FinePix S5 Pro

Rather than designing a camera from scratch, Fuji’s engineers have traditionally taken a standard Nikon body and fitted it with a unique CCD sensor and firmware. The new FinePix S5 Pro follows the trend.

Physically the camera screams ‘pro’, with a magnesium case, two large LCDs and a range of quick-access features. On the downside, it’s heavier than the S2 Pro, which was hardly lightweight. By the time you’ve added a good lens, both weight and size become significant and uncomfortable to tote around.

Compact Flash is the storage medium of choice. It’s a cheap option and a 4GB card will hold roughly 150 RAW images and thousands of JPEGs. The lens mount is a standard Nikon F, although owners of high-end f2.8 Nikon AF series lenses should be aware that the autofocus on these lenses won’t work with the S5. Battery power comes by way of a specialised Fuji battery with its own charger.

In use, the ergonomics are mixed. The most useful features, such as the ISO setting, can be accessed quickly without using the menus, which is good because the menu system isn’t that intuitive. Physically, the menu selection wheel has a centre-click feature, which isn’t as positive and reliable as we think it should be.

Making changes is more of a chore than a delight. The supplied software includes a RAW converter tool, although if you want to get your hands on the fully-featured version with extra features you’ll need to buy it separately, which is annoying, especially considering the already high price of the S5 (£990).

Behind the lens you’ll find Fuji’s latest SuperCCD sensor. Instead of offering a straight 12-megapixel resolution, this sensor offers six megapixels with an extra six dedicated to capturing extra brightness and contrast information. Fuji’s reasoning is that most CCDs don’t approach the visual quality of 35mm film, and the extra pixels can be used to pick up areas of high contrast and shadow.

A special processor is dedicated to creating different film-like looks, selected from the menu, but however you look at it, this is a six megapixel camera with software interpolation up to 12 megapixels, and most of the competition offers ten megapixels or more. It’s true that a 12-megapixel native resolution would at least double the price, but it’s a shame Fuji hasn’t gone down this route because the output of the sensor can look very good indeed, with beautiful colour capture and crisp detailing of light and shade and incredibly low noise.

At 12 megapixels this would be a great camera, even at a higher price. But at six megapixels it’s a tougher sell. It’s heavy, it can be awkward to use, it’s more expensive than the competition, and general-purpose snappers will find it hard to justify the resolution/quality trade-off.