Digital Camera Review

Digital Camera Review

Mar 26, 2007 - By Patrick Singleton
In the film era, shooting infrared was just a matter of buying the right film. If you wanted to be serious about it, you would also need a special-use filter. Digital photography changed that. Photographers who wanted to shoot infrared digitally could hack their cameras (or pay a pro to do it) by removing the UV and IR cutoff filter, or count on incredibly low sensitization. That was until the introduction of the Fujifilm FinePix S3 UVIR, released last year. Essentially, it's a prehacked version of the S3. Fujifilm removed the cutoff filter and replaced it with clear glass. The result is a camera that is sensitive to ultraviolet, visible, and infrared light. With the use of filters the camera can produce infrared or ultraviolet images. For this reason, the S3 UVIR will appeal to scientific and forensic photographers.
Advertisement


The Fujifilm FinePix S3 UVIR is essentially a FinePix S3 Pro. In addition to removing the cutoff filter, Fujifilm added a badge to the top of the camera that reads “UVIR,” and made a few changes to the firmware. Our tour of the FinePix S3 would serve just as well for the S3 UVIR but here are the highlights.

Front
The viewfinder hump of the S3 UVIR conceals a popup flash. A PC sync terminal is high on the right side of the body. The lens release button is on the right side of the Nikon-compatible lens mount and so is a focus-mode selector lever. The bottom edge of the S3 UVIR bulges to form a vertical grip. The horizontal grip is comfortable and features a control dial at the top, near the shutter release. The focus-assist light is between the grip and the lens mount.

Back
The S3 UVIR has two LCD displays on the back: the monochrome display shows shooting data and control options and the 2-inch, 235,000-pixel color display shows image review and the S3 UVIR's limited live preview function. There are four buttons in a row between the two displays. Buttons for bracketing and flash sync mode are above the displays. The viewfinder window is relatively small, compared with the FinePix S5 and the Nikon D200. The focus/exposure lock button is to the right of it, and a second control dial is to the right of that.

The 4-way controller is dish-shaped and to the right of the LCDs. Two buttons, the MENU/OK and BACK buttons, are below the controller. A small pilot lamp indicates the very long periods it takes the S3 UVIR to write data to memory.

The memory card door is low on the back. It accepts Compact Flash and xD memory cards. The door has a secure latch.

Left Side
The left side of the S3 UVIR features ports for USB2, Firewire, and a 10-pin Nikon remote control. There are also jacks for video output and a DC power supply.

The strap lug is at the top of the side, and the latch for the battery compartment is at the bottom.

Right Side
The vertical shutter release is visible on the right side, as is the strap lug. Otherwise, it's an expanse of grip surface.

Top
The mode dial is at far left on the S3 UVIR. It can be set to a few exposure modes, and it also accesses ISO and custom mode settings. A lever below the dial sets the shooting mode to single, burst mode, self-timer, and shot preview. The hot shoe is on top of the pentaprism. A third LCD display is to the right of the viewfinder hump. It's monochrome, and it shows basic exposure parameters. There's also a button to light up the two monochrome LCDs for checking settings in the dark. The shutter release is on the top of the grip, and the power switch is a ring surrounding it.

Bottom
Since the batteries slide out of the side of the S3 UVIR, the bottom sports only the tripod bushing.

Testing / Sample Images Page 3 of 11 Components
Fujifilm FinePix S3 Pro UVIR Digital Camera Review Navigation
 
Advertisement