I had a really cool opportunity to own a Fuji S200EXR, regarded by a lot of hobbyist to be one of the greatest prosumer camera currently available. I bought the camera to test it's capabilities, how good can it be. On paper it is so amazing, 14x zoom and all these technological wizardry to make you want it. The 800% dynamic range is so cool on review sites, on how it preserves the highlight details and keeping the shadow details intact. I never believe review sites...or should I say I seldom believe their findings. There are cameras I currently own that were reviewed badly by a lot of these sites but these cameras I kept because they are amazing cameras. Reviews are opinions and sometimes these opinions are driven by certain bias to a brand...lets face it some brands are just favored more. To me a brand of a camera has nothing to do on how good or how consistently good their products. This camera I just had to test it!
I only spent a day with this camera and it already is not a very favorable camera to use. The camera produces amazing images and rightfully deserves the praises it gets from various places, with some exceptions. To me one key important part of a camera would be its' ergonomics...how well it feels. People might really call me stupid because after all it's the camera's capabilities to create great images matters. Well to me...I agree to that to a point... yes image quality is very important but if a camera doesn't feel inspiring to use...or just straight forward awkward to use...then it gets put aside. No doubt that if this is your only camera or your only back-up camera then it will be fine. For me...I literally have more than a dozen cameras to choose from in my gear shelf...and it is so important to buy a camera that will perform as good or better than what I currently own. I have lots of cameras but I never keep mediocre cameras...I test them rigorously to determine if they would be something I can use and not regret using.
Ergonomics is so important because it's a personal matter if it feels good or not using it. One of my all time favorite cameras is the Olympus E1...not only because of the miraculous 5mp CCD it has that produces 30x40" enlargements better than some of my 8-10mp cameras including DSLRs, but also because of it's amazing ergonomics. It makes me want to use it more and more...if this body is image stabilized I might actually use it more than my Olympus E3. In the case of this Fuji camera... ergonomics is OK but I need more than just OK to keep it. I need a camera that would be inspiring to use...I rather use my Sony DSC-F828 or my Olympus C8080 over this Fuji. The Fuji just feels flimsy...like it can't take hard use, even though I take care of my gear there are days that these machines gets treatment that flimsy cameras would fail. The Fuji s200EXR is amazing for the grip feel but the whole camera is so light(for me)...it just didn't feel right to use. And I actually just bought a Fuji s9000 a few weeks ago and that camera I kept because it feels right and the ability to use AA batteries is an asset.
Lets go on to the actual meat of the camera...its' image quality. Is it as good as all these reviews....???
For me...it is not that amazing...it is so so... I love the 800% dynamic range option but it is only at 6mp and it is a bit too noisy for me. This camera exhibits image noise at its' base ISO, the images are quite soft and with the 800% dynamic range adjustment the noise shows more as I try to sharpen it...so the combination of 6mp and a noisy image doesn't really add up to a very promising camera. All these things would be trivial if you really don't sell your images to collectors or display it in galleries. If all you need is 11x14" or the odd 16x20" image then this camera is more than enough providing you keep it at lower ISOs. But if you will be enlarging it to 18x24", 20x30", 30x40" this camera is not the camera you need. I rather have my Olympus C8080 for those kind of enlargements...this old technology delivers sharp and punchy natural looking colors out of the camera and I can use 200ISO most of the time...the Fuji s200EXR is weak compared to it. Soft images off this camera is so soft that I need to unsharp mask it quite a bit to match the C8080 output...and the files doesn't look as good as the C8080 even with post processing done to it. The C8080 files off the camera looks much nicer...and if you post process it, it looks AMAZING. If you compare this s200 to the older s9000... I would still pick the s9000, because it uses AA batteries..good for those remote locations I might be going to(hahahaha...as if). Seriously the s9000's files are much nicer off the camera...true that the dynamic range is not as good as the s200exr but it can never be all about that. The s9000 produces cleaner files at base ISO(which I use most of the time with these prosumers due to the limitation of the sensor size), the images are sharper and the colors are just as good.
Will I keep the s200exr??? Well still debating on that...but more than likely not...Here's some fine art photos I created with it on my first day with it.
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