| I’ve been using two
of the most popular digital SLRs in the studio for several
months: the Fuji FinePix S2 Pro and the Nikon D100. I’ll
not belabor you with arcane technical info. This can be found,
in excruciating detail, at dozens of websites. I’m interested
in their usability as studio cameras and the quality of images
they produce. Suffice it to say that both are six megapixel
digital SLRs based on the Nikon N80 film body, and both use
Nikon autofocus lenses. Both have built-in flashes that are
superfluous for studio use, and both can produce excellent
images.
Here is my “walk-through” on the
practicalities of these cameras in everyday use. |
| The setup:
Both cameras have a conventional hot shoe for a studio flash
trigger, so I can use my Wein
infra-red Pro-Sync 1 on either camera. (Oddly, the Nikon
lacks a conventional sync-cord connector: so an adapter is
needed if your setup cannot use the hot shoe.). Both cameras
have a slow shutter sync speed (1/125th on the Fuji, 1/180th
on the Nikon) - a heritage of the N80 body. ISO ranges from
100-1600 on the Fuji, and 200-6400 on the Nikon. I prefer
having the 100 ISO for shallow depth-of-field shots, but its
absence hasn’t been a significant handicap. Shutter
and aperture settings are straightforward, and both cameras
can use either a Microdrive or a Compact Flash card for storage.
The Fuji can also accommodate SmartMedia cards.
The battery arrangements for the two cameras are very different.
The Fuji has a curious design in which the camera is powered
by four AA rechargeable batteries while its internal flash
uses two non-rechargeable Li-ion CR123 batteries. For studio
work, the CR123s are unnecessary and I haven’t bothered
installing them. Using 2000 mA rechargeable AA NiMH batteries
to power the camera, I can routinely do a two or three-hour
shoot with the Fuji before swapping batteries.
One virtue of AA cells is that their capacity is constantly
improving, giving your camera newer and better power options
as time goes on. The capacity of the cells is ever-increasing,
with 2200 mA per cell now common, and General Electric has
a new line of cells with built-in thermal switches that allow
their charger to blast special cells up to full charge in
15 minutes. Thomas
Distributing carries a huge array of such cells and their
website is an excellent source of battery information.
The Nikon camera comes with a single custom rechargeable
Li-ion battery but also has the ability to use six AA batteries
in an optional grip which screws onto the bottom of the camera.
The grip is excellent, and the AA batteries do offer very
long shoot times. But I find the custom Nikon battery has
amazing longevity. I can shoot a three-hour session and fill
a one-gigabyte card with 400 images on a single charge of
the Nikon battery. So, although I have the optional grip,
I seldom use AA batteries in the Nikon.
The shoot:
Neither viewfinder is wonderful. Both deliver a small image
compared to the Nikon F5s and F100s I once used. With the
Fuji especially, I find myself looking around the viewfinder
to check the expression on the model’s face.
The optional grip is a valuable plus for the Nikon. In addition
to AA battery support, it offers duplicate camera controls
for shooting with the camera held vertically. It also offers
a voice recording function which I am sure precisely seven
people in the Western Hemisphere must use. Both cameras “feel”
right and handle well. |
| A side note: Neither camera
is well suited for the “instant-review” of images
on an external monitor, which I outlined in my first column.
The D100 lacks the FireWire port of the D1x, so the uploading
of images is slow, and the Fuji, while featuring a FireWire
port, has rudimentary remote-control software without the
compliment of features of the superb Nikon Capture software.
Reviewing a shot:
My normal working style is to shoot both hand-held and from
a camera stand, and to check every tenth picture on the camera
screen for composition and histogram. This is straightforward
with the Nikon, but less easy with the Fuji. The Fuji has
an irritating habit of displaying the saved picture for only
two seconds after which I must push a button to retrieve the
image from the hard drive. This slows me down. You can set
the Fuji to not save the photo and only display it on the
screen until you push a button, but if you don’t push
that button after each shot, the image is lost. Not good.
In this mode, I guarantee you will lose images.
In general, the Nikon has easier to use rear-panel controls,
but neither camera’s operations present much difficulty.
The images:
I could go on forever here discussing the fine points of
the six-megapixel digital image. Let me relate one story.
My friend, Frank Atura, is on the photography faculty of the
Ringling College of Art and Design in Sarasota. I frequently
shoot with Frank and several weeks ago, I loaned him the Fuji
S2 which he subjected to detailed, controlled tests, against
equivalent images produced by a Nikon F3 on several brands
of slide film. On reviewing side-by-side 9"x13"
prints from the test, we agreed: the images were very close,
with the film producing slightly better color balance and
the Fuji being a hair sharper and having less “grain/noise”
than the film images. This experience convinced me that, for
all practical purposes, digital had arrived.
That being said, I have had one practical problem with the
Fuji's images: the appearance, also reported by others, of
moire patterns on fine lines in the photos. For example, photographing
a blonde model against a plain background produces artificial
colors in the fine strands of her hair.
And I have a problem with the Nikon’s images, specifically,
their white balance. The automatic white balance function
of the camera is easily fooled and the “flash”
and 3200K settings are, at best, very approximate. Compounding
this problem is that setting a custom white balance on the
D100 - the camera holds only one custom white balance setting
- is comically difficult.
My conclusions: Either camera is perfectly usable for studio
glamour. Any battery and storage issues are, for my uses,
essentially solved. It is a given that image resolution will
be better with the next generation of these cameras. However,
we could certainly use improvement in the viewfinders (especially
in the Fuji) and white balance functions (especially in the
Nikon.)
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