Fujifilm FinePix S5 Pro

The Fujinator

Fuji’s new DSLR the S5 Pro promised a leap forwards in digital imaging, but would it live up to expectations as a top class underwater camera… Fuji sent one to photographer Bob Whorton to prove its worth underwater on a trip to Raja Ampat at the beginning of March.

This article is dedicated to the memory of Ike Brigham – A founding father, innovator and a great friend.

Words & Photography by Bob Whorton.

“My ideal digital camera would be one that I can make quality pictures without the need to spend time correcting its shortcomings with editing software…”

I’d been using a Nikon D2x and a D200 for fourteen months prior to receiving the S5 in early February, so I was already used to the rugged construction and ergonomics of this particular body. It was great news (and an industry-first) that it was to be based around an already proven body with numerous underwater housings ready for it to slip straight into… Specifically my Ikelite D200 housing with iTTL.
Whilst I’ll leave the technical reviews to Dpreview, my review is based on user experience with the S5. The conclusions are my own, and the pictures – well, they speak for themselves…

INSIDE

What makes the Fuji system special is their now-famous ingenious Super CCD imaging chip and more specifically the latest SR Pro chip, and behind that the ‘Real Photo Technology’ – A phenomenal imaging processor. Each pixel site has two sensors; an S & an R, which interact to extend the dynamic range (recorded visible spectrum capability), closer and closer to Fuji’s goal of ‘Film-like quality,’ and more towards how the human brain actually perceives an image through our own eyes.
Adjustments allow 100-400% manual adjustment of the DR or a very accurate ‘Auto’ option too. All of which can be adjusted in the Fuji ACR afterwards if required.
The radical new two-stage noise filtration system onboard provides the lowest levels of noise I’ve yet seen in any digital imager, regardless of price. At the lower ISO’s virtually nothing and raising the stakes through 1250-1600, negligible and at 3200 apparent, but surprisingly low. The noise itself looks more like film grain than the messy luminosity generated by most digital machines.
I found the S5 a simple device to find my way around, due to the D200 experience. The only things that differed were the rear-left button array, which are assigned different tasks to those of the Nikon.
The menu structure is pretty simple and straight-forwards to navigate through, if you have used an S2/3 or even the Fuji compacts you’d find it quite straight forwards.
“Impressive” is the amount of fine-tuning that can be done to this camera to achieve just what you need or like from an image, but more later on…
The exposure systems on the S5 are very accurate and functional, requiring little or no EV adjustments compared to the experiences and issues I had with the D200. The focusing is amazingly precise and quick too, coupled with similar flexibility in ranges identical the 200.
Practical changes to the S5 over the S3 include the ability to shoot parallel JPEG & RAW images like with the D2x/200, which allows one to tune the camera to produce a JPEG similar to the RAW one might expect and check it out from the large rear screen for suitability, rather than having to wait for a PC analysis and then not having to open a slower RAW viewer.

Another great feature found on the S5 is the programmable ‘Auto ISO’. Here we can set the minimum/maximum ISO the camera can choose automatically which is a fantastic feature for increasing the range of A/S settings available without having to take the camera from your face.

I wasn’t prepared for the ‘straight from the box’ natural, colourful realism and great tonal transitions of each and every picture it produced. The files just did not look like the standard digital representations I’d allowed myself to become used to. “Looking good” I thought…

ITTL
Brett Foster from Ikelite was keen for me to check the workings of the iTTL, which I did as soon as the DS125 batteries were charged – Perfect from f2.8 through to f25 with only minimal adjustment of the EV to minus to compensate for being on land. Good news for the ingenuity of the Ikelite engineers. All that was needed then was a marketing badge change J
The intelligent TTL system on the D200 for example was lacking in my opinion, it rarely worked properly on the unit I had, and on moving subjects it was awful leaving an unsightly cast. Fuji promised that the system built into the S5 Pro was to be an improvement. A promise turned to fact in this instance; we are given a precise tool that works into the extremes, as you will see…

“That’s all pretty interesting, but how is it going to improve things underwater?”

As contrast levels underwater vary in the extreme the extra dynamic range offered by the SR sensors promised to bring back the shadow & highlight detail missing from digital imaging. However, there were to be bigger surprises from this camera that I was missing from my film experience…

Into the blue…
Out in Raja Ampat onboard MV Odyssea 1 at the beginning of March the windy weather prevented us going south to Misool as planned. Restricting us instead to the sites north and east of Sorong.
Having been twice before in the previous eight months I knew what to expect from this diverse area so any disappointment was minimised.
Taking any new camera underwater can be an anxious time to say the least, but having been used to the handling and reliability of the Ikelite D200 housing for over a year this was pretty straight forwards, and the usual pre-checks went without a murmur.
The first test shots on those first few dives were to establish the practical settings required for use underwater, and in the first instance for the extremes of contrast encountered with wide-angle photography. As expected, shooting through the denser medium of water required tonal and sharpness adjustments which were easily accessed from the main menu.
The S5 has a face detection system, useful as that may sound, it has a more practical use underwater – one touch of the bottom L/H button zips the display up to 75% to enable a clear analysis of the images sharpness, lighting and colour, and quick adjustments done if necessary.
One of the major hopes by many of this camera was that the new extended dynamic range would tame the infamous sun ball cyan explosions that have become associated with digital photography… A narrow-minded view in my opinion that totally misses the plot regarding this cameras truer potential
With that on my mind, the first wide angle shots that encompassed the sun, looked not much different to those of the D200 initially from the rear screen. However, I was soon to learn not to trust the screen too much in these circumstances.
[The rear monitor is not as good as the ones on the D2x or 200, however once I realised this (by not deleting and saving to display on the laptop) it was still workable even in the extremes of contrast… But could be much better.
“On a camera costing and capable of more than it’s rivals I expected better Mr Fuji!”]

Analysing the images from first few dives on the PC brought home something wonderful – The previously unknown ‘realism’ digital had been missing, adding to that a greater control of the colour proximity around the highlights of the sun even in the brightness of mid morning.

The realism generated by the incredible tonal and focal transitions was amazing; this is on top of truer natural colours that vibrate ’freshness’ into what has become a ‘post production’ driven medium, removing the need for much if any tweaking, and obviously the time wasted doing so… Nearly there then eh!

The more I used it the more I liked it and by the time we had reached the tight channel between Gam & Weigo on day three; I was loving the new camera.
Light levels, current and visibility in this channel can be quite challenging to say the least but the camera coped very well with the varying conditions. The shallow through-the-surface shots highlighted the extra dynamic range capability, and as a result produced some interesting work, even in the reduced levels below the rocky outline of the channel walls.
I was keen to try more wide-angle shooting at ‘Airborei Jetty’ as I’d had some interesting dives there on previous trips with Odyssea 1 shooting the D200.
Though the numbers of fish were down, there was still plenty to see and the visibility was pretty good due to the high tides. This particular jetty is a fairly deep structure positioned off a steeply sloping sandy shore which provides a habitat for a whole range of marine life, making it a great test venue.
The wide shots taken with both the 10,5mm and 16mm Nikkor lenses were amazing viewed on the PC afterwards the images gave the impression of still being there. Beautiful clean smooth graduations through the water column and great detail in the corals coupled with lifelike colour. The high contrasts were taken in its stride and surprisingly even straight into the morning sun shots “Worked” to produce ‘Wows’. The total containment still needs a few more stops in some circumstances, but it is digital and not film (I had to keep reminding myself).

On to macro
Sceptics had mentioned that the detail out of this camera could never be as good as brand X, However, they couldn’t have been more wrong…The depth of detail and resolve of this camera produces stunningly detailed imagery, especially noticeable with macro. The tonal transitions again providing a refreshing change from the unnaturally abrupt CCD ‘crowbar approach’, putting back the missing realism, and with it a more natural presence rather the typical over-sharpness. I was amazed that the same old critters took on a new ‘life’ with the extended range and realistic colour renditions of this Fuji DSLR.
[What makes the D200 etc look sharper (arguably) – Nature isn’t like that ]
The 60mm macro work at the jetty produced nice results too, especially with the digitally challenging light-to-dark shading of the jaw fish, the beautiful textures of the Tamja nudibranchs, and the finite detail reproduced in the hairy stonefish and scorpionfish. As with the wider images the tonal and focal transitions were smooth and clean. Another interesting note was how the Bokeh, or blurred background seemed enhanced by this imaging system, again down to the smoother transitions and dynamic range. Which led me on to experiment more with much narrower depth of field compositions, combined with the very accurate iTTL of the Ikelite housing – Stunning!

Everyone on the boat with me was quite impressed, even the pro’s using digital and film… Which reminded me of a conversation I’d had with hard-core film aficionado Tony White a year ago…
“Tony, you’ll love this one mate!”

Typical settings guide based on experience…

Ambient light photography
Shooting without strobes is a doddle with the S5: Dynamic Range set to 400%, colour boosted to ‘High’ and the auto white balance adjusted thus, [fine tune] Red +2-4 and yellow +2-4. This effectively removes any further filtration requirements normally achieved by adding internal or external filters. These values can be saved into numerous custom compartments for quick and easy retrieval anytime.
Tone, colour and sharpness can be boosted on-camera too. This gave me the optimum JPEG, which required little or no further adjustments when uploaded to the PC, and no hidden surprises.
Further adjustments to the ISO settings (good time to switch to Auto-ISO) will allow smaller apertures to be used enabling optimum lens settings in lower light quality.

With Strobes
The use of strobes requires a little less adjustment, which like the above can be stored for quick reference.
A reduction in the red channel on the AWB fine-tuning slider from standard settings removes an otherwise slight pink cast that may affect any ‘whiteness’ or lighter areas in the main subject. Dynamic range can be set to Auto, or manually adjusted based on contrast levels (or the subject reflectivity).
Tone and sharpness boosted as above, and colour saturation to your liking.

Pros –
Brilliant imager, colour and picture quality.
Easy to use and great menu system coupled with precise image tuning.
RAW/JPEG parallel recording.
Huge Buffer
Programmable settings.
Optimum iTTL with Ikelite housing and external modules.
Top Quality prints with film-like depth.
Outstanding JPEG quality, Phenomenal RAW files.
Very little or no time spent correcting shortcomings – Reduced workflow.
Housings readily available.

Cons –
Rear Screen could be better.
Slow writing speed (24.5 Mb HDR files) not really an issue underwater – Buffer is huge anyway.
A slight delay in displaying the last shot image (if shooting more than 5/6 RAW/JPEG in rapid succession).
I can’t seem to put it down without help from the wife LOL!
No good for spray and pray artists.
Menu system confuses the retarded.

Conclusion
Well, I can honestly say, I have never enjoyed shooting digital quite so much as I have with this particular camera.
For prints the S5 is way in front of all or most; even full page published prints from small JPEG’s are amazingly good (See the Fuji Challenge in May edition Digital SLR Pro), and those from the full-size RAW-TIFF at over 30” are almost as good as slides.
In most instances there is no need to use RAW.
There have been numerous attempts to belittle this camera especially around the crazy mega pixel argument. 6 0r 12 Mp. Well, I’ll be quite frank in saying that it really doesn’t matter either way for me, producing 4258 x 2842 resolution it sounds and looks like 12 mp +, but the important issue they all seem to glaze over is that it really works.
It produces bigger, more lifelike prints than any of the rival brands with much less noise, much less work flow, and at the end of the day this is what sold it to me, and what makes it worth spending the extra money on.

The cons listed above are not really an issue for me, but people have to whine about something…