D70 or fuji s2 pro?

[Oavatos]

so i was at a wedding last night and there was actually 2 receptions happening in the same building at once......they both had there seperate photographers and i got a few min. to chat with each...now b4 this I was set on the D70...after talking with one of the photographers(who was wearing 3!!! fuji S2's) he tried to talk me out of the D70 and go with the S2 mainly for the richness in color fuji has to offer

?????

what do i base my decision on here...offer your insights pls....

any of u currently own the S2..i know there r a # of D70 owners here so id like a comparison from peeps who own the rigs or if youve had xperience with them...

-ty

 

[photong]

I used a S2 pro at work (zehrs portrait studio) and I LOVE the camera. i really love that fuji camera (i do prefer canon cameras though and fuji for film). my point and shoot digital is a fuji and i love it to death.

i wish i could compare the two. i dont know what features you're looking for.

i have to agree with the colour of fuji. it's awesome. nikon makes good lenses..thats all i have to say...and know...i just use canon and fuji...the only nikon ive used was in school and i dont remember which one :/

ive heard pro photographer dog nikon for everything exept the lenses. they make good lenses is what they say and everything else is just ok.

while colour is very important....you have to realize you can adjust that in photoshop. so i guess you should look at features and functions and what is well built. and price for extra lenses, etc.

if i had to choose....id would go with price and features and what im going to use it for. i can use ohotoshop to saturate my colours, and anything else to compensate for what the other one does have.

 

[voodoocat]

while colour is very important....you have to realize you can adjust that in photoshop. so i guess you should look at features and functions and what is well built. and price for extra lenses, etc.

if i had to choose....id would go with price and features and what im going to use it for. i can use ohotoshop to saturate my colours, and anything else to compensate for what the other one does have.

I agree. I prefer the subtle color output where I can adjust it in photoshop to my desire. I do the same with contrast, I shoot on lower contrast settings and bump it up in photoshop. That might not be good if you're content on printing images straight out of the camera. Though the D70 can utilize custom settings and custom curves to get that look you're after directly from the camera.

 

[photong]

Though the D70 can utilize custom settings and custom curves to get that look you're after directly from the camera.

That is SUCH a sweet thing to have. Presets on the camera

I would never print right from the camera. I'm too into editing things. Especially if it's myself because of certain things. That's me of course.

So do some research and figure whihc one you like best. I did a lot of research before I bought my Fuji Finepix A303. It took a LONG time to decide but I know I made the right choice. I know you will too

 

[Walt]

Check out www.steves-digicams.com
They might be able to give you some more insight.

 

[Digital Matt]

I also work at a photography studio (Ripcho Photography), and while we use Kodak DCS primarliy, we have tons of Fuji S2 Pro's for backups. In terms of workflow, when you are shooting 1000+ school portraits, you don't want to have to go into every photo and deal with color and other things like that. You want the best results you can get straight out of the camera.

 

[voodoocat]

With the D70 the skintones are quite nice. A couple custom camera settings will give great portrait results straight out of the camera.

 

[Digital Matt]

I didn't mean to make it sound as though the D70 is lacking in anyway. I'm sure you can get great results. I, like you, prefer to set everything to bland and then control it myself in post process. It all depends on your workflow. I personally enjoy spending time on each and every photo.

 

[voodoocat]

I didn't mean to make it sound as though the D70 is lacking in anyway. I'm sure you can get great results. I, like you, prefer to set everything to bland and then control it myself in post process. It all depends on your workflow. I personally enjoy spending time on each and every photo.

Definately share that sentiment. But if I had to process a ton of pictures, I would definately prefer to setup an action and batch process or customize the settings on the camera to give me what I want straight from the camera. Of course, I don't process a ton of pictures so I generally shoot raw, bracket and proccess them individually.

 

[Harpper]

Not to make your decision any harder, but I just wanted to say that the D70 can create great pictures right out of the camera. Due to me being lazy and because I used Photoshop for a living I really don't like spending hours at work using Photoshop only to spend hours at home using Photoshop for my pictures. What this means is that I try to get my pictures correct straight from the camera and then adjust it in Photoshop when necessary. But this does mean that you have to adjust your D70 settings and not use the default auto settings. Nikon's default settings are pretty tame and conservative in my opinion.

As voodo mentioned you can load custom tone curves, but you can also increase color saturation and change the color hue in camera. It's kind of like using different film for different results, but the difference is that you change it back and forth with a few clicks of a button with the D70. Actually, I've been too lazy to load a custom curve but I've been content with what I can achieve from Nikon's settings. You just have to experiment and choose the setting that works for you. Of course, that doesn't help you much because you won't know if you like the custom settings until you've tried them. All I'm saying is that, at least for me, it is possible to get great pictures straight from the camera if that's important to you.

If you are a person who likes to post edit or doesn't mind post editing then I say look more at the features and functions you like. What's nice is that no matter which you choose they both use Nikon F mount lenses so if you do decide to go with the other then you wouldn't have wasted money on lenses. This is also nice way into the future when you decide to upgrade because you'll be able to choose between a Nikon or Fuji body to see which is better at the time. I don't know much about the Fuji S2 Pro so I can't really give you my impression but I've heard it's a good camera.

I have, however, read about the future Fuji S3 Pro camera which sounds like such a great camera. It has a greater dynamic range so you don't blow out highlights as much when trying to take pictures with a lot of contrast like sunsets. It also has settings to mimic film like Velvia. The price hasn't been announced yet so it may not be affordable by most. Sorry I didn't want to add another camera to your decision, but I thought I might as well mention it if you are willing to pay that much for the S2 Pro. The S2 Pro was never a choice for me because of the price.

My only major complaint about the D70 is it's small viewfinder. Even if you don't use manual focus, a larger viewfinder helps with things like DOF preview and all around detail composition. The Canon 300D is about the same size. You have to get a Nikon D100 or Canon 10D for a larger viewfinder. I believe the S2 Pro has a larger viewfinder but I'm not completely sure.