Digital-SLR Reviews

I have had my D-100 for six months, having used a Coolpix 5700 for two years, and I am satisfied but not ecstatic. My first 20 shots were underexposed, lacked color depth, and were short on flash. After adjusting the settings through the menu, it came to life. You can control this machine in any way you can imagine, but experienced buffs all know that the lens is the most important ingredient.
Your choice of lenses, being aware of the 1.5 correction factor--which Nikon Tech Serv says applies to all DX Lenses also--will determine how you use this precision instrument. My old Nikon lenses worked well for a few months, but my 35-70 Zoom (53-105 actual)was not adequate, because I had gotten used to the great range of my Coolpix. For me, this meant an 18-35 Zoom (27-53 actual) and a 24-120 Zoom (36-180 actual) The latter has proven to be fantastic, and all but the wild wide angle crowd will be happy with this choice. Indoors and close quarters will favor the 18-35 Zoom, but mine remains boxed.
This is no lightweight to haul around, but the photo perfection is worth the effort!

I'll be the first to tell you I'm no professional but so far this camera has been amazing. For the past four years my wife and I have been using the Nikon N60 and it has more than met our needs. My decision to switch to digital was based on 2 important points. First, we found 16 undeveloped roles of film around the house. After realizing it would cost well over a hundred dollars to develop them and I know we won't like at least half the shots, we decided we needed to move to digital. Now with the D100 I can pick-and-choose exactly which shots I keep, retouch, crop etc then download them to someone like Walmart.com. For exactly the same price I end up with the exact pictures I want. Up to now I refused to get a digital because the N60 takes such beautiful shots. Past digital cameras' shutter lag was so bad you'd have to predict where a moving subject is going to be when you hit the button. What sealed the deal for us is the D100 has no noticable lag, and it uses all the lenses we already had for the N60.

The D100 looks and feels just like my old N60 only lighter. It acts and sounds just like a 35mm SLR, the camera internals are the same except with a sensor in place of the film strip. In fact a co-worker, and long time digital user, was checking it out and couldn't figure out why it was "all blurry" when he looked through the view finder. He also had a hard time finding the "zoom button".

I highly recommend this camera. If you were reluctant to switch to digital because you loved your old SLR then this is definetly the replacement for you.

This is an awesome digital picture-taking machine, which heralds the imminent death of 35 mm film. The D-100 does pretty much everything that a high-end film SLR does, and it does it beautifully. A 512MB CF card will enable the D100 to take hundreds of high-quality pictures that are indistinguishable in quality from those taken with film. The Six-megapixel images in Large/Fine or RAW mode are quite competitive with their film counterparts for almost all purposes. The advantage of digital, of course, is that the consumer, equipped with pretty much any computer, can process and print the pictures him or her self with far more power and flexibility than one had in a darkroom processing film. The digital darkroom has arrived.

The D100 can use Nikon's entire line of autofocus lenses and many of the older manual focus lenses, allowing the photographer to easily migrate from film to digital. The camera has spot, matrix, and center-weighted exposure options, a programmed mode, apature priority or speed priority, as well as all of the manual options. Autofocus is crisp, fast, and works very well in low light. This camera is nearly as powerful in terms of its focusing and exposure options as the Nikon F5, which is the film camera I used for years before replacing my F5 with the D100.

Perhaps the greatest testimonial for the D100 is that it is notorious that the vast majority of photographers who I know who have bought a D100 never (or at least rarely) shoot film ever again.

The D100 takes OK shots right out of the camera, but to get best results most photographers will want to "process" the pictures through either Nikon's own program "Capture 3" or an aftermarket program like Adobe Photoshop or Photoshop Elements. I and probably most others have found that some of the post-processing settings on these programs really improve the images produced by the D100. This is a deliberate design "feature" of the D100 in that the D100 anticipates that serious photographers wish to retain a certain amount of control over their images. Accordingly, rather than making all of the decisions for you, the D100 produces images for which final exposure and contrast decisions can and should be made in a post-processing program such as Adobe Photoshop Elements or Capture 3. That having been said, the D100 can and does produce fine images without using a post-processing program. But almost all users have probably found that the best results are achieved by using such a program. In my opinion this is true of pretty much all of the high-end digital cameras out there, and is not confined to the D100. This is the power of digital photography--the photographer, at little cost (a low-end PC and $100-200 program are all that are required) can have a powerful "digital darkroom" which yields tremendous control over how the images turn out.

Physically, the D100 is ruggedly built. The rear LCD is bright and clear. The menu systems on the D100 are very well designed and quite intuitive--after familiarizing myself with the manual for several hours, I now find that I do not need to refer to the manual at all even for very complex "custom" situations. The menus are not overly "layered" as is the case with some digital cameras. The on-board flash is fine for snapshot portraits and the like, but most serious users will want to spring for either the SB-50DX or the SB-80DX flash, both of which are more or less designed for the D100.

Negatives on the camera are few. I mentioned above the post-processing issue, which in my mind is not a negative, but instead is just Nikon giving the photographer as much power and flexibility as possible. The matrix metering is not as powerful on the D100 as on the top-of-the-line F5, inasmuch as in tricky lighting situations the D100s center-weighted or spot metering will sometimes yield better results. Having said that, after several hours of experimenting I can now confidently take consistently good pictures with the D100 in fill-flash conditions. In common with the exposure issues, the D100 more or less requires photographers who want very "sharp" images to apply "sharpness" post-processing. Most of us have probably found that this produces better results than setting the sharpening in-camera, for reasons that exceed the scope of this review.

By the way, the battery life in the D100 is phenomenal. The on-board proprietary Nikon battery lets you take many hundreds of pictures, and serious shooters can buy at modest cost the MD-100 accessory which lets you shoot with either 2 Nikon batteries or a bunch of AAs. Either way this allows you to literally shoot all weekend likely without needing to recharge. The Nikon batteries recharge in a bit over an hour.

For good reason the D100, retailing now (October 2003) below $1,500, has put powerful digital photography in the hands of serious amateurs. It is a well-designed and sturdy camera that is a delight to own and use.

Perhaps the most annoying thing about using the SD10 is that there is no straightforward answer to the seemingly simple question, "How many megapixels?" Purists claim that it has only 3.4, and Sigma claims 10.2, counting all three colors at each of the 3.4M locations. When people ask (and when they see my prints, they DO ask), I sometimes just say 3.4, leaving them to wonder how I do it. The way I figure, when you save the file at double size, you're getting 13.7 megapixels with the same amount of interpolation on the red and blue channels as a normal camera, and more interpolation on the green channel. However you figure, the resolution is stunning, and with a little care you can make 12" by 18" prints that are as sharp as most eyes can tell.

Pros:

1. The software, especially the "fill light" function will let you quickly massage even your badly exposed pictures.

2. The great resolution.

Cons (I'm spending more space on these because Sigma's text waxes eloquent on most the pros (and they're not lying)):

1. The software. The SD10's only format is a proprietary RAW format, so you need to run everything through their raw converter before you do anything else with it.

2. The kit lenses are OK, but not great. The 18-50 in particular is vulnerable to a lot of chromatic aberration. If you're going to shoot with EX-series lenses (and you really should), you might as well just buy the body.

3. Low light performance is not stellar. ISO 800 is practically unusable, and ISO 400 is dicey.

4. The buffer is not huge, and the write speed is slow. The camera will take only 6 high-resolution shots in burst mode, and after that it can take more than a minute for the camera to recover.

All in all, however, this is a great camera, and if you get it you're likely to one-up all those folks buying digital rebels.

Sigma has a winner with the Foveon chip. Excellent images and far superior to ordinary chip cameras. The best feature of the camera itself, in my opinion, is the ease to which to operate the controls. The controls are very intuitive compared to the other 4 or 5 digitals I have owned or operated. Simplicity is the secret, not a lot of "junk" that will never or rarely be used. I was a professional photographer in the 80's and 90's and always found other digitals too complex even for someone with a comfortable knowledge of photography. The only negative I have found in the month and half I have owned the SD-10 is battery usage. You have the option of using rechargable AA or the CRV-3 batteries. With the AA, I get intermittent operation, something Sigma stated was characteristic of Metal Hydride batteries, especially if new. I'm a little skeptical of that assessment. I did just purchase the CRV batteries to try them. The only other issue I have is that I try to use the camera in a professional setting and there is not a way to get the flash off the camera. I purchase the Sigma DG 500 Super, which is a great flash if you don't need it off the camera. I bought the pc adapter and use it with a Metz 60ct2 flash. It would be nice if they (or someone) would produce a TTL cable or compatable flash. Overall I'm very happy with the camera and hope that more compatable accessories follow.

First off I want to say this is an Amazing Digital SLR.. the picture quality is outstanding.. if your in the market for a pro level digital slr you can't go wrong especially with the 2 lenses that were designed for this camera..

On another note.. amazon's features list is wrong.. the camera doesn't accept xd memory and it doesn't come with a 32 meg card.. its a compact flash format camera.. i'd recommend a 512 meg or higher CF card as it fills up quickly at its highest resolution.. my old 64 meg CF card can take about 6 pictures on its highest resolution.. i've ordered a 1 gig card i'm just waiting for it to ship now..

Perhaps the most annoying thing about using the SD10 is that there is no straightforward answer to the seemingly simple question, "How many megapixels?" Purists claim that it has only 3.4, and Sigma claims 10.2, counting all three colors at each of the 3.4M locations. When people ask (and when they see my prints, they DO ask), I sometimes just say 3.4, leaving them to wonder how I do it. The way I figure, when you save the file at double size, you're getting 13.7 megapixels with the same amount of interpolation on the red and blue channels as a normal camera, and more interpolation on the green channel. However you figure, the resolution is stunning, and with a little care you can make 12" by 18" prints that are as sharp as most eyes can tell.

Pros:

1. The software, especially the "fill light" function will let you quickly massage even your badly exposed pictures.

2. The great resolution.

Cons (I'm spending more space on these because Sigma's text waxes eloquent on most the pros (and they're not lying)):

1. The software. The SD10's only format is a proprietary RAW format, so you need to run everything through their raw converter before you do anything else with it.

2. The kit lenses are OK, but not great. The 18-50 in particular is vulnerable to a lot of chromatic aberration. If you're going to shoot with EX-series lenses (and you really should), you might as well just buy the body.

3. Low light performance is not stellar. ISO 800 is practically unusable, and ISO 400 is dicey.

4. The buffer is not huge, and the write speed is slow. The camera will take only 6 high-resolution shots in burst mode, and after that it can take more than a minute for the camera to recover.

All in all, however, this is a great camera, and if you get it you're likely to one-up all those folks buying digital rebels.

Sigma has a winner with the Foveon chip. Excellent images and far superior to ordinary chip cameras. The best feature of the camera itself, in my opinion, is the ease to which to operate the controls. The controls are very intuitive compared to the other 4 or 5 digitals I have owned or operated. Simplicity is the secret, not a lot of "junk" that will never or rarely be used. I was a professional photographer in the 80's and 90's and always found other digitals too complex even for someone with a comfortable knowledge of photography. The only negative I have found in the month and half I have owned the SD-10 is battery usage. You have the option of using rechargable AA or the CRV-3 batteries. With the AA, I get intermittent operation, something Sigma stated was characteristic of Metal Hydride batteries, especially if new. I'm a little skeptical of that assessment. I did just purchase the CRV batteries to try them. The only other issue I have is that I try to use the camera in a professional setting and there is not a way to get the flash off the camera. I purchase the Sigma DG 500 Super, which is a great flash if you don't need it off the camera. I bought the pc adapter and use it with a Metz 60ct2 flash. It would be nice if they (or someone) would produce a TTL cable or compatable flash. Overall I'm very happy with the camera and hope that more compatable accessories follow.

First off I want to say this is an Amazing Digital SLR.. the picture quality is outstanding.. if your in the market for a pro level digital slr you can't go wrong especially with the 2 lenses that were designed for this camera..

On another note.. amazon's features list is wrong.. the camera doesn't accept xd memory and it doesn't come with a 32 meg card.. its a compact flash format camera.. i'd recommend a 512 meg or higher CF card as it fills up quickly at its highest resolution.. my old 64 meg CF card can take about 6 pictures on its highest resolution.. i've ordered a 1 gig card i'm just waiting for it to ship now..

I have owned a Canon TX and Canon 650 film cameras. I was always very happy with my Canon film cameras. I bought the 10d thinking that I was finally able to get a digital replacement for my old Canon film cameras.

I have now owned my 10d for over a year. The picture quality is only fair. It often selects ISO 100 and gives me fuzzy pictures. The white balance is extremely poor compared with the film cameras. The "full automatic" mode does a poor job of focus and white balance. The "creative" modes are similar to the film cameras but don't seem to work so very well. I am just having a terrible time trying to get the settings right to get good pictures! After a year of trying I am extremely frustrated with it.

Finally, the print pictures I get from it are _always_ too dark. It seems I need to post-process EVERY PICTURE in photoshop to get the gamut correct, or brighten/enhance/correct the photos to make them look right. Argh!

It's all probably user error, but I never had these problems with my old film cameras. If I could easily get PhotoCDs made I would go back to film immediately!

The Canon EOS 10D is my third digital camera. I started years ago with a Nikon 900, then a Casio QV3000, and just got my Canon yesterday.

Immediately the one problem that annoyed me the most about my two previous digital cameras was fixed - no more long delays between pressing the shutter and taking the picture. In fact you can take a rapid series of up to 9 shots which the camera will buffer until it can write them all to compact flash.

Years ago I had a 35mm film version of the Canon EOS, sadly it was stolen. I knew before buying this camera that I was impressed with the quality and ease of use of the Canon EOS series. The autofocus on the 10D is much faster and quieter than my years ago Canon camera. The user interface on this camera is the best I have seen.

One thing I'm not impressed with yet is the automatic white balance, I think my Nikon and Casio both did a better job, but there are options you can select for the EOS white balance, and this sort of thing is easy to tweak later with Irfanview or Photoshop. I'd give the Canon EOS 10D a 10 for ease of use, a 10 for rapid response to shutter button actions, and a 9.5 on photo quality with the 28-90mm f/4-5.6 II USM lens I'm currently using.

If you have been waiting for a top quality 35mm digital SLR at a reasonable price, I'd say the wait is over.

This is one great camera! I owned a D30 before which at the time was an excellent DSLR also.
The 10D's accurate and fast auto-focus is an enormous improvement over the D30 and D60. The magnesium alloy body feels a lot sturdier than previous models. Battery life is almost endless, especially if you use the BG-ED3 battery grip which contains two batteries. Picture quality is almost flawless. Perhaps a little soft right out of the camera, but that's easily remedied in Photoshop. Color rendition is great, particularly if you take the time to build your own color profiles.
For the price you can't go wrong. Spend some of the money you save in buying the 10D instead of a more expensive camera on one of Canon's "L" lenses. You won't regret it.
Unfortunately the Canon software that ships with the 10D sucks. Never mind. Buy a decent RAW file conversion utility like Capture One DSLR LE and keep yourself happy. Believe me, your sanity is worth the $... extra.

I purchased this camera about 3 months ago, it's a great camera and I haven't had 1 problem with it. I bought a few accessories..EX420 Flash, Canon 75-300 lens (there least expensive one, USM & IS wasn't an issue me)<br />

I won't sing the praises of this camera; I could never be as eloquent as the others who have weighed in and I don't use (or even fully understand) most of the fancy features of the camera, preferring to shoot mostly in program mode. However, I've noticed that the other reviewers seem to miss what for me is the most exciting feature of this camera -- the ability to use high quality Canon EF lenses. Put an inexpensive Canon EF 50 mm f/1.8 lens on the Digital Rebel and you will be astonished at the quality of your photos. (This lens can be had for about $70. new.) For example, you'll obtain near professional quality portraits with gorgeous backround blur using a wide aperture. If you are truly interested in photography as a hobby, there is no other way to go -- you must have a camera that can accept interchangable lenses. Primes (fixed focal length) lenses are the least expensive and of superb optical quality. Comparable quality telephoto lenses are far more expensive and they won't be as fast (have as wide an aperture) or as light weight and compact. Photography is completely different with a camera like the Rebel. Once you try it, there is no turning back. It will become apparent that the decision on which camera back to purchase is least important decision you make. Choosing the right lens is the really critical choice. Of course, along with the pleasure comes the pain: you'll soon find yourself lusting after Canon L (professional quality) glass that will set you back thousands at a pop. Enjoy!

If you've been using a digital point-and-shoot for a while and you want to upgrade, you couldn't do any better than this camera. If you can operate a high-end P&S camera, you can operate the Digital Rebel. Simply choose your shooting mode (i.e. closeup, landscape, portrait, sports, etc.), press the shutter button halfway down to autofocus, then press the button all the way down. First you'll notice how fast the autofocus function is: you won't have to worry about missing shots. Then you'll see the photos, and you'll be amazed. If you use the "Large/Fine" setting, you'll have files which easily be printed at 16"x20" without any discernible loss of quality ... try doing THAT with the photos from your 3MP point compact.

But wait, there's more.

You CAN use this camera as a fancy point-and-shoot... or, if you invest a little time and study, you can get creative. The Digital Rebel allows you to control aperature, shutter speed, ISO settings, white balance, autofocus points, etc. It also allows you to use any Canon EF (autofocus) lens -- over sixty at last count. Telephoto lenses, wide-angle lenses, macro lenses which allow extreme closeups ... you're limited only by your imagination, and your accessory budget.

If you already own a film SLR and want to go digital, you're going to love this baby... especially if you own a Canon autofocus SLR. You'll be able to use your old lenses, flashes, and filters, and you'll be saving money on film and developing. Professionals may want to spend the extra $600 or so for the Canon 60D; it allows a bit more flexibility with light metering and has a more sturdy magnesium body which will better withstand the rigors of photojournalism ... but this is more than enough camera for anybody who isn't going to be using it to earn their daily bread.

One last bit of advice: get this one fast. Based on the buzz it's generated in various photo magazines, I'm guessing that the Digital Rebel will be flying off the shelves. Buy now before you get stuck in backorder purgatory.

This camera was the best investment in my photography that I could have imagined. Without the cost and concern of film and processing, I was free to make as many photos as I wanted, and to adjust the settings to learn about the effect of such control. With my EOS lenses, my existing investment was prolonged. I have printed and posted much of my work, and the quality has met or exceeded local labs.

All of the nice things you're hearing about this camera are true. If you already own a camera in the Canon EOS line and are ready to upgrade to digital, this is the path you want to take. It has all the features a sophisticated amateur wants, plus a healthy serving of "professional" features thrown in. And as others have said, all the lenses and most (not all) of the accessories you already have will work with the D30.

There are a few drawbacks, however... For one thing the autofocus relies on an incandescent lamp rather than the infrared found in nearly all other EOS models. This is a curious choice on Canon's part, it almost seems like they didn't throw in professional-quality autofocus for marketing reasons, since there's a true pro-level Canon digital SLR due out later this year.

Another drawback is that the included software, called ZoomBrowser EX, is not that great. It's designed to help you capture, download, and catalog your digital images, but it runs out of steam once your image library grows to a non-trivial size, and if you want to merge databases because you've done collection on another computer, the software more-or-less becomes unusable.

Also, you end up paying a lot more than $3000, even if you already have the lenses from your other Canon EOS camera. First comes the Compact Flash cards (you really need to get at least two of these so you always have a spare). Figure on getting at least two 128MB CF cards, if you really must have a microdrive that will cost you more. Plan on getting an extra battery too. Then there are the Canon accessories, like a better (infrared) autofocus lamp, an electronic timer for long exposures and intervalometer work (which the included remote-capture software does not do well), and you get the idea... you really have to budget $4000.

Having said all that, this camera really is a joy to use, and once you get used to the instant feedback, your shooting skills will improve, and you'll start getting compliments on how good you are. It really *is* that *good* of a camera. Just be warned that you are jumping into the deep end of digital photography if you get this camera. ... ;-).

If you want the ultimate in digital photography, the Canon D30 is the ticket as of December 2000 -- especially if you already own Canon EOS lenses, because they're completely compatible. Canon won't call this a "Pro" camera, because it's not as weather-tight as pro models, but the body is rugged and the output is first-rate.

The D30 has enough features for professional photographers, yet a novice can get great looking pictures from the start. As you learn more about the camera and its capabilities, your images really start to shine.

Want to experiment with long-exposure photography? Go right ahead! Feedback is instant. No more waiting for processing. No more developing costs. Want to blow up your photo to 8x12 inches? No problem. With a little massaging via Adobe Photoshop (tm) and/or Genuine Fractals (tm), even poster-sized prints look great, using photo paper and a photo-quality inkjet printer. Software to get you going, including Photoshop LE, is included.

The D30 accepts IBM Microdrives (1 gigabite of storage in the camera!) as well as compact flash. The included 16 meg flash card is enough to test the camera, but you'll really want to get something bigger, right away. The D30 offers a variety of image compression options -- including the Raw format, which allows the most flexibility and avoids jpeg artifacts. The wide variety of storage options means freedom to shoot at will and experiment. An included cable allows you to connect your camera to your computer's USB port and download images at will.

As I said, all Canon EOS lenses will work with the D30, but there is one difference to consider. Because the CMOS chip is smaller than a 35mm negative, the field of view is different. For example, a 100 mm lens on an EOS film camera works like a 160 mm lens on the D30. They call it a 1.6x multiplier effect, but what it means is that long-distance shooting is easier, and to get wide angle shots, you have to get a REALLY wide lens. For example, a 14mm aspherical wide angle results in a 22mm wide angle shot on the D30.

When the D30 was first released in the Fall of 2000, the demand was far beyond what Canon could produce... in the United States and around the World. As of this writing, the cameras are still in short supply, but well worth the effort and the investment. Kudos to Amazon for adding the D30 to their digital photography offerings.

Having a Konica Minolta DiMage X with which I am very happy, I decided to get this camera when I wanted an 8MP camera with better zoom capability. At first I was unpleasantly surprised with the amount of noise (color specks) showing in the pictures. Later I discovered that by putting the ISO setting on 64 instead of Auto, the noise is greatly reduced. Now I'm basically happy with the camera, but it seems that they should mention this in the documentation. Pictures at the highest ISO settings (400 and 800) are really bad - I guess these settings are there only for extreme low-light situations.

The electronic viewfinder is amazing. I'm nearsighted and have trouble with the LCD display, but I can easily see everything in the viewfinder (including menus and playback of pictures). I just keep the LCD off all the time.

I HAVE PARKINSON'S DESEASE, THIS CAMERA GETS THE SHAKE OUT, AND THE QUAILITY IS GREAT. THE PHOTOS ARE CRISP AND CLEAR. OPERATION IS SIMPLE. WAIT TIL YOU TRY THE VIDEO, THE SOUND AND FILMING IS SIMPLE. LOVE THIS CAMERA!.

If you are interested in taking black-and-white photographs for creative photography, A2 is the perfect choice! As compared to other competitors at the similar price and resolution (8 MP), A2 has the following good features. 1. It has a black-and-white mode. 2. The file can be saved as TIFF for artistic editing without losing resolution after repeated saving. 3. The battery function is satisfied. 4. A2 has a rapid focusing and antishake device.

This is a pretty good bag, sturdy and well made. I was disappointed though, with the closed cell dividers. I can't figure out exactly how to use them to effectively cradle the camera without wasting space. My digital SLR fits well if laid on its side, but the extra compartments will hold only one set of batteries with charger in the front compartment - the side "fishnet" compartments are too small for this purpose and seem too insecure for anything valuable.

I have a Nikon D70 SLR. Normally I have a 28 to 200 lens on the camera. I wanted a bag that would protect the camera and let me carry a few extra items such as memory cards, spare battery and a my eye glasses. This bag is perfect. My camera has to be on its side to fit but that is not a problem. If you have to carry all of your lenses with you everywhere you go then this bag is not for you but if you want simple light weight protection for your camera while out having fun, then this is the bag for you.

A light but very robust camera bag, very protective. Inside you have the chance to layout the space with adjustable divisions.
A bag with many bags. In the sides, in the front and inside for accesories storage.

The Fulifilm Finepix S2 Pro improves greatly on the S1. I shoot very heavily with this camera, several thousand photos a week and beat the hell out of it. Having the Nikon constructed N-80 body helps with it's ruggedness, but it is not as sturdy as the D1-X, however it does capture 12.1 Million MegaPixels. I recommend setting the custom white balance often when attempting to shoot in various lighting conditions to insure optimum accurate colors, otherwise colors may lean toward the red. Also, do not trust what you see in the lcd, believe the metering, the display will tend make you want to push a few stops, which is fine if that is the look you are going for, but at first I blew out alot of shots. The ability to use all of my Nikon lenses is a plus, and there are plent of features to play with, so get a big memory card.
For the price most digital SLR's cannot touch the file sizes you can get with the S2. This camera is almost perfect, except....
IT EATS BATTERIES, EAT'S 'EM! The camera takes 4 AA's in the loading tray,(which is not the strongest of plastic things I have ever seen and cannot believe that I have not broken it while rushing to trade batteries out on a shoot) and 2 $ 123 lithium ions. On a full day shoot I go through at least 2 sets of the lithiums and usually 3 with AA(I do always leave it set to LCD previewwhich can be shut off to save juice). If I use a flash or hook it to any lighting equipment, even worse. They make a fairly expensive power pack for the camera, but for the locations I work in that is not always ideal.
Final word cool Professional camera, despite the batteries, but you get more than you pay for in image resolution and picture quality.

I was using a Nikon D1 previous to purchasing the Fujifilm S2 Pro and I would have to admit that the camera body doesn't compare well to the Nikon pro bodies.
After using the S2 Pro since it's introduction and shooting everything from fashion to action rodeo images,I have to say that the image quality (Isn't that what really counts in the long run?)is top notch.For action shots I shoot in high rez JPEG and for everything else I shoot in RAW format.I feel that the 12MP Raw images are every bit as good as any that can be captured on 35mm film.
If one is not getting the image quality expected,from the Fujifilm S2Pro,perhaps they should examine the quality of the lenses used.Are they Nikon's Pro lenses? Are they after market lenses? I find that alot of complaints registered for various cameras are the result or either poor lens quality or of poor shooting technique rather than camera quality.
Without getting into the $5,000.00+ digital SLR price range,I feel that the S2Pro is the "Cream Of The Crop".

I just bought this thing from Amazon and all I can say

is WOW!!!!

This is probably the best purchase I have ever made.

This thing is everything I ever expected and more!! It's

very easy to use as well!

I have bought other brands before, and this one just

blows everything else out of the water! I have to say,

everyone out there who is thinking of buying this, stop

thinking. I bought it and I am extremely happy with it

the moment I powered this thing on. YOU ABSOLUTELY

POSITIVELY CANNOT GO WRONG WITH THIS PURCHASE! I

GUARANTEE IT!!!

As a botanist/ecologist/photographer I do a great deal of plant photography. I have used Canon products for years and swear by them and rarely at them. The Pro1, though, leaves a lot to be desired for my purposes. The EOS 10D does far better even with lower resolution. The Pro1, for the purposes I need, is not very suitable. (See my review of the PowerShot S1 IS).
But as a photgrapher who has been published around the world, mostly medium and large format photographs, I think for most people the Pro1 would be a very good choice. It has excellent construction and the image quality is superb with very true color, much better than most. If you don't want to mess with RAW image processing, you can photograph using the Super high resolution Large (gives you a JPG image) and get excellent results that compare very favorably with RAW processing and none of the fiddling with RAW. The availability of a 28mm equivalent wide angle is also very nice and not all that common.
The sharpest aperature to use is f5.6 or f6.3. The images are just a hair softer at larger or smaller apertures. Even the digital zoom will produce a pretty decent image at 14x, but gets worse at maximum digital zoom. Usually digital zoom is pretty worthless, but when you start with 8 megapixels you can still end up with a suitable pixel count after all the digital footwork that goes on in the camera. But generally you are still further ahead shooting at maximum optical zoom (no digital) and cropping, if you don't mind some additional digital manipulation antics to improve things.
So, all in all, I highly recommend this camera to anyone who needs high resolution and compact size. It is a good buy. But for really good macro photography I recommend a digital SLR and a top notch macro lens. If you only do a little macro work and are not real fussy about having razor sharp images then this camera will do fine. Sometimes it would almost match the 10D, but not quite. For all other uses, the camera is great.

The Powershot Pro1 is the best all-around 8 megapixel digicam. It is compact (unlike the Olympus 8080, Sony F828, and Konica Minolta A2); has a fast 28-200 lens (Olympus only goes to 140mm equivalent, Nikon doesn't allow wide angle); and allows for fine adjustment of focal length (Olympus and Nikon use a crude zoom lever that makes it difficult to zoom exactly as you want to). An additional important point is that the Powershot can actually be used in RAW mode: the Olympus, Sony, and Nikon cameras lock-up for a while after taking a picture in RAW mode (this means the camera is not usable for up to 12 seconds after a RAW picture is taken).

Perhaps the closest competitor to the Powershot Pro1 is the Konica Minolta A2, but the A2 has an old lens design that lacks the resolution of the Powershot Pro1, and the A2 is much bigger, lacks the high resolution LCD screen on the Pro1, and has limited movement of its LCD screen. The A2 has a very high resolution viewfinder, but with a good LCD screen (like the Pro1), using a viewfinder is not preferable (for me at least). The A2 also has been noted in online reviews to have quality control problems.

Comparisons aside, some reviewers here have suggested that the Pro1 has "slow" autofocus and that the LCD screen freezes for a moment as the autofocus operates. The conclusion given is that the Pro1 is therefore difficult to use with moving subjects. The difficulty, however, is primarily with photographic technique rather than the camera's autofocus system. Because of the sensor size and lens design, the Pro1 has a large depth of field, meaning that subjects will appear in focus over a fairly large distance. Even at the telephoto end, the depth of field for a portrait (e.g. 100mm) at f/4.5 will be sufficient that you can pre-focus the lens and follow a moving subject easily. The shutter response is very very fast when the lens is already at its focus point. This is a standard technique often overlooked by people who never used a manual focus camera. And this technique is far better than relying on the autofocus system in any of the 8 megapixel cameras: none of them is faster than intelligent pre-focusing! The Pro1 makes this even easier by allowing the user to store a focus distance in the Custom1 and Custom2 settings.

This is a terrific camera. No camera is perfect, but the Pro1 makes the best compromises in its class.

And for those worried about image noise when looking at photos magnified on screen: this is eliminated from actual prints using any of several noise reduction software packages. Don't be afraid to use 400 speed on the Pro1, put the file through good noise reduction software, and print it. The result will still be very nice.

I looked at the Nikon 8700 and the Canon Pro 1. I had them both in hand, shot pictures, compared the EVF, comfort, weight and read all the reviews prior to see the actual cameras. After a long evaluation I decided on the Canon. It just had a better feel. The camera offers a lot of features. I wanted to get back into a camera that would do something other that point and shoot, which this does very well. I also wanted to be able to adjust the apature and film speed. Creative and fun things.
The first pictures I took were very impressive. Low light visibility is good. It has a SLR feel and sound to it. Color was beautiful and th 7X optical is just perfect to be hand held.
One important thing to consider is how the camera will operate in low light. It has an AF assist, which should be on all cameral or it will not be able to focus on a particular subject and the picture will be blurred. Without getting technical, this camera can be used by a novice or a professional. It's versality is unbelievable. Also, a very important feature of this camera is its battery. It has an extremely long life and its charger is small, easily carried in a case and charges to full charge in one hour.