Introduction

The Fuji Finepix S100FS is a large high-end fixed lens digital camera aimed at prosumers. Fuji calls it the most sophisticated camera ever made. It is an SLR-styled camera with complete manual controls, a mechanical lens and numerous buttons to give it a professional feel. This camera's outstanding feature set includes:

• 11 Megapixels sensor
• 14.3X Stabilized optical zoom lens
• Starts at 28mm wide-angle and reaches 400mm
• Mechanical zoom ring
• Electronic focus ring
• ISO sensitivity ranging from 100 to 10000
• Shutter speeds from 1/4000s to 30s
• Selectable dynamic range from 100% to 400%
• 4 Film-simulation modes
• Bracketing of film-simulation, dynamic range and exposure
• Complete set of manual controls
• Unlimited high-quality movie recording
• Hot-shoe and sync-port for external flashes

Suitability - What is it good for?

The Fuji Finepix S100FS is designed for a all sorts of photography. Unlike most fixed-lens cameras, the S100FS is as large as the average DSLR. It is quite sturdy and feels solid. Even the moveable LCD and the memory card door feel sturdier than most. Since it weighs 912g, it feels more like a professional tool. The camera can be held securely thanks to its large rubberized grip with a horizontal indentation for the index finger. On the back side of the camera, an inward curvature prevents the thumb from slipping to the side.

Pictures from the S100FS can be printed nicely in sizes up to 20 "x15" thanks to its high quality 11 megapixels Fuji SuperCCD HR sensor. The optical zoom lens starts at 28 mm, which is a moderate wide angle, and goes all the way to 400 mm which is a substantial telephoto. Near the wide-angle end, the lens can focus as close as 1 cm in super-macro mode. This makes this digital camera suitable for most photography subjects including architecture, wildlife and macro.

Since this camera provides ISO settings from 100 to 10000 and shutter-speeds from 1/4000th of a second to 30 seconds, it can be used for a vast range of photographic conditions and creativity. Indoor and social occasions can be captured well using high-ISO settings, while low-light photography can be captured using the slow shutter-speeds. Even indoor sports can be photographed using fast shutter speeds and high-ISO settings available with the S100FS. Other lighting conditions can be helped by using the Fuji S100DS's powerful built-in flash or an external flash attached to the camera's hot-shoe or sync-port. The Fuji S100FS also allows control over the dynamic range it captures. Possible options are 100%, 200% and 400%, although these are not available at all ISO settings.

Storage options are also versatile with both SD-HC and xD cards being supported. Since SD cards are cheaper, faster (See our Memory Performance feature) and available in larger sizes than xD, we recommend people who don't already have memory cards of either type to buy SD cards for the Fuji S100FS.

Capability - What can it do?

Beyond taking pictures in a large variety of conditions suitable for large prints, the Fuji Finepix S100FS packs some useful and interesting features. Below is a list of its most useful features, followed by explanations, when required.

• Film-simulation: Provia, Velvia, Soft, Portrait.
• Dynamic range: 100%, 200% and 400%.
• White-balance: Auto, 7 Preset and 2 Custom, all fine-tunable in 7 steps on Red-Cyan and Blue-Yellow scales.
• Metering modes: evaluative, spot and average.
• Focus control: single auto focus, continuous auto focus, manual focus.
• Drive modes: single frame, first 7-frames, first 50 frames at 3 MP, final 7-frames, long period.
• Exposure compensation: +2 to -2 EV, in 1/3 stop increments.
• Flash compensation: -2/3..+2/3, 1/3 EV steps.
• Exposure bracket: 3 shots, 1/3, 2/3 or 1 EV steps.
• Film-simulation and dynamic-range bracketing, 3 shots.
• Auto focus modes: center, multi-point, area.
• Flash modes: auto, on, off, slow-sync.
• Face detection with or without redeye removal.
• Photography modes: fully automatic, program automatic, shutter priority, aperture priority, manual, 2 custom modes, 14 scene-modes and film-simulation bracket.
• Other: Auto exposure lock or toggle and focus check.

The Fuji Finepix S100FS brings several unique and rare features. The FS in S100FS stands for Film-Simulation and is a newcomer to this class of camera. Fuji offers 4 film types which differ in dynamic-range, color, tone and sensitivity. Additionally, each parameter can be increased or decreased independently of the film-simulation mode. The control over dynamic range is fairly new too. It is somehow related to ISO sensitivity which is why not all dynamic range options are allowed at all ISOs. Basically, dynamic range is increased from the default 100% by simulating capture of parts of the image at different ISO settings.

Drive modes require some explanations. Obviously, in single frame mode, the camera takes a single picture when the shutter is pressed down. The first 7-frames mode is the typical burst mode where the camera focuses once and takes up to 7 pictures. It does so at 3 FPS, and shows a brief review of each picture after its taken. The first 50-frame mode works the same way except that images are shot at 7 FPS and resolution is limited to 3 megapixels. Exposure bracketing produces one properly exposed frame, one underexposed and one overexposed. The increments are selectable to 1/3 EV, 2/3 EV or 1 EV. Film simulation bracketing takes an image in Provia, Velvia and Soft modes. Bracketing of dynamic range takes shots at 100%, 200% and 400%. It is unclear why the camera needs to take three shots when bracketing film-simulation or dynamic-range, instead of taking one and outputting three.

The final 7-frames drive-mode is a Fuji invention which has made it into many Fuji digital cameras and several models from other manufacturers. Simply put, the camera takes pictures continuously at 3 FPS but only saves the last 7 frames taken. This is a very valuable feature for action shots when it is difficult to anticipate the action. Finally, the long period drive mode takes pictures at roughly 1 FPS, the number of pictures taken depending on the speed of the memory used. Most photography modes and scene modes are also typical.

The AE-L button either locks the exposure while it is pressed or sets it until the AE-L button is pressed again. The specific operation of this button depends on an obscure menu which chooses between AE-L 1 and AE-L 2. The Focus-Check button magnifies the center of the live-preview, to facilitate manual focusing or validating the auto-focus. Unfortunately, neither the LCD nor EVF is precise enough to make this entirely accurate.

Usability - How easy is it to use?

The basic camera operation of the Fuji Finepix S100FS is strait forward. Although the number of buttons may seem excessive to some, advanced users appreciate having external controls for commonly used features.

The S100FS is powered on by a rotating switch which surrounds the shutter release. It feels solid and has two well-defined positions with audible clicks. Every other button feels just as solid. The camera has an aggressive auto-sleep feature which turns the camera off after a period of inactivity. Unfortunately, waking the camera up requires moving the power-switch to the Off position and back to On. This makes it slower to wake up than most cameras which are woken up by a half-press of the shutter-release.

A pleasure of few digital cameras is a mechanical zoom lens. Fuji has equipped the S100FS with a large zoom ring which is easy to grab and turns smoothly. Having a mechanical zoom ring means that zooming from 28 mm to 400 mm can be done in a quarter second and there are no zoom steps interfering with precise framing. There is also an electronic focus ring which also turns smoothly. The focus ring has a slight lag which means you turn it and then the camera adjust its focus.

The shutter release is pretty standard. Going to the halfway point requires a moderate amount of travel but triggering the shutter is a hair further. The mode dial is large with good indentations while the control dial has smaller indentations and rotates more easily. A few functions get their own buttons which must be pressed either alone or while rotating the control dial: exposure-compensation, ISO, drive-mode, AE-L, EVF/LCD switch, face-detection mode, playback, display mode, menu, stabilization and AF-On. Note that AF-On only works in manual-focus mode. The only important functions missing their own buttons are white balance and flash-compensation.

Pressing the exposure-compensation button, shows a luminance histogram which is updated in real time as exposure is changed. The Fuji Finepix S100FS is exposure-priority which means it gives an accurate representation of exposure and white-balance most of the time. When the shutter is pressed halfway, the aperture is stopped down which gives a depth-of-field preview. However, when this happens, a gain is not applied to the live-preview and the image may darken. At this point it is important to realize that the correct exposure was shown before and it is the DOF preview which shows incorrect exposure. The LCD is unfortunately not exposure-priority in Manual mode. In shutter and aperture priority modes, the preview behaves a little strangely. It is basically exposure-priority when the exposure parameters are within the camera's range but not when they are outside. This is not the only camera that does this but makes using these modes not entirely WYSIWYG.

The ISO button is also used in conjunction with the control-wheel. It shows the list of possible ISO values, plus 3 Auto settings. Each Auto setting differs in the maximum ISO value that can be chosen. Resolution and dynamic range are automatically adjusted for the chosen ISO when the current setting is incompatible.

The rear of the camera has an AE-L button, within easy reach of your thumb. Depending on a setup option, it either locks or holds the current exposure values. This button is surrounded by a 3-position metering mode dial. Evaluative, center-weighed and spot metering options are supported. Below and to the left is the EVF/LCD toggle switch. Below and to the right is the playback-mode toggle switch. Further below there is a face-detection toggle switch and the Display/Back switch. The Display/Back switch iterates through 3 display modes: normal, image-only and normal with grid. When navigating menus, the Display/Back switch dismisses the menu.

A 4-way control is also found on the camera's back. Its center button is used to activate the menu system and select menu options. Each direction is also assigned a function in shooting mode. To the right, the flash mode can be set, but only when the flash is up. The choices available are Auto, Forced and Slow-Synchro. Down activates a choice of 2 or 10s self-timers. Each time a self-timer is used, it resets itself. Left activates Macro or Super-Macro mode. Up activates digital zoom. What a waste! It would be immensely better if we had access to white-balance here rather than something as useless as digital zoom.

On the left side of the camera, we find the drive-mode, stabilization and spot-focus buttons. The spot focus button is used to engage the AF mechanism while in MF mode. The focus mode selector is located around the spot-focus switch. One can choose between instant focus, continuous focus and manual focus. All buttons are easy to reach and their placement is reasonable.

The menu system is easy to navigate and most options are quite intuitive. The main menu is divided into three pages with one option leading to a 5-page setup menu. Film-simulation, dynamic range and white-balance are changeable through the main menu. Ideally, commonly used option like these should have their own buttons, instead of stabilization, face-detection and digital zoom.

The two remaining items on the camera's back are the EVF and the LCD. The EVF has 200K pixels and is 0.2" diagonally. They do not make EVFs any smaller. Using the EVF therefore requires one to press up against the eye-cup. Motion is fluid and the view is bright though. The 2.5" LCD, composed of 230K pixels, is bright and sharp. Visibility is reasonable in bright light but rather poor in low-light. When the shutter-release is pressed halfway and the aperture is stopped down, the preview often becomes completely black. So, if you will not be able to pre-focusing and waiting for the right moment to snap the picture when light is low.

The pan and zoom feature for reviewing images is a little odd. The 4-way controller is used to for panning and zooming in a way that is just puzzling. The up and down arrows are used for zooming and all the arrows are used for panning. So, how does it known the difference between zooming in and panning up? As soon as you pan either left or right, the vertical arrows will serve panning, the DISP/BACK button will be used to make them back into zooming mode. If the DISP/BACK button is pressed while the vertical arrows are used for zooming, then pan and zoom is aborted.

continued on page 2...

Page 2