Fujifilm S5 is here
 

This is the week where we see everybody come out with guns a blazin' for Photokina. Here we have Fuji offering up a little something.
http://www.fujifilmusa.com/JSP/fuji/...oProductS5.jsp
It is the sucessor to the S3 (I heard the no. 4 was bad luck or something, so they skipped it).

Key Features:

-12.3 MegaPixels (S – 6.17MP, R – 6.17MP)

-Three new Film Simulation Modes were added for improved reproduction of natural skin tones

-New Real Photo Processor Pro unleashes the full potential of Super CCD SR Pro Technology

-New Facial Detection Technology (Post capture Face Zoom allows the photographer to easily and quickly zoom in and confirm facial detail such as focus and exposure on the LCD monitor.)

-New commercial grade durable metal alloy frame with password protected feature lockouts

-Nikon F-mount compatibility for full functionality with all Nikkor AF-D/G and the lastest AF-S optics

-New dual cycle noise reduction algorithms for pristine pictures at 3200 ISO (ISO range from 100 – 3200)

-More Dynamic Range settings from 100% to 400%

-New RAW + Jpeg simultaneous shooting option

-New high precision i-TTL flash control

-New exclusive Li-Ion rechargeable battery

-Compact Flash™ (CF) Card (Type Ⅰ/Ⅱ) and Microdrive™ compatible

Looks nice. How much? How is the lens? Super-sharp, etc etc?

The pricing hasn't been officially announced yet.
There's speculation ranging from 1600 to 2500.
IMO, it doesn't look like it should be more than 2 grand.
I'm not aware of a new lens. It's Nikon F mount, so the choice of quality glass is always there.
Their next camera, assuming it features the OCMOS sensor they have under development should really blow everything else away.
Discussion on OCMOS

DPreview just posted on the release.
http://www.dpreview.com/news/0609/06...ifilms5pro.asp

"The S5 Pro features the same SuperCCD SR design sensor although now called 'SR Pro', it features 6.17 million 'S photodiodes' (normal DR) and 6.17 million 'R photodiodes' (highlight DR) for a total photodiode count of 12.34 million. Other headline improvements are the new body (which is obviously based on the Nikon D200) and all that includes; better AF, i-TTL flash, metering, Lithium-Ion battery. Other improvements include better DR control, up to ISO 3200 sensitivity and LAN / WiFi accessories."

I wonder what the frame rates will be and why they don't offer a Canon EOS mount version.

Frame rates:
• Standard Din. Range: Max. 3 fps
- 52 JPEG
- 24 RAW

• Wide Din: range: Max. 1.5 fps
- 40 JPEG
- 11 RAW

And as far as using another mount, that would be difficult considering the entire body and other features like iTTL flash and metering system, AF system, etc. are supplied directly from Nikon. It's a unique arrangement between the two, and I don't know if Fuji has any interest in involving Canon or the other way around.
IMO, Fuji is only making these cameras as in field R&D cameras to test their sensor technology. And Nikon will serve as one of the beneficiaries of this development as it matures. If Fuji were really trying to make an impact they'd have devoted more resources to it by this point and at least expanded into offering three separate DSLR models.
The same thing can be said for Sigma, but they also have lenses to sell to other manufacturers so...
I think this could be the third and final stage in Fuji perfecting this type of sensor and will advance on to OCMOS development, and then license out the SSR CCD to Nikon for use in their DSLRs.

Jacob:

Do you know what is the RAW file size in Wide DR for the S5?

In the S3 is 25Mbs...ouch!

I wonder if they gonna bring something like Nikon's Compressed Nef to make the Raw files smaller...
especially if the S5 will offer RAW-JPEG shotting mode.

Cesar Rubio.

Cesar,
I don't know if those specs have been released yet.
And honestly, none of the specs previously mentioned are actually final.
Even though these specs are widely reported and have been confirmed by Fuji, they aren't necessarily committing to them.
They could unexpectedly change it as they've done in the past when transitioning from the S2 to the S3.
Even though they should have a solution for making the Wide DR RAW files more manageable, I don't think there's any way of getting around it.
All that precious data serves to give tons of elbow space in post processing for highlight and shadow detail. They can’t just throw it away, it’s practically the only thing they’ve got going for them with that sexy sensor.
Eh, we'll see soon enough.

Jacob:
You mean the 14 bit raw output?

Is 14 bit twice as 12 bit?

Somebody said that 12 bit is double the data output of a 10 bit sensor...is that right?

Thanks.
Cesar Rubio.

Every bit potentially adds a stop, since the capture is linear. After that it is gamma-encoded. I say potentially since the number of bits you have is an upper limit on what can be represented, but does not necessarily equal the dynamic range of the sensor.

I would buy this if I had the money and did not already have an investment in Canon lenses. Plus I want full-frame...

An update to the S5 specs has been released via DPreview

Jacob:

Thanks for the info.
I was hoping they would address the file size with some form of RAW lossless compression, but they are letting things untouched from the S3 in this regard.

That prevented me from buying this camera 2 years ago, along with the slow speed of RAW files from the CF card to the camera (Even with a SanDisk Extreme III card ), but the good thing is that they've increased the buffer capacity in the S5 as a standard feature and not as a later upgrade, and hopefully since the Extreme III comes as a standard with the camera the speed for transfer files will be faster.
(before it was faster to transfer in a Fujifilm XD standar card than any card available at the time, for example it took 8 second to transfer a 25MB RAW file with a Fuji XD card to the camera and with a Extreme III took 13 seconds)

Now is a matter of time waiting for the price and availability of the camera to see if it's worth changing my recently upgrade of my 2 Nikon D70 to D70s for the S5.

Cesar Rubio.

This is big news for wedding photographers with hundreds and hundreds of photos to process. Hopefully you can shoot bright and rich right off the camera! Time is money.