Fuji Finepix S100FS Advanced Prosumer Digital Camera
It's got a mighty zoom and fabulous features - but can it compete with dSLRs?
(by Mike Slocombe for Digital Lifestyles, 29th Jan 2008)

Triumphantly roaring down the runway and heading off to the Photo Marketing Association's annual beano in Las Vegas this week is Fujifilm's upmarket FinePix S100FS dSLR-like consumer digicam.

Described as its 'most advanced consumer digital camera to date,' the FinePix S100FS is scrambling to grab a fat slice from the lucrative budget dSLR market, shoe-horning a promising feast o'features into a relatively bijou frame.

Housed in a very attractive dSLR-like body with a 2.5? tiltable LCD, the camera sports a 14.3x Fujinon manual zoom lens covering a useful 28-400mm (35mm equiv., F2.8- F5.3) range, backed by 'Dual Image Stabilisation' which combines an optical image stabilisation system and Fujifilm's Picture Stabilisation software.

Lurking inside the camera's gubbins is a large 2/3 inch 11 megapixel Super CCD sensor utilising Fuji's third generation RP III processor, serving up skyhigh ISO sensitivities right up to an astonishing ISO 6400 (at 6 MP) and a positively eye-popping ISO 10,000 at 3 Megapixels.



As is the trend with modern consumer snappers, Fujifilm have included their proprietary Face Detection 2.0 technology, which claims to detect up to 10 gurning mugs in a scene, swiftly correcting focus, exposure and white balance.

Once the picture is taken, an automatic red-eye correction process removes any 'Devil eyes', saving both the original image and the corrected file.

In line with its enthusiast aspirations, the S100FS packs three bracketing functions (Film Simulation Bracketing, Dynamic Range Bracketing and AE Bracketing), manual exposure controls, high-speed shooting (up to 50 continuous shots at 7 frames/second at 3MP) and a ton of scene and custom settings.

Both JPEG and RAW formats are supported, with the movie mode recording 30 frames per second in VGA quality. Conveniently, you can also use the manual zoom ring while in movie mode.

Some of the features from Fujifilm's professional FinePix S5 Pro D-SLR have percolated down to the S100FS, including film simulation modes and a claimed 'extended dynamic range' (100%, 200%, 400%).

Memory storage comes in the shape of an xD/SD/SD-HC slot, the camera measures up at 133.4(W) ×93.6(H) ×150.4(D) mm / 5.3(W)× 3.7(H)× 5.9(D) inches and weighs a portable 918g/32.4 oz.

The Fuji FinePix S100FS goes on sale in a couple of months, priced around US$800 (we haven't had the UK price confirmed yet).




Fujifilm S100FS specifications (subject to change)
Sensor 2/3-inch Super CCD HR, 11.1 million effective pixels
Image sizes 3,840 x 2,880, 4,032 x 2,688 (3:2 format), 2,048 x 1,536, 1,600 x 1,200, 640 x 480
Movie clips 640 x 480 pixels, 320 x 240 pixels, 30 frames/sec. with mono sound, AVI (Motion JPEG), with Electronic Image Stabilization
File formats JPEG, Uncompressed CCD-RAW (RAF format)
Lens Fujinon 14.3 X Optical zoom lens , F2.8 (W) - F5.3 (T), 28-400mm equiv.
Image stabilization Lens-shift
Conversion lenses No
Focus Auto Focus (single and continuous), Manual Focus, One-push AF
AF area modes Centre, Area, Multi, Face Detection AF/AE
AF assist lamp Yes
Focus distance
Normal:
Wide angle :Approx. 50cm/1.6 ft to infinity
Telephoto :Approx. 2.5 m/8.2 ft to infinity
Macro:
Wide angle :Approx. 10cm/0.3 ft to 3m/9.8ft
Telephoto: Approx. 0.9m/3.0 ft to 3.0m/9.8f
Super Macro: Approx. 1cm /0.4 in. to 1m /3.3 ft.
Metering TTL 256-zones metering
ISO sensitivity Auto, Auto (1600), Auto (800), Auto (400)
ISO 64 - ISO 100, ISO 6400 (6MP or lower), ISO 10,000 (3MP or lower)
Exposure compensation Yes
Exposure bracketing ±1/3 EV, ±2/3 EV, ±1EV
Shutter speed AUTO mode: 1/4 sec to 1/4000 sec, all other modes: 30 sec. to 1/2000 sec
Bulb (up to 30 sec)
Aperture F 2.8 -F 11 (W), F 5.3 -F 11 (T), max 13 steps in 1/3 EV increment
Modes Programmed AE, Aperture Priority AE, Shutter Priority AE, Manual
Scene Shooting modes
Mode dial: Auto, FSB, SP1, SP2, C1, C2, P, A, S, M, Movie
SP1: Nature, Nature-soft, Nature-Vivid, Flower
SP2: Portrait, Portrait-soft, Baby, Portrait Enhancer, Night, Sunset, Snow, Beach, Sport, Fireworks
FSB: Film simulation Bracketing, C1/C2: Custom setting position
White balance Automatic scene recognition Preset (Fine, Shade, Fluorescent light (Daylight), Fluorescent light (Warm White), Fluorescent light (Cool White), Incandescent light, Custom
White balance fine tune No
Self timer Approx. 10 sec./ 2 sec. delay
Continuous shooting
Top-7: ( max3 frames/sec), (CCD-RAW: Top-3)
High speed Top-50: (max 7 frames/sec, 3M pixels)
Last-7: ( max3 frames/sec), (CCD-RAW: Last-3)
Long-period: ( max.1.1 frames/sec))
Flash Built-in pop-up flash
Effective range: (ISO AUTO):
Wide angle: Approx. 0.6m / 2.0 ft. to 4.3m / 14 ft.
Telephoto: Approx. 0.6m / 2.0 ft. to 2.8m / 9.2 ft.
Macro: Approx. 0.3m / 1.0 ft. to 0.8m / 2.6 ft.
Flash modes: Red-eye removal OFF: Auto, Forced Flash, Suppressed Flash, Slow Synchro. Red-eye removal ON: Auto, Red-eye Reduction Auto, Red-eye Reduction & Forced Flash, Suppressed Flash, Red-eye Reduction & Slow Synchro
Viewfinder Electronic Viewfinder, LCD monitor 2.5-inch, approx.230,000 dots, Amorphous silicon TFT colour LCD monitor (WV type)
Connectivity
USB 2.0 High Speed, AV
AC power
IrSimple(TM)
Print compliance DPOF
Storage Internal memory (Approx. 25 MB)
xD-Picture card (16MB-2GB), SD memory card / SDHC memory card
Power NP-140 Li-ion battery(included)
AC power adapter AC-84V (sold separately)
Weight (no batt) Approx 918g/32.4 oz
Dimensions 133.4(W)×93.6(H)×150.4(D) mm / 5.3(W)× 3.7(H)× 5.9(D) in


Fujifilm