Fujifilm IS-1: First Look

On the heels of the Fujifilm FinePix S3 Pro UVIR, Fuji showed the FinePix IS-1 infrared-sensitive camera this week at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada. The cameras' infrared capability is particularly useful for forensic work in law enforcement.

Market Demand for IR
The S3 Pro UVIR was slated to be a limited-edition camera but given the speed at which it has sold out – the original production run is all gone – it's likely that Fujifilm will make more. Its popularity explains the advent of the IS-1 which provides some of the same functionality at a lower cost and with some added flexibility. The IS-1 is slated to cost $999 with a filter for shooting IR images and another filter for shooting visible-light images. Without either filter, the IS-1's images have a pink tint. The camera will be available without filters for $799, and Fujifilm is mulling over whether to offer a kit with a broader range of filters.

According to Darin Pepple, a Fujifilm USA marketing manager, both cameras were developed in response to consumer demand. Law enforcement agencies were buying regular Fujifilm cameras and having them modified independently. Having the cutout filter that covers the sensors removed allows the sensors to pick up both infrared and ultraviolet light, but it voided the Fujifilm warranty. In addition, the company had very little insight into individual modifications and couldn't offer support. Pepple says the clear solution was to make the modifications in-house so that the company could have control over the process. Fujifilm made a range of firmware adjustments to accommodate the cameras' extended sensitivity. The cameras are manufactured by Fujifilm and the modifications were engineered in Japan. 

The IS-1 in Operation
We had a chance to examine the IS-1 at CES. It's a modified FinePix S9100, a 9-megapixel super zoom with a focal range comparable to a 28-300mm lens on a 35mm camera. Cosmetically, the only difference between the IS-1 and the S9100 is the green flash housing on the IS-1.

The IS-1 retains all the consumer-oriented features of the S9100 in part because, unlike the S3 Pro UVIR, it can shoot normal images with the appropriate IR cutout filter mounted on the lens. With the filter, users can expect normal performance from the exposure, autofocus and other systems as well. The scene modes ought to work just fine. We didn't have a chance to test that because the filter was not available.

The IS-1 writes JPEGs or RAW files in RGB color mode. Infrared shots look monochrome because the red, green and blue photosites are just about equally sensitive to IR.

The S9100's manual focus system is pivotal to the IS-1 because the camera's autofocus won't work well when the IR filter is mounted on the camera. That's a little surprising because the camera's focus system analyzes the sensor image to achieve focus and the sensor continues to produce an image in IR mode. Pepple says the problem is that the autofocus system uses the green channel only because in visible light, the green channel shows distinctive contrast. Since that contrast is absent in infrared, the system is not reliable. As we played with the IS-1, it seemed that autofocus worked marginally.

Manual focus was harder than we expected. The IS-1's focusing ring looks mechanical but it's actually electronic. It spins very easily, and it was hard at times to tell if it improved  focus or made it worse. The live view on the 235,000-megapixel LCD is noisy when shooting IR because Fujifilm engineers had to increase the gain on the signal to bring up the IR signal which is not as bright as the visible light view. The noise problem is compounded when the enlarged view for focus is turned on. Though the autofocus system was hit-or-miss, we found it helpful with manual focus. The IS-1 and S9100 have an instant-AF button that briefly activates autofocus when the lens is in manual mode. The button got us close, and then we fine-tuned focus manually.

Our demonstration conditions were limited; we examined the camera in a windowless room lit exclusively with fluorescent lights. Fluorescent lights are a weak source of IR light. With the IS-1's ISO set to 800, our exposure was in the range of f/4.9 at 1/10 second. Visible light exposures were much more reasonable. Tungsten, daylight and flash are all better IR sources than fluorescent. Still, the camera behaved as advertised seeing through opaque inks and pigments and through some fabrics.

The IS-1 will probably be called on to do plenty of close-up work, and that points out a shortcoming of the S9100 lens – its close-focus capability is all at the wide-angle end of its range, yielding very short working distances – on the order of a couple of inches. For many kinds of forensic shooting, working that close is a problem  – there's a risk of contaminating the subject, and it's hard to light the subject evenly. In some cases, it's useful to photograph living people but such close working distances will probably feel intrusive.

Fujifilm maintained much of the S9100's firmware, rather than writing IR-specific code for the IS-1, so some features work in unexpected ways in the IR range. Pepple says Fujifilm recommends shooting Infrared at ISOs above 200, for instance – the image processing algorithm handles three identical channels better at higher ISOs. 

Market Feedback
The S3 Pro UVIR has better IR performance than the IS-1, Pepple says, and the IS-1 lacks UV performance entirely. Price will play a big role in many users' purchasing decisions – the IS-1's $999 kit requires no extras, while the S3Pro UVIR went for $1799 body only, without any lenses or filters. The filters are not cheap.

The all-in-one IS-1 has some advantages over the S3 UVIR, however. Most important, the IS-1's LCD viewfinder can run indefinitely while the S3 UVIR's live preview runs for only 30 seconds at a time, and it heats up the sensor to the point that it needs to cool off for a couple minutes after a few views. The ability to take natural-color images is also significant for users who don't want to buy or carry more than one camera. The IS-1 can also take movies, though it's not obvious how that option would serve the forensic market.

Both the IS-1 and the S3 UVIR were inspired by users improvising and tinkering with existing cameras to meet unusual needs. Pepple says Fujifilm hears from users of the S3 UVIR who have experimented with various filter combinations and shooting techniques in unexpected and complicated ways. Fujifilm does not provide training for the use of the S3 UVIR, but there is a network of users that is growing particularly among law enforcement. Independent consultants have set up shop to get new users on track. Many users are shifting from doing the same work with film, which requires plenty of experimentation and long hours in the darkroom, to getting instant results from a digital camera. Fujifilm is distributing the cameras through law enforcement supply dealers, out of concern that they could be misused, particularly for voyeuristic photography. Pepple says Fujifilm is exploring ways of tracking ownership of the cameras to avoid that danger.

The IS-1 does not behave as if it were designed from scratch as an infrared camera for technical use – there's no need for an RGB sensor or RGB output, and presumably, a better focus system could have been designed. Our guess is that most users would rather have a lens that shoots macro at a greater working distance than the 28—300mm equivalent on the camera.

The fact that Fujifilm was able to cheaply adapt a conventional camera to IR is really the only reason this camera exists – it's only with development costs as low as they were that the IS-1 could be marketed for under $1000, and it's only at a price that low that many small agencies would justify such specialized equipment. Pepple noted that technicians in other fields, including archeology, art preservation and medicine, have been experimenting with the S3 UVIR. It's a good bet that Fujifilm will produce more S3 UVIR's, and that the IS-1 will enjoy a solid niche market when it goes on sale in February.