my thoughts on the s3pro and E1

wind30 · 30th January 2006

just laid my hands on a 2nd hand s3pro. bought a nikon 50mm f1.4 lens.

Here is my personal amateur opinon after pixel peeping and shooting books in my house and trees outside

s3pro is shot using 12meg jpeg mode. Wide dynamic range. E1 is shot using raw developed using viewer sharpness + 2.

Noise.

If you develop the s3pro and E1 both using RAW ISO800 with ACR zero noise reduction, I find that the s3pro is NOISER than the E1 at 100% resolution. But due to the fact that you are comparing a 12meg vs 5meg, if you scale the 12meg to 5 meg size, the noise improves and s3pro is sligtly less noisier but the difference is not really a lot. People say s3pro is has very low noise, I think fujifilm has a very good noise reduction algo. Shooting jpeg with s3pro ISO800 is very good. super low noise, virutally clean but the details suffers. But since you are 12MP, it is not as bad.

Resolution

This is where s3pro wins hands down. although the s3pro is 12MP interpolated, it has higher res than a 6MP. Most reviews place is anywhere from 7-10MP.

Useability

E1 is much better. Smaller and better built, imho. And the most irritating about s3pro is that you have to turn 3 dials to change the ISO.... The dust buster helps too. My 2nd hand s3pro came with 2 dust spots and I did my first CCD cleaning yesterday. not to difficult. The focusing for my E1 seems to be more accurate at low light.

dynamic range

RAW files, DEFINATELY s3pro. It is REMARKABLE how much highlights you can recover and highlight graduations are still very smooth and the color is still quite accurate. BUT each raw file is 25meg.... I though the E1 10meg raw file was huge when I first bought it, but have since got used to it. I better start getting used to 25meg raw files. but seriously for amateur like me, I really could not think of much occasions that I actually require the extra dynamic range, UNLESS I overexpose my shots

lens

this is where I love oly. I dunno what lens to buy for nikon. I want a f2.8 lens but the nikon 17-55 f2.8 cost like $2k+ Now I understand why oly lens are real cheap. I really dislike sigma as the sigma lens I have are usually soft wide open, unlike oly lens. And bad build quality. I probably have to settle for the 18-200 VR. This is the main plus olympus have. I REALLY hope they give us a better body. I REALLY liked my 50-200mm lens. good bokeh, light, f2.8, not too expensive at $1.5k. with a 11-22mm, I cover 22-400mm at f2.8-3.5.

now of course I have to decide which to keep. the s3pro or oly.

nightpiper · 30th January 2006

i think if u shoot RAW & use Fuji HyperUtility software, u can get more details than jpg from camera. one reminder, the S3pro will not be able to meter with the new F-mount Zeiss lens. so u r pretty much stuck with newer Nikkors or 3rd party.

hhhmmm... keep both. they r good with diff things.

(ps. what about colours?)

Cheesecake · 30th January 2006

PM me if u wanna get rid of ur S3Pro.

NMSS_2 · 30th January 2006

nice review.

you dont review image after taking a shot?

17-55 is a lot more sharper than a general usage lens like 18-200 VR.

wind30 · 30th January 2006

Originally Posted by NMSS_2

nice review.

you dont review image after taking a shot?

17-55 is a lot more sharper than a general usage lens like 18-200 VR.

s3pro allows you to review histogram after a shot without any button press BUT the review does not time out... duh... so sometimes if you forget to press ok or half shutter press, the LCD STAYS ON...

17-55 cost like $2k+ and is it better than oly 14-54??

wind30 · 30th January 2006

Originally Posted by nightpiper

i think if u shoot RAW & use Fuji HyperUtility software, u can get more details than jpg from camera. one reminder, the S3pro will not be able to meter with the new F-mount Zeiss lens. so u r pretty much stuck with newer Nikkors or 3rd party.

hhhmmm... keep both. they r good with diff things.

(ps. what about colours?)

hyper utility cost MONEY. I have developed using ACR and SOME people say ACR has higher res than HU.

Colors... the point about S3pro is that they have a LOT of different settings for colors, and have film simulation modes. So it looks different depend on how you set. I haven't shot through all the settings yet so dunno..

hammer_400 · 30th January 2006

hehe.. the s3 pro has a very nice n sharp lcd rite... re: noise, i think most of the other dslrs like
nikon/pentax/KM all are just as bad, just that they have more/better jpg NR

btw fwiw sigma has a 18-50 f2.8, dat is if u decide to keep the s3

tao · 30th January 2006

Originally Posted by wind30

s3pro allows you to review histogram after a shot without any button press BUT the review does not time out... duh... so sometimes if you forget to press ok or half shutter press, the LCD STAYS ON...

For that, the E-500 is better than both the cameras. And with RGB histogram as well.

Hacker · 31st January 2006

Can we have some photos and see the comparison side by side?

Hacker · 31st January 2006

Originally Posted by Cheesecake

PM me if u wanna get rid of ur S3Pro.

http://forums.clubsnap.org/showthrea...24#post1861224

wind30 · 31st January 2006

sample from E1. f4, 50mm (50-200mm lens), ISO100. shot in raw. developed with viewer, sharpness +2, saved in jpg max quality

http://pisduck.com/e1/e1.jpg

sample from s3pro. f4 50mm (50mm nikkor f1.4) ISO100. Shot in jpeg 12meg. standard sharpness.

http://pisduck.com/e1/s3pro.jpg

All taken handheld. but the shutter speed were faster than 1/200. focusing pt is at center of picture.

PLEASE note that although both is shot at 50mm, the e1 has a 2x crop factor so it has a roughly 1.33x advantage in the zoom in resolving details. Both files are BIG, ard 5meg.

this files are just samples and are not REPRESENTATIVE of the cameras. I realised you must take a number of shots b4 you can tell the performance of each camera.

comments? you can see the super CCD artifects for the fuji sensor

but it much better resolution I think.

But the E1 picture has better per pixel sharpness huh. maybe this is due to the fact that the 12meg s3pro is interpolated and the 50-200mm lens is OUT resolves my 5meg E1 body.

Raptor1 · 31st January 2006

Seems to me from your posts that you are geared towards your Oly setup. But found in the BnS that you are selling your Oly setup and keeping your Fuji S3. Any particular reasons?

wind30 · 31st January 2006

Originally Posted by Raptor1

Seems to me from your posts that you are geared towards your Oly setup. But found in the BnS that you are selling your Oly setup and keeping your Fuji S3. Any particular reasons?

not really lah. I have offers for my 50-200mm lens already but I have not confirmed. I also have interested buyers for my s3pro

have not really decided.

Cheesecake · 31st January 2006

Originally Posted by wind30

I also have interested buyers for my s3pro have not really decided.

...

soon soon...

wind30 · 5th February 2006

here is one of the major reason why I am thinking of getting a new s3pro if the price drops. I see SOOO MANY burnt out skies in my pictures. Many times when u are travelling, you reach a landmark where the sun is in the wrong place. So if you shoot it, you usually end up with burnt out skies and there is nothing much you can do about it. You can shoot multiple exposures but that requires tripod.

I posted the following on the tech, review forum.

-------------------
I just did some photoshop work to show the dynamic range of s3pro. All images are taken from ONE raw file.

Developed using ACR +0.3EV

developed at -3.0EV. S3pro can do pretty well even up to -4EV ....

Final merged output using tutorial at luminous landscape.

What amazed me is the details and the quality of the highlights recovered. The color graduations are there. S3pro stores 28bits of raw information per pixel...

nightpiper · 5th February 2006

wow! thats amazing highlight recovery man!!

lets see what sensor improvement the touted S4 pro brings. shudn't be anything less i believe.

if its not for the F80 body, i wud have gotten the Fuji DSLR. last time saw someone opened his S2 pro & the film socket holder still there. i dun like this kind of digital back technique & quality for this kind of price.

wind30 · 5th February 2006

Originally Posted by nightpiper

wow! thats amazing highlight recovery man!! lets see what sensor improvement the touted S4 pro brings. shudn't be anything less i believe. if its not for the F80 body, i wud have gotten the Fuji DSLR. last time saw someone opened his S2 pro & the film socket holder still there. i dun like this kind of digital back technique & quality for this kind of price.

Ya. s3pro is competing at D200 price range... But the body kind of sucks. D200 is so much more responsive, with better AF. The ONLY thing holding me back from the s3pro is the AF module. I can live with the slow RAW write performance as I usually take pictures of my wife. She complains that I am slow but it is ok...

Heard rumors about s4 but I read an interview not far back which fuji said they will trying to focus on the low end stuff like F11, S9000, etc. Their stretegy was to bring DSLR performance to P&S level. I guess the main problem for them was the DSLR bodies + lens. They have not much expertise there. So I think the s4pro will not come anytime soon. Even if it does it will price at PRO level so that it does not compete with fuji's prosumer cams.

30th January 2006	#1
wind30 Deregistered Join Date: Mar 2004 Posts: 2,929	my thoughts on the s3pro and E1 just laid my hands on a 2nd hand s3pro. bought a nikon 50mm f1.4 lens. Here is my personal amateur opinon after pixel peeping and shooting books in my house and trees outside s3pro is shot using 12meg jpeg mode. Wide dynamic range. E1 is shot using raw developed using viewer sharpness + 2. Noise. If you develop the s3pro and E1 both using RAW ISO800 with ACR zero noise reduction, I find that the s3pro is NOISER than the E1 at 100% resolution. But due to the fact that you are comparing a 12meg vs 5meg, if you scale the 12meg to 5 meg size, the noise improves and s3pro is sligtly less noisier but the difference is not really a lot. People say s3pro is has very low noise, I think fujifilm has a very good noise reduction algo. Shooting jpeg with s3pro ISO800 is very good. super low noise, virutally clean but the details suffers. But since you are 12MP, it is not as bad. Resolution This is where s3pro wins hands down. although the s3pro is 12MP interpolated, it has higher res than a 6MP. Most reviews place is anywhere from 7-10MP. Useability E1 is much better. Smaller and better built, imho. And the most irritating about s3pro is that you have to turn 3 dials to change the ISO.... The dust buster helps too. My 2nd hand s3pro came with 2 dust spots and I did my first CCD cleaning yesterday. not to difficult. The focusing for my E1 seems to be more accurate at low light. dynamic range RAW files, DEFINATELY s3pro. It is REMARKABLE how much highlights you can recover and highlight graduations are still very smooth and the color is still quite accurate. BUT each raw file is 25meg.... I though the E1 10meg raw file was huge when I first bought it, but have since got used to it. I better start getting used to 25meg raw files. but seriously for amateur like me, I really could not think of much occasions that I actually require the extra dynamic range, UNLESS I overexpose my shots lens this is where I love oly. I dunno what lens to buy for nikon. I want a f2.8 lens but the nikon 17-55 f2.8 cost like $2k+ Now I understand why oly lens are real cheap. I really dislike sigma as the sigma lens I have are usually soft wide open, unlike oly lens. And bad build quality. I probably have to settle for the 18-200 VR. This is the main plus olympus have. I REALLY hope they give us a better body. I REALLY liked my 50-200mm lens. good bokeh, light, f2.8, not too expensive at $1.5k. with a 11-22mm, I cover 22-400mm at f2.8-3.5. now of course I have to decide which to keep. the s3pro or oly. Last edited by wind30; 30th January 2006 at 06:57 PM.

30th January 2006	#3
Cheesecake Senior Member Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: I live in a haunted house!!!!! Posts: 12,835	Re: my thoughts on the s3pro and E1 PM me if u wanna get rid of ur S3Pro. __________________ You'll Never Walk Alone! 初恋的感觉杀很大!

30th January 2006	#4
NMSS_2 Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Northen part of Sing a pore Posts: 2,010	Re: my thoughts on the s3pro and E1 nice review. you dont review image after taking a shot? 17-55 is a lot more sharper than a general usage lens like 18-200 VR. __________________ My Wordpress Blog Flickr

30th January 2006	#7
hammer_400 Member Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: Sg Posts: 692	Re: my thoughts on the s3pro and E1 hehe.. the s3 pro has a very nice n sharp lcd rite... re: noise, i think most of the other dslrs like nikon/pentax/KM all are just as bad, just that they have more/better jpg NR btw fwiw sigma has a 18-50 f2.8, dat is if u decide to keep the s3

31st January 2006	#9
Hacker Senior Member Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Cyberspace Posts: 3,023	Re: my thoughts on the s3pro and E1 Can we have some photos and see the comparison side by side?

30th January 2006	#2
nightpiper Member Join Date: Oct 2003 Posts: 1,798	i think if u shoot RAW & use Fuji HyperUtility software, u can get more details than jpg from camera. one reminder, the S3pro will not be able to meter with the new F-mount Zeiss lens. so u r pretty much stuck with newer Nikkors or 3rd party. hhhmmm... keep both. they r good with diff things. (ps. what about colours?)

31st January 2006	#12
Raptor1 Member Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: EAST of Singapore Posts: 561	Re: my thoughts on the s3pro and E1 Seems to me from your posts that you are geared towards your Oly setup. But found in the BnS that you are selling your Oly setup and keeping your Fuji S3. Any particular reasons? __________________ E-500,FL-36,14-45,40-150,12-60SWD,50-200SWD

5th February 2006	#15
wind30 Deregistered Join Date: Mar 2004 Posts: 2,929	Re: my thoughts on the s3pro and E1 here is one of the major reason why I am thinking of getting a new s3pro if the price drops. I see SOOO MANY burnt out skies in my pictures. Many times when u are travelling, you reach a landmark where the sun is in the wrong place. So if you shoot it, you usually end up with burnt out skies and there is nothing much you can do about it. You can shoot multiple exposures but that requires tripod. I posted the following on the tech, review forum. ------------------- I just did some photoshop work to show the dynamic range of s3pro. All images are taken from ONE raw file. Developed using ACR +0.3EV developed at -3.0EV. S3pro can do pretty well even up to -4EV .... Final merged output using tutorial at luminous landscape. What amazed me is the details and the quality of the highlights recovered. The color graduations are there. S3pro stores 28bits of raw information per pixel...