Fujifilm FinePix S20 Pro
Review Date: 29th June 2004
Image Quality
All of the sample images in this
Review were taken using the default 6M 2832 x 2128 mode, which
gives an average image size of between 1.5Mb and 3Mb.
Noise
There are 4 ISO settings available on the Fujfilm FinePix S20 Pro
which you can select at any time if the camera is in manual
mode. Note that the file quality setting automatically defaults
to 1M when ISO 1600 is selected; ISO 1600 isn't available
at the higher quality settings. Here are some 100% crops which
show the noise levels for each ISO setting:
The noise levels look fine at ISO 200, with some noise starting
to appear at ISO 400. ISO 800 exhibits some red and blue artifacts.
Sharpening
Here are two 100% crops which have been Saved as Web - Quality
40 in Photoshop. The right-hand image has had some sharpening
applied in Photoshop. As you can see, the out-of-the camera
images at the default setting of "Normal" are on
the soft side and will benefit from some sharpening during
post-processing.
File Quality
The Fujfilm FinePix S20 Pro has 4 different JPEG quality settings.
Here are some 100% crops which show the various file quality
settings.
Chromatic Aberrations
The Fujfilm FinePix S20 Pro did not handle chromatic aberrations
too well during the review period, with heavy purple fringing
appearing in both high-contrast and not so high contrast situations.
In the first example shown below the sun was positioned well
outside the frame to the left of the subject. There seems
to be two kinds of fringing - green on the left of the chimney
pot and purple on the right. In the second example the sun
was just outside the top of the frame and I would expect some
purple fringing to be apparent - even so, there was more than
I would have liked to see.
Fuji's 4th Generation SuperCCD SR vs Other Digital Cameras
The Fujfilm FinePix S20 Pro features Fuji's new 4th Generation SuperCCD
SR, which Fuji claims "an innovative, state of the
art digital sensor, which vastly improves tonal depth and
overall picture quality". I had the Fujfilm FinePix S20 Pro and the FinePix S5000 together at the time of this review.
Here is the same subject taken with several different digital
cameras (click on them to open the original file):
Fuji S20 Pro |
Fuji S5000 |
Olympus C-8080 |
Olympus 410 Digital |
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Looking at all of these sample images, I'm not convinced
that I could pick out the Fuji S20 Pro images as the ones
with the greatest dynamic range, especially not the four-fold
increase when compared to other digital cameras that Fuji
claims. I guess it's impossible to make any definite conclusions
without taking exactly the same shot with the same in-camera
settings at the same time with a variety of different cameras,
but how many photographers have that luxury?! Fuji claims
that "enthusiasts and more casual users will easily
be able to spot the difference between the images produced
by this model and photos from conventional digital cameras"
- I'm not so sure that they could.
Overall Image Quality
The Fujfilm FinePix S20 Pro's new Super CCD HR sensor has delivered
a slightly disappointing set of images. The bright sunny conditions
of the review period have ensured that the sample photos have
great colour, with deep blues in the sky. Unfortunately the
same bright conditions have caused chromatic aberrations to
appear, both where you would normally expect them and where
you wouldn't. The 6M 2832 x 2128 pixel images can be printed
up to A3 in size, although you will need to sharpen them first
in Photoshop or set the sharpness option in-camera to "Hard".
Noise is well controlled at the slowest ISO setting of 200,
but starts to appear at ISO 400 and is very visible at ISO
800. I'm still not convinced about the 4th Generation CCD
SR sensor, which doesn't seem to offer any great advantages
over other digital cameras in terms of dynamic range. So overall
only an average performance from the Fujfilm FinePix S20 Pro.
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