A few weeks ago Fujifilm discontinued its only digital SLR model, the S3, without announcing its inevitable replacement straight away. Much like Chris Tarrant leaves Millionaire hopefuls waiting throughout an ad break, Fujifilm have been content to let us stew until Photokina until it lets out the details. Thankfully, today is the Press day of Photokina 2006, and so here is the S5.
While an obvious name would be the S4, apparently 4 is a superstitous number for reasons we can't comprehend, but the S5's spec is enough to stop us worrying. The 12MP sensor is pretty impressive to begin, being made out of two 6MP sensors - one for main image detection and the other for brightness. It is enhanced to give an astonishingly low noise even at ISO of 3200 - known as "Dark Noise reduction" - and it has an expanded dynamic range (of up to two stops more) to give a better tonal range - making the camera very useful for high contrast subjects such as wedding photography.
Durability is also a big thing for the S5. Moving away from the Polycarbonate of its elders, the all magnesium alloy body is tougher and weatherproof, designed to cope with the harsh conditions of a rainforest or a rainy bank holiday in Southend. The shutter is designed to last over 100,000 cycles, which is a lot more than some other prosumer models are typically designed to see, and to put this in perspective it would equate to shooting one roll of film per day for 7 years!
While the S series has alwways been aimed at professionals, this is the first S camera to be clearly designed for the professional, with the metal, weatherproof body and the specification. There were rumours that the camera was going to be available in two kits, one for Nikon lenses and one for Canon, but this seems to be idle speculation - the Fujifilm S5 will only take Nikon F mounts, not a bad thing since the F mount has been around since the mid-80s.
Available in February, let's hope the S5 is faster than the S3 which was loved by studio photographers for its great skintones and extended highlight range BUT was less well recieved due to its slow write times. No pricing details are available at the moment.
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