Nikon & Fuji Join To Create A Digital Powerhouse

In my photographic travels, I have often encountered users of the various Fuji SLRs that have been provided to the photographic public. They included the S2, S3 and now, the new S5 Pro. The cameras, based on Nikon bodies have been innovative in the sense that they used the Nikon camera body, which held the sensors, motors, functional controls and the famous lens mount and then, combined the system with Fuji's innovative imaging sensor. This is where the Fuji branded camera bodies were different than the Nikon bodies they so closely represented.

This new Fuji camera, based on Nikon's incredibly successful D200 still carries a price that is higher than what Nikon now sells its D200 for. The Fuji S5 sells today for approximately $1,899 street price, while the D200 currently sells for $1,599 (body only). The reason for the cost difference is the more powerful Fuji camera offers the user a 12.3 MP Super SR CCD sensor and Fuji processing engine and firmware.

Fuji chose well when the selected the D200 body as the vehicle for their new professional camera. The D200 body is professionally built and sealed, ergonomically designed and intelligently laid out. It is an logical and well thought out system that allows the user to interface with his/her camera in a very intuitive way. Therein lies much of the reasoning why Fuji chose this particular Nikon body.

Unlike the Fuji S3 Pro, which gave pause to photo magazine writers due to some serious technical issues such as color banding and degraded resolution at higher ISO settings, the S5 Pro image sensor benefits from a new moire filter plus improved processing logic.

I recently had the opportunity to borrow this camera for several days and because its based on the D200, I was able to use all of my Nikkor lenses and Nikon strobes.

I will NOT provide all the technical details for this camera that I normally do because they are available at the Fuji website and because in the next few days I intend to post a review here of the Nikon D200. What I will provide are my in-use observations, how the camera performed relative to the D200 I own and what users can expect should they choose to buy this camera.


BACKGROUND & OBSERVATIONS

The previous generation Fuji S2 and S3 used the Nikon N80 body as their platform and as a result lacked the high speed firing rates that sports, photojournalists and wildlife photographers needed. That has been corrected (to a degree) with the introduction of the D200 body because that camera can fire 4.5 frames a second up until the buffer stalls.

In today's digital photographic world, Fuji digital SLRs have developed a loyal and cult-like following among wedding and portrait shooters. Because these photographers need digital cameras that faithfully reproduce skin tones while still capturing details, it seems fairly obvious (to me at least) that the company is catering to this professional audience.

One of the really strong suits of past Fuji digital SLRs had been their ability to simulate certain types of popular professional print films. The S5 is no different.

FILM SIMULATION

On this newest Fuji professional dSLR there are five settings in all. F1 emulates pro print film with great skin tones under studio lighting (great for portraits); F1a adds some warmth and saturation; F1b emulates color negative film optimized for use with fill-flash when used outdoors - good for use for weddings where tents are used; F1c is color negative film with contrast and saturation designed to emphasize detail as in fashion work.

F2 is the separate setting reserved for the simulation of slide films, namely those manufactured by Fuji itself. Within the F2 and the film settings all are flexible enough to allow individual preference adjustments for sharpness, contrast and saturation.

The S5 allows the user to shoot simultaneously in both RAW and ANY level of JPEG. This provides the shooter with the equivalent of a high quality proof while also delivering a permanent large file that will be retainable as the equivalent of a master negative.

DYNAMIC RANGE ADJUSTMENTS

The Fuji Super SR CCD sensor contains 12.3 million pixels that are evenly divided between highlight (large pixels) and low-light (small pixels). The user has the ability to dial in dynamic ranges of 100%, 130%, 170%, 230%, 300% and 400%. If you don't want to be bothered by having to change the ranges with every scene or shot, you can opt to set the camera at Automatic and let the sensors make the adjustments. My in use observations, which were a blend of indoor and outdoor settings showed that the camera handled these dynamic ranges exceptionally well.

CUSTOM IMAGE CONTROLS

Five levels of control are available to the user for color, contrast, sharpening and saturation. For noise reduction, especially in the DARK, you can choose two settings. For the White Balance settings, you use sliders to determine the setting along the two axes that cover red/cyan and blue/yellow.

For event photographers, the user can hit Face Zoom and this will bring up the magnification level to maximum for any face you choose in the scene. This is also a highly useful capability for the portrait shooter because it provides a clear magnified (but not distorted) view of the subject's face.

LENS COMPATIBILITY

While the camera uses the legendary Nikon F lens mount and can employ current generation AF, AF-D and AFS lenses, including those specifically designed for digital cameras, there are some limitations you should be aware of. Fuji has provided information that some very popular FULL FRAME optics will vignette on the S5 Pro. One of the more popular lenses that will do this is the 24-120mm f3.5-5.6G VR AF-S Zoom. Fuji is supposed to provide information on this issue, but as of this writing, has not done so.

Despite this one lens problem, this camera, like the D200 benefits from the backward compatibility provided by the F lens mount.

All of the other features that are available on the D200 are found here and the excellent Fuji sensor and its image processing hardware provides excellent images, especially for long time shooters who miss the various qualities found in higher end professional print and slide films.

If you'd like the convenience of digital with all of the warmth of film and the ability to choose between the effects provided by print or slide film, than you could do far worse than choose the S5. Users of Nikon film or digital cameras will feel right at home with the S5. They will benefit from even higher resolution than that offered by the D200, the ability to obtain effects not available elsewhere and the speed and convenience of the D200's professional level body.


For a few hundred dollars more than the D200, you'll get 12.3 MP, the F lens mount and the intuitive design that Nikon is famous for. You'll also get additional creative flexibility not found at this price anywhere else and the power and resolution of the Fuji SR Super CCD sensor.


The Fuji S5 Pro is a very fine professional quality camera and will provide incredibly high quality images, especially for wedding and portrait photographers.