Fuji FinePix S100FS

I got myself a Fuji S100FS. As a long time DSLR guy, who likes to use prime lenses and doesn’t really enjoy electronic viewfinders, I’d never thought I would buy such a camera (a 14x zoom? Come on!). But after reading all the good reviews and feedback from users, I decided to give it a try…

To keep it short, I like pretty much everything about this camera: the speed (startup time, AF and write time, the 3 FPS in raw), the versatility of the lens (zoom range and macro capabilities, manual zoom ring), the very effective image stabilization system, the relatively excellent high ISO performance and the more than acceptable dynamic range, the quietness of the shutter, the articulated LCD, the flash hotshoe and the flash sync speed, the accurate metering and AF… indeed, lots of good stuff!

It’s not a small camera by any means, but it is light enough so I can carry it for hours without discomfort. And this is the first time that an EVF is good enough so it doesn’t distract you. Another thing to like is the plethora of controls (ISO, EV compensation, AF modes, metering modes, etc.). Actually, it’s better than some entry level DSLRs.

Obviously, there are a couple of things that I am not too excited about, like the totally unusable manual focus mode due to the lack of magnification during MF if you shoot raw. And I have to confess that I wasn’t able to figure out how the MF indicator works.

Also, while I don’t really mind the easy-to-remove chromatic aberrations, dealing with purple fringing is time consuming and the wavy barrel distortion at wide angle is hard to get rid of. The size of the raw files (around 23MB each) is not an issue as I convert them to DNG. The lossless compression reduces them to 11MB.

Bottom line: lots of things to like and a very effective and fun camera.

All images shot in raw, converted to DNG and processed with Adobe Camera Raw. Exif data embedded in the images.

Out-of-topic rant about the pictures taken around The Museum of Fine Arts: I found out this weekend that we are not allowed to take pictures in pretty much all areas of the Museum. Quite ironic for a place that promotes arts.