Fujifilm Natura - new 24mm f/1.9 point-and-shoot for low-light shooting.

Hi all. I just saw this on another photography forum. This might be of

interest to some of us.

 

http://fujifilm.jp/natura/

 

The Website is in Japanese. You can use the following to translate:

 

http://babelfish.altavista.com/tr

Very interesting, though unlikely to be widely available outside Japan - just look at the Silvi/Zoomdate F2.8.

 

The camera is properly called Natura S: http://fujifilm.jp/personal/filmcamera/35mm/naturas/index.html

 

The film is Natura 1600: http://fujifilm.jp/personal/film/color/35mm/

 

I wonder how it handles fluorescent and/or tungsten lighting...

I'd love a black one for the streets. Would go nice with my Stylus Epic.

Dear Fuji:

 

I'll take one of those, thanks, and send along a few hundred rolls of the film. I'll try

that, too.

 

Very, very interesting.

If you search for Natura here you'll find a couple of existing threads. :)

Some sample shots: http://www.tokyodesignersblock.com/2004/fuji/photo.html

 

Looks like the film could use some filtration when used indoors, although it's not too bad as it is.

 

Unfortanately, the maximum shutter speed of the Natura S is only 1/360, so fast films are a bad idea under sunny conditions.

I have posted a few samples shot with NPC160 here:

http://gallery.clubsnap.com/showgallery.php/ppuser/9981/cat/500

Lloyd, your pics are very nice. Distortion is low and light fall-off is undetectable. Any PS corrections?

Andrew, I only made minor adjustments to the overall contrast. Distortion and vignetting are both quite low.

24/1.9? And I thought my 35/2.8 (Olympus Mju AKA Stylus Epic) was fast. Come to think of it, on my SLR I have 35/2 and 24/2.8. I'll have one, thank you very much.

 

Happy shooting,

Yakim.

That's a neat little camera. Fuji has developed an impressive line P&S's over the last while - Fuji DL Zoom, the Klasse (AKA Rollei AFM35), Silvio 24-50mm (w f2.8) and now this. The optics on most of these cameras seem to be highly regarded. Too bad the latter models don't seem to make it out of Japan.

Are there any Japanese camera stores that ship to the U.S.?

Amazon Japan sells the Silvi F2.8, with a 24-50mm f/2.8-f/5.6 lens, for around $300.

It's quite easy to order from them; the checkout process can be done in English.

 

They also sell the Natura 1600 film; a 36-exposure 3-pack seems to be around $16,

not including shipping.

 

The Natura S doesn't seem to be available from them yet.

24mm f/1.9 p&s... If the lens on it is a decent one, and I 'suspect' it is, this camera would indeed be a great toy! I know that you can use the film speed dial for exposure compensation on some p&s cameras, but would there be a way of playing around with the aperture on this thing? And what is the longest exposure on these kind of cameras usually (or similar Fuji models)? You see where I am going with this; 24mm lens, f/1.9, and fast film would be great for available light, but what do you do if you want more DOF and you do not want to use fast film (and say, place this thing on a steady surface)?

I managed to find out a bit myself: the camera has 4 picture modes, which seem to be similar to the ones on entry level SLRs, thus giving a limited amount of control over aperture (better than nothing I guess)...

>you can use the film speed dial for exposure compensation on some p&s cameras,

 

Does look like it can be done with this one. BTW, the "film speed dials" on such cameras are in fact "exposure compensation dials" and not the other way round.

 

>And what is the longest exposure

 

1 sec.

Whoops, I mean it <b>doesn't</b> look like the camera has an exp. comp. dial.

Andrew, it does not have user-selectable exposure compensation control. But since it only has 4 DX contacts, it will read and meter ISO160 films as ISO100, so NPC and NPS will be effectively given +2/3EV in it. I find these good choices for shooting in daylight with the Natura-S.

 

But wait, there's more: a big feature of the camera which I have not tested yet is a "camera-selected" exposure control of between +1.5EV and +2EV, which only kicks in if you are using ISO1600 film. This is designed to give better exposures in dim light without flash (which is what the camera was designed for) and is called the "NP mode". Im trying to get some ISO1600 DX labels to "trick" it to thinking NPZ800 is ISO1600 to see what happens.

 

The 4 user-selectable modes are flash off (which cannot be set as a preference), red-eye reduction, infinity, and what looks like second curtain flash.

Thanks Andrew - 1 sec. is not bad; maybe not ISO 100, but with (fine grained) ISO 400 film, it should work for the kind of 'slowly dissapearing' light (and some DOF) I had in mind. On the other hand, are you positive about the fastest shutter speed you quoted (1/360sec.)? Given the ISO 1600 film Fuji seems to be advertising together with this p&s, 1/360sec. would be 'problematic' on sunny days outdoors.

Hey Lloyd. Your (first hand) info proves my assumption about the 4 modes wrong, which is a shame in my point of view. Thank for the info.

Lloyd, where did you get your Natura S? Do you live in Japan, the United States, or

somewhere else?

 

How well does the autofocus work in the low-light situations in which the camera is

meant to be used?

David, I am based in Singapore, and purchased it online through the Japanese cybermall rakuten (www.rakuten.co.jp). Its the Japanese equivalent of amazon, with many Z-shops. Most of them don't deliver outside Japan, so I used a trans-shipment hub provided by my local post office. Perhaps you have a similar service available to you where you are.

>are you positive about the fastest shutter speed you quoted (1/360sec.)?

 

That's what the official page says.

 

>Given the ISO 1600 film Fuji seems to be advertising together with this p&s, 1/360sec. would be 'problematic' on sunny days outdoors.

 

My point exactly. I wouldn't use even ISO 400 film if I expect to shoot under sunny conditions with this camera.

Don't you guys have other cameras for shooting very fast film outside in bright sun?

;-)

 

If Fuji was to improve the specification of the camera, I'd rather they add more manual

control rather than a faster shutter.

Yashica T4 Super (a.k.a. T5) had 1/700 top speed. Even the Ricoh GR1 series go to 1/500. These are reasonable speeds considering ISO 400 is the prevalent film that people use with their P&S (and the wimpy flash), not to mention the fact that Fuji chooses the same Natura moniker for an ISO 1600 film that is marketed alongside the camera. Imagine the shock of the less-knowledgeable when they get blown-out summer vacation shots with the combo.

 

I, for one, don't shoot the whole roll under the same lighting conditions either. But it's obvious that Fuji purposefully leave out some important features and won't be adding them back later on. How much is saved by a low max. speed and omitting the exp. comp. dial? 10 bucks perhaps?