D70 VS D100 / Fuji Fine Pix S2 Pro

[jasonsmith]

I currently shoot weddings and portraits with Nikon F100s.

 

I am wanting to move into Digital and am considering the following.

 

1) Nikon D70

2) Nikon D100

3) Fuji Fine Pix S2 pro

 

The D70 seems to get mostly very good reviews - dollar for dollar it

seems like good value - although the software side of things seems

to be lacking. I was wanting to shoot in Raw mode and do all my

colour correction and editing in Photoshop. Is this possible with

the D70 ??

 

Aside from that the D70 / D100 seem quite similiar.

 

Can anyone comment on how the Fuji fares up to these two ??

 

Any comments would be appreciated.

[jeff_lu]

yes you can shoot in raw mode with the d70

 

not too familiar with the fuji

[k_michael]

I have the Fuji S2 for the last 18 months. Overall, I can't complain. The only gripe I really have about the camera is the IEEE 1394 port. It seems that the connection only workd when it wants to. Fuji, HP and Gateway can't explain to me why this is so. Another source told me to go get a Mac.

 

The other day I was at PhotoExpo in NYC. One ofthe reps gave me his email and told me to contact him and we would meet in Manhattan. He's willing to connect my S2 to his laptop top see what happens. He owns an S2 and has no trouble at all with it. When I purchase something.........especially for 2G, I want all features to work even If they are seldom used. My dad was a pilot in WW2. He never used his parachute..........get the idea?

 

As far as the camera itself is concerned...........I purchased the S2 because of the PC synch and becasue of its TTL falsh system. The S2 was the only digital SLR at the time that could work with a dedicated Nikon flash system that was not DX coded. I didn't want to go out and get all new flashes. Plus it was the only camera in its price range with the PC synch as well.

 

If you were atthe show the other day, you would see the new S3. The name of the game is sales and Fuji was working hard to show you why you would want an S3 over an S2. They were demonstrating how the dynamic range of the S3 is better than the S2. Examples were shown of wedding dresses with more detail taken with an S3 than with an S2. The S3 will not burn the highlights out the way an S2 will...........so they say. Besides that, the S3 has a rubberized grip like an F100 and dual shutter releases. The S3 is a great looking camera but I myseld would wait to see what kinks lie ahead for Fuji to fix. The main circuit board of my S2 has been replaced twice.

[richard_rowe2]

I like th D100, nothing wrong with the D70. I like the feel of the D100 with the grip and extra batt. It has some features that the D70 doesn't have but just a few. On camera flash is better with the D70 I am told but I don't have first hand on that. But I like the D100 with the grip/batt acc it will do you a fine job. Richard

[cwphoto]

I use a D70 since August & a Fuji S2 for 13 months. I like them both. Color out of S2 may be a bit better(always WhiteBalance),and I like the pc outlet for studio work & the fact that I can use my Nikon SB26 in ttl mode.

However the D70 has a better menu option in my opinion & WB is easier. I use Nikon flashes in "auto" mode with great results. But the most important feature IMHO is the high speed flash sync which is important to me for the outdoor photos of people.

Determine your photo habits & choose accordingly.

[kelvin_lau]

Hello Jason. I suggest you try out the digital SLRs before taking the plunge. I've used the Fuji S2 and found the picture quality to be quite good, especially using RAW mode and coversion with Photoshop CS. The greatest drawback was the smaller viewfinder, which is simply a masked F80 focusing screen. I found it difficult to focus manually and a few of my portraits had in-focus ears or noses but blurred eyes. The AF isn't great either. You will notice a big difference in viewfinder clarity compared to your F100.

[arjen van de merwe]

I have an S2 and are satisfied with it. I have used a D100 on three occasions and it worked fine for me too. The reason to get an S2 was that it works ttl with my SB24 flash, the higher resolution, and a few other minor things. I have had no trouble with the firewire.

I never met a wedding photographer shooting in raw, all I know shoot in jpeg fine. By the way, I cannot see a difference in picture quality from jpeg fine to raw. But I do not have the software for conversion of raw to 16bit tiffs (here in Europe it does not come with the camera!)

[bokeh man1]

Quick note to the Dutchman above: The S2 pro comes with Raw file convertor LE which does convert to 16 bit tiff files but doesnt allow the user to partcipate in the fine tuning of the conversion. If you pay a few Euros you get the pro version of the raw software and camera control software. The shop assistant told me the S2 was an old model and threw in the software for free.