2023 Weekly Challenge Week 37: Fuji S2 Pro

Back before the Mirrorless Era Fuji was among one of the first companies to make a consumer DSLR camera; a short lived design that would only be made between 2000 and 2006.  After the S5 Pro Fuji would retract from the Pro and Pro-sumer camera market and focus purely on Consumer grade point and shoot, waterproof and bridge cameras until the first X series mirrorless body was released in 2012 six years later.

Why Fuji took such a long pause from the Professional market is unknown, but they currently have a strong presence in being the most popular of the "underdog" camera market (which falls below the big 3: Canon, Sony and Nikon) and they are now the current frontrunners of having the best APS-C based camera system along with the most affordable (though still well out of my price range) Digital Medium Format system.

The Fuji S2 series all use Fuji's APS-C Dual Layer "Super CCD" chip.  They also are unique in the fact that prior to the X series Fuji did not make lenses nor had their own lens mount so they worked out an agreement with Nikon to build a DSLR that used their F mount lens system.

My S2 Pro is hobbled together from 3 non-working cameras so we can take parts of the review with a grain of salt, as one in better condition then mine may not have the same issues mine has (such as the shutter getting stuck).  That said, a lot of used Fuji S Pro bodies are heavily used and abused with really high shutter counts, and there are more non-working bodies then working ones out there.

Released in 2002 the Fuji S2 Pro was the second DSLR by Fuji to use the Super CCD sensor and Nikon F mount.  This sensor was a new sensor from the original boasting 6mp Native resolution with the ability to shoot 12mp interlaced JPEG images in "super resolution" since the camera had a dual layer non-bayer pattern CCD chip which the camera could create these enhanced resolution files from the extra data the sensor recorded that normally was not used.

This makes the Fuji S2 Pro in technicality the first DSLR camera capable of capturing high resolution photos greater then 8 megapixels, however this file would only be available in either JPG or TIFF.

The Fuji S Pro series DSLRs were known for having extremely vibrant skin tone renditions which made them exceptionally popular for Portrait Studios in the early to mid 2000's.  Nearly every used S pro body has spent some time at one point in its life in a portrait studio.

Aside from this unique sensor, Nikon F mount, and ability to interpolate to produce photos 2x the native resolution of the camera's sensor there was one other thing that made this camera stand out to me; altough prior to 2003 this was fairly common place to see on DSLR cameras in the infancy of Professional Digital Photography.

That is the fact that this DSLR camera is actually designed off of a film camera body that has an integrated "digital back" on it.  Early days of DSLRs like the Kodak DCS series this was quite common, and some would even simply be an add-on kit that converted a SLR camera into Digital with a Digital back.  

The front of this camera is powered by two CR123A batteries which powers the fully mechanical shutter mechanism and "film" portion of the camera and four AA batteries in the grip which power the digital portion of the camera.

As such, it's not a very practical to shoot these cameras as a main camera in 2023 as even with using rechargeable AA's in the grip you still need to purchase very specialized CR123A batteries as well for the "analog portion" in order to use the camera.

However with the combination of batteries even without a Li-Ion battery pack the batteries will last a long time as a result.  I shot this camera for a week, roughly 400 or so photos, on one set of AA and CR123A batteries and the battery meter is still reading "full" on both.  

The Fuji S2 Pro is hard to get an accurate reading of battery life however as the battery meter only has 3 stages: "Over 50% (reads as Full), 50% or less and nearly depleted (15% or less); and it won't tell you what batteries are low so you have to guess which ones to change out and replace when it does exhaust one of its dual power sources.

Oddities aside let's get into using the camera.  A lot like the Canon 1D Mark IIn I reviewed earlier this year the controls on the Fuji S2 Pro are completely different then any other DSLR camera I've used.  A lot of the features are only available when going into the menu during a certain mode and tapping on prompts with the 4 buttons below the rear small LCD display rather then in the camera OS itself.

The Fuji S2 Pro has one thing that sets it apart from other cameras with odd control sets from this era and that is a true 4 way control pad.  There is no need to hit a combination of buttons and wheels to navigate once you do find the menu you need to be in to make an adjustment; it can be controlled via the 4 way D-Pad as one would expect.

Like the Nikon D200 the camera's shutter has a very loud but satisfying fully mechanical click. These shutters as I found out are prone to getting stuck but unlike most DSLRs the actuation of the shutter mechanism is fully spring-loaded instead of being motor driven so you can often un-stick a stuck shutter by simply pressing the shutter release again, and it will reset it to its starting position having just lost a single photo.

This means that while the shutter failure rate on these cameras is high, it isn't a death sentence to have one with a stuck shutter as they often can be unjammed simply by pressing the shutter release.  I noticed mine was the most prone to stick if I fired off two shots in rapid succession; so I didn't dare try the camera's burst modes.

The Fuji S2 Pro is fairly responsive to take photos especially when you consider it is a digital camera that is over two decades old. That said, the write speeds on the S2 pro are really slow especially if you shoot RAW or TIFF; and the camera can only take up to a 2gb flash card. Combined with the shutter issues mine had, this would be the last camera I'd want to be stuck with if I had to do any amount of burst shooting.

Overall for a DSLR that is old enough to legally drink this camera is still fun to shoot if you have patience.  This wouldn't be my first choice for a daily shooter or something to keep in the car for several reasons but that Super CCD sensor still creates some really crisp, amazing and unique photos some 20+ years later.