Steve's Conclusion

Putting the S1 and D1 into the same category is rather like trying to compare the Nikon N60 and Nikon F100. One was made for consumers and the other is built to the much stricter requirements of the working professional photographer. The S1's body is constructed of high-impact plastic where the D1 uses metal and has environmental seals to make it highly resistant to dirt and moisture. The S1 is physically smaller and lighter and lacks the D1's portrait grip and large battery compartment. The S1 was not made to be "war-zone rugged" camera like the D1. For the non-pro user the S1 being smaller and lighter equates to a camera that's easier to tote around.

Another thing that seperates the two cameras is that the S1 cannot use the newest Nikkor AF-S series lenses in autofocus mode. These lenses use electrical contacts to pass voltage to the internal focusing motors and processor and to relay data from the lens back to the camera's processor and exposure system. The S1 Pro and N60 cameras rely on a mechanical autofocus drive mechanism. You can however use the AF-S lenses but only in manual focus mode. You will receive the green LED Focus-OK confirmation in the viewfinder when the lens has been properly focussed.

Photojournalists, especially sports shooters expect their cameras to be capable of high-speed burst mode capture. The Nikon D1 can capture continuously at 3.5fps up to a maximum of 20 shots before the camera needs to write out the buffered image data. The S1 in Sports mode can capture a maximum of 5 frames at a rate of about 1.5fps. For the average user or even a studio pro I don't see this as much of a limitation but for a sports shooter it's the main reason to stick with the D1 or the Kodak DCS pro cameras.

Exposure metering is always matrix mode unless the camera is set to "M"anual mode or when the AE lock is used. In these instances the S1 will use center-weighted averaging as the only metering option. Unlike the D1 you cannot choose what metering mode you want to use, these are automatically selected depending on the recording mode. It also does not have the multi-zone focusing capability of the D1.

Now that we've got those points out of the way let's get on with the features because the S1 is loaded with them. The S1 accepts the large number of Nikon F-mount lenses available from Nikon and third-party lens manufacturers. It uses Nikon-compatible flash units in full TTL thanks to the dedicated flash hot shoe. It does not take benefit of the "DX" part of the Nikon SB-28DX however so save some money and buy the SB-28 instead. Adjustable ISO sensitivity from 320 all the way up to 1600, Shutter speeds from 30 to 1/2000 seconds and it uses both SmartMedia and CompactFlash Type I or II cards including the 170MB, 340MB, 512MB or 1GB IBM Microdrive.

Fujifilm puts its proprietary 1.1-inch SuperCCD imager to good use in the S1 Pro and delivers up to 3042x2016-pixel (6.1 megapixel) images. Fuji's new and different approach to CCD technology uses octagonal-shaped photodiodes positioned 45-degrees apart from each other. By using this "honeycomb" pattern the SuperCCD offers a wider dynamic range and a lower signal-to-noise ratio which ultimately delivers a sharper and more natural looking color image. The largest size image the S1 produces is from interpolating the sensor data and many people felt that Fuji was "cheating" when they did this with the FinePix 4700 Zoom. The actual imager resolution of the S1 is 3.4 megapixels which is slightly higher than the D1 at 2.7 megapixels. The plain fact of the matter is that all single-sensor digital cameras must do a certain amount of interpolation to create the final image.

There's no doubt that the S1 delivers an impressive looking image, the proof is on my sample pictures page. Many of us that have used both the S1 and D1 will comment that the S1 produces better "people" pictures or that it requires little to no post-processing in the computer. The single biggest complaint among D1 users is that caucasian people tended to come out very magenta-biased and always needed a lot of software massaging. Not so with the S1, skin tones are very natural looking and vibrant, it is an excellent portrait camera.

The S1 Pro gives you a lot of control over the image capture process with single frame, continuous and multiple exposure recording modes. Exposure modes include Program AE, Auto-Multi Program, Shutter and Aperture Priority modes, full Manual and Variable Program modes for portrait, landscape, close-up, sport and night scenes. You can capture and store images in three sizes; 3040x2016, 2304x1536 or 1440x960 and in TIFF-RGB, TIFF-YC or JPEG. The JPEG images can be compressed with three different quality levels; Fine, Normal or Basic.

You have a great deal of control over the in-camera processing of the captured images. The Color settings available are Standard, High (higher density), Org (lower density than standard for post processing) and Black and White. The Tone option alters the amount of image contrast, options are Standard, Hard or Org. And finally there is the Sharpness options of Standard, Hard or Off. For those who like to experiment the S1 has a multi-exposure setting as well but I think these kind of images are better created after capture with a program like PhotoShop.

Exposure metering is 3D Matrix when using the "D" type Nikkor AF lenses or 6-segment Matrix with non-D-type AF or AI-P Nikkor lenses. This will default to center-weighted averaging when in Manual mode or when using the AE lock. The user has a 3 EV range of exposure compensation adjustable in 1/3 EV increments. White balance options include Auto, Fine (sunny), Shade (cloudy), incandescent, three settings for flourescent and a custom mode for manually measuring the white point.

Unlike the other "pro" cameras, the S1 Pro has a builtin USB port to transfer the image data to the host computer. As I've already mentioned the S1 Pro has both SmartMedia and CompactFlash Type II card slots so it can use a wide variety of storage devices. The S1 is powered by four AA size batteries for the digital portion of the camera and uses two 2CR5 lithium batteries for the regular camera functions. There is also a small lithium "button" battery that maintains the time and date information and the camera memory settings. Battery life is dependant on how much you use the 2-inch color LCD for review or menu operations. You won't find yourself using those menus all that often thanks to the secondary data LCD and associated control buttons on the back that let you change most all of the S1's recording features.

If you were unhappy with the somewhat limited LCD playback options on other "pro" cameras you're going to love the S1 which acts more like a consumer digicam in that respect. The 200,000-pixel color LCD is large, bright and very readable. Reviewing images on the large 2-inch color LCD is quick and you have the ability to magnify the images up to 19x in many, many steps. There's a histogram function for all three primary colors plus the main channel so you can always be sure that you have captured the proper dynamic range. To quickly locate stored images you use the four- or nine-segment thumbnail display and jump to the desired image. Images can be played back on television monitors with either NTSC or PAL output. One very nice feature is that you can quickly return back to recording mode while in playback by simply tapping the shutter button.

Enough techno-babble already ... how does it work?  It works like a dream!

I was really quite surprised by how well the S1 Pro worked. I had high expectations going in and was rarely disappointed by the S1's performance. The primary lens used was the Nikkor 24-120mm F3.5 zoom which is a fairly recent AF-D "smart" lens. The S1 focussed almost as fast as my D1 and the only thing missing was the multi-zone focussing and that didn't seem to matter as the shots kept coming out sharp and colorful without it. The S1 had no problem keeping up with me in Sports mode as I panned and shot sequential pictures of the maniacal jetski riders at the beach. The image quality was excellent even in JPEG format so after my first few experiments I didn't bother much with the TIFF mode again. What will really blow you away is the S1's low-light performance, it is nothing short of amazing. I couldn't believe how noise-free twenty and thirty second exposures were.

The S1 comes with a 16MB SmartMedia card which is not going to get you very far. We used the S1 extensively with the 340MB IBM Microdrive and Delkin's 224MB CompactFlash Type II card. With the release of the new 1GB Microdrive the 340MB drives are now available for around $200 which makes them the best bang for the buck in large storage devices for the S1. Besides a bigger flash card you'll want to pack several sets of AA size NiMH batteries as well as a spare set or two of the one-use CR123 lithium batteries. The power to run the S1's popup flash, metering and autofocus systems comes from the CR123 batteries, not the AA's. Battery life is good to excellent, especially once you realize that the camera is working the way it should and use the color LCD less and less.

I would have no problem in recommending the S1 Pro to anyone who wants a camera that will let them shoot pictures as easily as if they were using a 35mm SLR. With Nikkor AF-D lenses the autofocus is very quick and extremely accurate. The exposure under available light conditions or when using the builtin or external dedicated flash was very close to dead-on every time. It looks, feels and operates like a film camera but you have the immediacy of digital imaging at your command. In-field review lets you know in a split-second if the exposure or composition was what you expected and if it isn't, just shoot it again. Unless you require high-speed capture faster than 1.5fps or the ruggedness of the D1 class of pro cameras I think the Fujifilm S1 Pro will be an excellent choice for the advanced amateur or professional alike.

Second opinion on the Fuji S1
by Bettina & Uwe Steinmueller
(Digital Outback Photo)

If I would have been able to buy a S1 at $2700 (including 1GB Microdrive) in March 2000 this would be probably everything I was dreaming of. But at that time there was only the Nikon D1 at $5000 available in the category of digital SLRs which I could afford (The Kodak's DCS cameras were way up in price, weight and size). Still today the D1 is without competition if it comes to the mechanical part of the body and once you know to use the D1 (especially in RAW mode) it can match all digital SLRs below $5000 also in terms of image quality. Why do I write about the D1 in a S1 review. First this is the camera we have to measure against all the new digital SLRs and second I now use a D1 for about 1 year. So my opinion is strongly biased by my in depth knowledge of the D1.

The Fuji S1 has a very good CCD and produces quite film like photos. Some claim that this is more correct than a D1 can produce but this is probably more a matter of taste than a fact. Film is often not very correct when it comes to color, but I loved Kodachrome 25 because photos showed great expressiveness and other use Velvia for exactly the same reason. Also you have to spend a lot of time with the D1 photos to match the S1 results. It is much easier to get good results from the S1 than from a D1. If you want to minimize your work in Photoshop and own Nikon lenses this is the camera of choice.

Here are my two major complaints: No RAW format you have to use a very inefficient TIF format (space on CF cards and long time needed to write the photos in the camera) 8bit color depth limits your capabilities in Photoshop. This is only an issue if you need to do major corrections to your photos. Nikon AF-S lenses don't work in AF mode all our best zooms AF-S17-35mm, AF-S35-70mm, AF-S 80-200 + TC-14E, VR 80-400 don't work either in AF or VR. This is not an issue if you don't own these lenses and don't need AF-S. There are many good Nikon non AF-S lenses Summary: The S1 delivers good color and is a great travel camera at the current price (street price $2700 including 1 GB Microdrive). Read also our full review at Digital Outback Photo and the different view of Rich Shelton.