FinePix S3 Pro

The Fujifilm FinePix S3 Pro is an interchangeable lens digital single-lens reflex camera introduced in February 2004. [cite press release | url = http://www.fujifilmusa.com/JSP/fuji/epartners/PRNewsDetail.jsp?DBID=NEWS_708657 | title = Fujifilm introduces eagerly anticipated FinePix S3 Pro professional digital camera
publisher = Fuji Photo Film Co., Ltd. | date = 2004-02-05 ] Its successor, the Finepix S5 Pro, was released on 2006-09-25. It is based on a Nikon F80 (N80 in the U.S.) viewfinder, shutter, mirror-box and autofocus modules surrounded by a Fujifilm body that includes its own proprietary CCD image sensor and electronics, and a vertical grip shutter release. It has a Nikon F lens mount and can use most lenses made for 35 mm Nikon SLR cameras, but only with manual operation on many of the older lenses no longer in production.

It is autofocusing and has an electronically controlled focal plane shutter with speeds from 30 sec. to 1/4000 sec. with x-flash synchronization at 1/180 sec. It has built-in exposure metering with spot, center weighted and evaluative modes and pop-up flash. Its ISO film speed equivalents ranged from 100 - 1600. The camera is currently in production.

The camera's principal distinction is its 23mm x 15.5mm photo sensor. Designated the Super CCD SR, it is unique in two ways. First, like its predecessors used in the earlier FinePix S1 Pro and FinePix S2 Pro, it has its photodiodes oriented diagonally rather than horizontally and vertically as in all other DSLR cameras. This allows the use of a sophisticated interpolation system that produces an output image equivalent to 12.1 megapixels. The apparent resolution of images in this interpolated mode lay somewhere between 6.17 megapixels and the 12.34 megapixel interpolated output.

Second, it uses two photodiodes in each photo site, one with the normal sensitivity of a CCD sensor and the other that is smaller and less sensitive. The purpose of this scheme is to provide greater resistance to the gross overexposure of highlights which is more common among digital cameras than film cameras.

Ultraviolet/infrared version

On 2006-08-09, Fujifilm announced [http://www.fujifilmusa.com/JSP/fuji/epartners/PRPrintableNewsDetail.jsp?DBID=NEWS_857003] a variation of the S3 Pro capable of photographing in the ultraviolet and (principally) infrared spectra, the Fujifilm FinePix S3 Pro UVIR. [http://www.fujifilmusa.com/JSP/fuji/epartners/proPhotoProductS3UVIR.jsp]

References

* [http://www.popphoto.com/cameras/3409/field-test-fujifilm-finepix-s3-pro-uvir.html?print_page=y Fujifilm FinePix S3 Pro UVIR review ]