Fujifilm S3 Pro - any users?

I picked one up in a shop on the weekend and I must say that I found the
build quality to be a bit suspect. It seems to be a very plasticy feeling
camera, particularly on the left hand side where there is no rubberising.

Obviously looks can be deceiving, so if you are a user, let us know what
you think of the camera's performance!

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On Thu, 02 Jun 2005 14:18:09 +0200, Roxy d'Urban wrote:

I picked one up in a shop on the weekend and I must say that I found the
build quality to be a bit suspect. It seems to be a very plasticy feeling
camera, particularly on the left hand side where there is no rubberising.

Obviously looks can be deceiving, so if you are a user, let us know what
you think of the camera's performance!

I've never handled the left hand side of the camera. I hold the
camera with my right hand on the grip and the left cradling the bottom
of the camera and lens for stability.
I love the camera. The files are incredible.
On the other hand it has slow write times, a tiny viewfinder, and huge
25MB raw files.
It depends what you're looking for. I wouldn't recommend it to
someone trying to make a living shooting sports, but I would recommend
it for a wedding or studio portrait photographer.

On Thu, 02 Jun 2005 17:24:52 -0400, McLeod wrote:

On Thu, 02 Jun 2005 14:18:09 +0200, Roxy d'Urban wrote:

I picked one up in a shop on the weekend and I must say that I found the
build quality to be a bit suspect. It seems to be a very plasticy feeling
camera, particularly on the left hand side where there is no rubberising.

Obviously looks can be deceiving, so if you are a user, let us know what
you think of the camera's performance!

I've never handled the left hand side of the camera. I hold the camera
with my right hand on the grip and the left cradling the bottom of the
camera and lens for stability. I love the camera. The files are
incredible. On the other hand it has slow write times, a tiny viewfinder,
and huge 25MB raw files.
It depends what you're looking for. I wouldn't recommend it to someone
trying to make a living shooting sports, but I would recommend it for a
wedding or studio portrait photographer.

Something I couldn't ascertain from the shop manager was whether it will
meter with non-chipped lenses, e.g. manual focus ones. If it did it would
be very tempting for me to obtain one. I doubt it does though...

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I have one and I love it!
It won't meter with non-cpu lenses by the way.

I work on a day-to-day basis with a Nikon D1x which build-wise is far
superior. (It must be because the British Army use them and they still
work!!) So by comparison the S3 feels a little "plasticy" to me too. I can't
fault the image quality at all. Shooting in RAW has given me rubber-button a
couple of times waiting for the buffer, but shooting some owls (pun
unavoidable) in the biggest JPEG setting the other day with an 80x Lexar
card I had no problems. The first accessory I bought was a spare battery
tray, for two reasons: 1. it is quite flimsy 2. I don't want to be
flaffing around changing the cells in the tray and miss something / look
like a prat at a wedding!

The man from Fuji says you can use ordinary AA/LR6 cells in the camera too
which means if you're on holiday you can just buy some if you can't get your
rechargeables charged. The other bonus I've found to the battery tray, is
that if you have an intelligent charger it will monitor each individual
cell. For example at work some of our battery packs for the D1x are almost
kaput: this could be because of one individual cell and not the pack as a
whole. In fact I'm pretty damn sure that's the case!

Hope this is of help,

Craig.


"Roxy d'Urban" wrote in message
news
I picked one up in a shop on the weekend and I must say that I found the
build quality to be a bit suspect. It seems to be a very plasticy feeling
camera, particularly on the left hand side where there is no rubberising.

Obviously looks can be deceiving, so if you are a user, let us know what
you think of the camera's performance!

--
?

On Sat, 04 Jun 2005 16:46:53 +0100, Craig Marston wrote:

I have one and I love it!
It won't meter with non-cpu lenses by the way.

I work on a day-to-day basis with a Nikon D1x which build-wise is far
superior. (It must be because the British Army use them and they still
work!!) So by comparison the S3 feels a little "plasticy" to me too. I
can't fault the image quality at all. Shooting in RAW has given me
rubber-button a couple of times waiting for the buffer, but shooting some
owls (pun unavoidable) in the biggest JPEG setting the other day with an
80x Lexar card I had no problems. The first accessory I bought was a spare
battery tray, for two reasons: 1. it is quite flimsy 2. I don't want to
be flaffing around changing the cells in the tray and miss something /
look like a prat at a wedding!

The man from Fuji says you can use ordinary AA/LR6 cells in the camera too
which means if you're on holiday you can just buy some if you can't get
your rechargeables charged. The other bonus I've found to the battery
tray, is that if you have an intelligent charger it will monitor each
individual cell. For example at work some of our battery packs for the D1x
are almost kaput: this could be because of one individual cell and not the
pack as a whole. In fact I'm pretty damn sure that's the case!

Hope this is of help,

Thanks Craig.

Insightful stuff about the batteries. I have heard that the D1 series
betteries are problematic from more than one source. The D70 battery is
probably the best I have encountered in a digital camera. It just goes and
goes and goes. I can leave my camera for weeks at a time and when I pick
it up it goes and goes...

--
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Insightful stuff about the batteries. I have heard that the D1 series
betteries are problematic from more than one source. The D70 battery is
probably the best I have encountered in a digital camera. It just goes and
goes and goes. I can leave my camera for weeks at a time and when I pick
it up it goes and goes...

Yeah the Lithium Ions are amazing. Fuji recommend NOT using Li-Ion cells in
the S3 because they heat up. I think it's because they have a higher
internal resistance which is also why their stored charge lasts longer.
(It's completely the opposite to a car battery which will go flat with
nothing connected!)

Best regards,

Craig.