Just before leaving for Seattle, I purchased a new digital camera to compliment my Nikon D70. You may be asking, what could possibly justify spending double the price of the nearly perfect Nikon D70s? Granted the Nikon is quite the machine for the cost, it's fast, compact and easy to use. The Fuji is none of these. However in spite of these shortcomings, it's quickly becoming my favourite machine for shooting. I had some good advice regarding the S3 from Ryan Breznier who has an S2. The good and the bad points of the camera are pretty much exactly as he described they would be.
The S3 is built upon the Nikon F80 and it shows. Operations like setting the ISO are actually based upon the film camera dials and operations. There is no auto ISO, and operating the camera is very much like using a film camera, rather than a digital one.
The Good:
The dynamic range is fantastic. It actually works. Take a look at the following two shots; the first is the JPEG straight from the camera - as you can tell, the highlights are completely blown out. The second is the RAW file with the highlights pulled down. With other digital cameras, the only way to accomplish the photo would be through bracketing, which is time consuming and requires the use of a tripod. Having to process the Fuji RAW file is time-consuming, but no moreso than working with bracketed photos.
I love having a vertical grip. My large lenses are much easier for shooting in portrait mode with it. Not only that, the grips for both positions have fantastic ergonomics. Why Nikon intentionally made the D70 unable to use vertical grips is beyond me and one of my big complaints.
Colour options. The camera has multiple options for setting the saturation of colour and skin tone, this allows some amazing colour straight from the camera without any post-processing. 'Film Simulation 2' is fantastic - this shot of flowers taken on my first time out with the camera has quickly become one of my friends favourites.
It's very quick to swap between JPEG and RAW, a simple 2 button operation - whereas on the D70, you need to navigate through multiple menus. So even though the Fuji RAW format is a beast, both in terms of size and write speed, but luckily you can easily switch to the really great JPEG format with ease.
The Bad:
The RAW files are huge - 25Mb to be exact. This can eat through a 1GB card in short order.
It's SLLLLOOOOOOWWWWWW. RAW files take about 20 seconds to write to the card, during which you can't access the menus. A short image preview flashes on the screen, but disappears during the rest of the write. JPEGs are quicker to write - within a few seconds. If you really need to preview the image, shoot in JPEG to get the settings you want then switch to RAW.
The unexpectedly good:
Time-lapse photography (via USB and laptop) - using the Fuji Software (free, unlike Nikon Capture) I can control the camera via my computer for things like time-lapse photography.
Manual in-camera focus - I haven't used it, but unlike most digital SLRs I can actually use the LCD to manually focus the camera and even zoom in.
Nice huge LCD for viewing photos
No IR pass filter - so I can put an IR filter on the camera, for high-contrast black and white photos.
Focusing seems to be quicker and smoother than my D70. My 80-200 f/2.8 is very 'jumpy' when using my D70, but is smooth as silk on the S3.
Here's a list of all my pics taken using my Fuji FinePix S3Pro
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