power or visual aestetics, or are u a person more concerned with getting the shot the best possible way?

both cams can do both that i mentioned, just that one is probably better than the other depending on what you're shooting or like to shoot.

nikon die hards will kill me, but nothing beats the fuji colours man... dammit!

I heard somebody calling my name......mama......yes yes????

Until today, Fuji S3Pro has got to have the most natural colours. The colours is so vibrant that sometime you just need to shoot it on JPEG. Don't even need to shoot RAW. RAW files are a big killer!!! File size is just overkilll and too big lar.....unless you decide to enlarge to gigantic posters.

Fuji RAW files are one of the most superior. Only Canon 1DsMkII and 5D are still better due to FF sensor. If Fuji ever built a FF sensor (that's a big IF) it will be a big WOW from me. Could be better than the FF from Canons.

Have tested myself and I would say this is one of the slowest in terms of focusing and write speed. So not the best if you are shooting event shots. It's great if you are shooting pre-weddings, still life, nature, landscapes and so on. NOT an event camera but not to say you can't use it. I do have a friend who is using S3Pro is the main cam for Actual Wedding Day and S2Pro as back-up. Well he swears by the colours.....haha.:bsmilie:

 

[Witness]

wait..focusing....isnt the focusing module the same as the d70?

 

[yowch]

What amazes me to no end is the need for speed. 25 frames a second and you can make movies! I use a lousy old S2pro, have my fun. Do a wedding now and then, a commercial shoot once in a blue moon, and I stay happy with good photos and having not spent too much. I REALLY can't see myself paying for D200/D2x just for blazing speed focus or high frame rate.

Really, it all depends on your needs. It doen't matter. I have seen D70, D100, D2x vs S2pro, S3pro in various events. We can argue which is sharper and which caught focus spot on, etc. Maybe I am lucky, but my 'not-so-discerning' clients have absolutely no problems with my S2pro results, and I am sure the S3pro performs better than the S2. Heck, I have friends who have praised my shooting for fun S2pro results at their weddings compared to their paid photographers using D70, D100 and D2x. (I have not gone against a D200 as of now). If I am a Nikon body user, I'll be arguing for speed, focus speed rugged body, etc, and that dynamic range or noise reduction or saturated colours are not important. Each to his own.

Fuji users are minorities, and as all minorities, we end up defending and justifying. I say, "Let the photos speak". And what needs to be said has been said, the world over. Internet savvy people should yahoo or google more often. Old timers should read magazines or visit the library.
If the client is happy, why bother too much?

 

[Cheesecake]

What amazes me to no end is the need for speed. 25 frames a second and you can make movies! I use a lousy old S2pro, have my fun. Do a wedding now and then, a commercial shoot once in a blue moon, and I stay happy with good photos and having not spent too much. I REALLY can't see myself paying for D200/D2x just for blazing speed focus or high frame rate.

Really, it all depends on your needs. It doen't matter. I have seen D70, D100, D2x vs S2pro, S3pro in various events. We can argue which is sharper and which caught focus spot on, etc. Maybe I am lucky, but my 'not-so-discerning' clients have absolutely no problems with my S2pro results, and I am sure the S3pro performs better than the S2. Heck, I have friends who have praised my shooting for fun S2pro results at their weddings compared to their paid photographers using D70, D100 and D2x. (I have not gone against a D200 as of now). If I am a Nikon body user, I'll be arguing for speed, focus speed rugged body, etc, and that dynamic range or noise reduction or saturated colours are not important. Each to his own.

Fuji users are minorities, and as all minorities, we end up defending and justifying. I say, "Let the photos speak". And what needs to be said has been said, the world over. Internet savvy people should yahoo or google more often. Old timers should read magazines or visit the library.
If the client is happy, why bother too much?

i love my mini mighty power-packed S2Pro so much that i'm not gonna sell it even when i get a new body soon.
nothing quite like it. nothing's gonna be like it.