~ Comments ~
Fuji-S2
Digital Camera
Hugh McLean-bsme, thb.
I have inclosed the image of my S2 that shows a typical setup that I use - less the pocket wizard when I am shooting portraits - to illustrate a couple of points.
1. Note the hand strap on the right side of the camera which I made from the neck strap that came with the camera. One of the idiosyncracies of cameras that are being used professionally, is that the camera and the shooting hand become a unit. The current trend in camera equipment movement by industry to make things smaller and smaller has passed the point of functionality. Some of the digital cameras are fine instruments but are so small that they are not really functional and become difficult to use. I became accustomed to the hand strap on my Hasselblad bracket and nothing would be acceptable to me until I had a similar one on the S2. This could be an accessory, but I definitely need to have a hand strap on the right side of the camera. Also note that I have a snap clip under the area where the Lithium battery compartment is. That is not by accident.
2. Note the black tape covering the shutter speed dial. There is black tape on the f-stop dial on the front also. It is very embarrassing to be shooting clients and discover that your thumb has accidently moved the shutter speed dial to 1/180. I shoot fast and don’t have time to check every shot - so I tape the dial so it won’t move. It would be nice to have a lock on the shutter speed and f stop dials.
3. Note the tape over the never used pop up built in flash. A professional would not use this flash - so why is it there on a professional camera?
4. Fuji needs to target the market a little better. If they are making an ‘amateur’ camera - they need to make it simple enough for someone that doesn’t know much about photography to use. If they are making a professional unit (as indicated by the designation ‘S2-Pro’) then they need to design it for the professional and eliminate the nuisance factors that are never used by the pros such as the pop up flash, the voice recording feature, and the multiple slots for junk recording media. If the IBM 1 gig hard drive is so great - why do you give them away. I personally will NEVER use one. Eliminate all extra slots except the compact flash slot.
If you calculate the number of combinations of possible settings on the camera - even excluding the shutter speed and aperture - there are over 50 million setting combinations. Features that offer versatility are fine provided that these added features are controllable. The photographer must be in control of the camera - not the camera in control of the photographer. When the photographer trips the shutter, he must have a high degree of confidence that the image framed in the viewfinder is captured on the chip. The degree of confidence that I have in the S2 over the S1 is by an order of magnitude.
5. The media door was easier to open on the S1 than the S2, and there was really nothing wrong with the magnetic door on the S1. If Fuji wants to secure the door more positively, the opening lever should be a slide switch actuated by the thumb. Anything except the current fingernail operation.
6. A big complaint with me, is the Lithium batteries. They should be eliminated. Add 4 more AA batteries if necessary - but get rid of the expensive non rechargeable lithium batteries. They give out unexpectedly and everything shuts down until you get them out of the camera. Also my 200 mm 2.8 zoom will not work without the lithium batteries, which indicates to me that there is a need for a different power supply for the lens motor. The Nickel Metal Hydride batteries are very functional, are easily recharged and are relatively inexpensive. ALL the power supply batteries should be the same - i.e. NiMH. I don’t care if the camera has to get a little bigger and a little heavier to accommodate them. Perhaps the pull out battery magazine could hold 8 instead of 4 AA batteries.
7. The battery life indicator could be a little bigger and more accurate. Maybe a ‘beep’ to warn you that you are almost out of power.
8. I don’t know anyone who uses the histogram on the ‘play’ feature. I sure don’t. If Fuji feels it is important enough to have on the camera, they should have more info on using it.
How does the histogram actually help the photographer create a better image? I have had to make my own tests and charts to determine what the range of exposure was actually being captured. There may be a better method of telling the photographer what the exposure latitude is before he makes the exposure. It would be helpful if the photographer could get a feel for the range of the exposure from black with some detail to white with some detail. The most noticeable distinguishing characteristic between digital images and film, is the amount of exposure in the highlights. The scale from white to black is not linear. A half-stop exposure difference on a highlight is much more significant than a half-stop difference in the shadow area. Consequently, the exposure in the highlight must be more precise than the exposure in the shadow area, or a resulting overexposure could result in an image that distinctively says ‘digital’. It would be nice to have an indicator that related the ‘tone’ control to the overall exposure latitude.
9. My biggest complaint about the Fuji S2, is that what you see in the viewfinder is not what the camera records. There is a recording area at the top (length wise) that is not visible. This may be OK for landscape shots - but most of my shot are vertical and it causes major problems. I have not - as of yet - made any calculations or tests to determine how to accurately minimize the problem.
10. Most American professional photographers make a living selling 8 x 10 format images. The 1.5 length to width ratio is a nuisance. It would be a positive advance to change the format to 1.25 to 1.
The only format that really fits the 1.5 ratio is a 4"x6" print - which most people associate with K-mart processing of amateur 35MM film. 1.25 : 1 is considered the ‘ideal’ format - since the full image makes a perfect 4x5, 8x10 or 16x20. I would even go for a 1.4 :1 as an alternative to the 1.5:1. Olympus is ahead of the game here.
11. An important feature that is missing on the S2, is an exposure counter that counts the number of exposures that have been made - in addition to the number that are left on the media. I wouldn’t even care that the ‘exposures left’ counter adds numbers - like it currently does - as long as I have the number of exposures that I have already made. This is an important item that should not be overlooked on future models.
12. Card not initialized! Occasionally the compact flash card will not be correct when it is returned after dumping the images to the computer. The chip CAN be formatted in the camera - eventually - if you keep pushing different buttons until you accidentally hit the right combination. This is a hell of a way to design a format feature. The camera needs to be able to reformat a compact flash card that has some residual data on it. When that happens on a shoot - we will normally put the card back in the computer and reformat it there. We haven’t lost any shots because of it YET - but it is a potential problem. . Sometimes holding down the ‘menu’ button while pressing the ‘play’ button then releasing both and hitting the ‘menu’ button a second time - will work. Then again sometimes it doesn’t
13. People are overly concerned about the 1.5 multiplication factor in the focal length of the lens. If you are a professional and don’t know what your lens can do, you shouldn’t be shooting professionally anyway. The fact is that the 1.5 multiplication factor really indicates that the lenses are not correctly designed for the chip size. If lenses were designed for the chip size, they could be smaller, lighter and more functional. I understand that this will probably never happen because of the abundance of 35MM lenses and because the chip sizes will eventually equal the size of a 35MM film anyway. It would be nice to have the lenses designed for the chip though. Olympus apparently does - but their cameras are not up the ‘professional’ functionality.
14. On the image of my camera setup, you will note a gray spot on the right hand side of the image. This is apparently ‘dust’, although it is so small that I can’t see it on the CCD. It would be a nice feature if the camera was able to zero out the spots electronically.
15. The focus light needs to be moved to another location further out from the axis of the lens, because the lens shade on the rotating barrel lenses inhibits its function.
16. One of the most significant improvements of the S2 over the S1 is in the metering system. The ‘spot’ meter is a huge improvement over the S1 meter. The 3D metering and ability to communicate with the TTL features of the automatic flash is a very significant feature as well. It would be an improvement if the size of the ‘spot’ meter could be selected as well.
Hugh McLean