Fuji S3 Pro

The Fuji S3 Pro is one of my favorite digital cameras. The camera was first introduced at PMA 2004. Since I am not a sports shooter this camera is perfect for someone like me. The camera has been designed with the portrait, wedding, and other people photographers in mind.

The S3 body is constructed of a polycarbonate one-piece body. This design is strong enough for everyday professional use. The body is built using some of the features from the Nikon N 80 body with auto focus assist lighting and a f mount lens connection. 1/4000 sec shutter speeds, hot shoe and flash synch terminal for studio flash. The body also offers a large LCD and conveniently placed buttons over the LCD. Plus Fuji might be slightly behind the times with this feature but only a few may appreciate it and that is real AA batteries. I love AA batteries because you can find them at every mini mart and gas station. Sure they don’t last as long as some of the power packs but if you run out of your power pack I can promise you 7 eleven does not carry that battery.

The best feature about the Fuji S3 is the SuperCCD SR II sensor. S pixels capture normal light and the R pixels capture high frequency light (brighter and whiter). Control contrast has be a real issue for wedding photographers with cameras. Often the mid tones are correct and the highlights like the dress are blown out. The chip was designed to closely match the characteristics of silver halide film. As a result contrast and color renditions are very natural. It is possible for the photographer to turn off the R pixel feature if desired. The chip is a true 6MP camera with a low noise to signal ratio.

The camera lacks a fast continuous shutter and buffer combination at only 2.5 frames per second. But then again this camera was not designed for sports photography. Another negative with this camera is the low flash sync at 1/180 of a second.

As mentioned above this camera is designed for the wedding and portrait photographers. It is slightly more than other popular 6MP cameras but the image quality is outstanding compared to the Nikon D70 and Canon Digital XT. Priced at $2499 this camera is a good purchase.

More camera details:

Price (Body only) US: $ 2,499

Body material
High-impact plastic / rubber, metal sub-structure

Sensor
Fujifilm SuperCCD SR II 23.0 x 15.5 mm
6.45 million total photosites (2 photodiodes per photosite)
12.9 million total photodiodes
14 bit A/D converter

Effective pixels
12.34 million (S-pixel: 6.17 million, R-pixel: 6.17 million) pixels

Flash X-sync
1/180 sec

External flash
X-contact hot-shoe (with D-TTL support)
PC sync terminal

Color space
sRGB
Adobe RGB

Storage
xD-Picture Card (up to 512 MB)
Compact Flash Type I/II

LCD monitor
2.0" TFT LCD
235,000 pixels
100% frame coverage

Connectivity
USB 2.0 (Hi-Speed)
IEEE 1394 (Firewire)

Dimensions
148 x 135 x 80 mm (5.9 x 5.3 x 3.2 in)
Weight (no batt / lens) 835 g (1.8 lb)