lots of problems

[mike-C]

I am a pro wedding photographer and have been shooting digital for over a year now.I have had a new s2 for the last few days and have found afew problems. I would be interested to know if I am the only one with these problems or has anybody else expeirienced the same. First, there is a strong cyan cast in all pictures taken in auto WB, needs 20 red to be added in Photoshop to remove it. this cyan cast mysteriousley disapears with a suitable flash gun attached, even if the flash gun is pointed straight up to the sky so that no light falls on the subject?? (there is a strong green cast in all pics taken using the , usualy safe, overcast sky setting) 2. If I try to use my flash gun for fill in (The right one for Nikon Use) the ambient lit background is suddenly underexposed by about a stop making it very dark. (this is in all metering modes including 3D) 3. just before the 4 aa batteries die, I can take about ten pictures with nothing being recorded to the card, the info in the viewfinder tells me everything is just fine, until I go to view the shots. 4. The battery flat indicator comes on on the back of the camera telling me that the 2 123's are dead when it is actualy the 4 AA bateries that need replacing and not the 2 123's. 5. Problems reading and writing to some smart media cards. 6. Very high contrast, no detail in dark hair or dark hair against a black background in studio. and very highly saturated colour especially in flesh tones, that requires desaturation by a factor of 10 in Photoshop 7. shots taken with an incident meter with studio flash are underexposed in camera on manual setting.
I will continue testing because I only get one chance to get it right. This camera will definately de taking a journey back to Fuji but I need your help to know if you can replicate any of these problems on your s2's. I am really hoping that I have gotten hold of a bad one and that they are not all like this. mikeconcannon@hotmail.com

[Tom V]

Mike,

It sounds like a bad camera to me. I have had my camera for 11 months and have not had the bad experience it sounds like you are having.

1) I don't get a cyan cast, or any other cast in any appropriate mode. This sounds like a fault to me.

2) It is impossible for me to determine the problem of underexposed fill-flash. There are so many variables. Some flashes don't seem to work as well as others, and I could be wrong here, but the Nikon Speedlight DX flashes seem to generate more than their share of complaints compared ton older Nikon Speedlights. The Nikon DX flash features are not needed on the S2. There is a whole forum here for flashes, which probably will shed some insights into camera flashes, uses, problems and solutions.

3) Possible cause of missing pictures: Shooting in Preview Mode show the image on the LCD. If you are in Continous Shooting Mode, the images are recorded to your media. If you switch to Single Frame Shooting Mode, the images will not be recorded to your media unless you push the "write file" (for lack of a better term) button. But since you did not change the Preview/Postview button, you may be unlikely to think about this side effect of the shooting rate, and your shots are not recorded. This caused me a huge headache on one shoot.

3 & 4) The battery level indicators are just lousy when they are "normal." Yours sound worse than normal. Normally, they indicate that there WAS enough juice for the LAST exposure. As soon as you notice any ERR or funky reading, writing, LCD anomoly, viewfinder darkening, or other glitch -- change the batteries. If you happen to notice a low battery indication, change the batteries NOW. I don't think anyone has ever posted that their battery level indicators work like you would expect them to work. Part of the problem is probably caused by the nature of NiMH batteries - they maintain high power (amperage?) until exhaustion rather than tapering off like alkalines do. When the CR123As go bad, remove them. The camera can work (sans internal flash) without them. Leaving dead or nearly dead CR123As in the camera will cause all sorts of problems, if the camera will work at all. A lot of people opt not to use CR123As at all. Always have spares with you.

5) You are one of the minority using Smart Media cards. Most users use the CF or MicroDrive cards. I cannot comment on the workings of SM cards. I never write to the cards via the computer. I copy all the images to the computer to work on them. I format the card every time I return it to the camera. I avoid deleting files on the camera, it seems to ask for trouble.

6) Loss of detail is a side effect of using JPG compression. Details, most noticeably in the highlights and shadows are lost in the JPG compression routine. For subjects with high contrast, you will get the most range shooting in RAW format. It is a pain to use the Fuji EX Raw convertor, but it does the best job. There are other RAW converters, but they have some problems. Adobe has a Photoshop plug-in that can handle Fuji's Raw files, and almost does it right. If Fuji would cooperate with Adobe, it would be perfect. The Tone and Color settings should be understood before they are relied on, especially when shooting weddings. If you are experiencing more loss of detail, higher contrast, more saturation than normal, then the camera is faulty IMHO.

5 & 6) The highest capacity SmartMedia card I have seen is 128mb. Using that card would temp you to cram small (Normal) JPGs on it rather than shooting RAW. The CF and MD cards have capacities up to 1 GB (and more), giving you the room to shoot RAW files or at least FINE jpgs.

7) I use studio strobes all the time. I rarely use my Minolta FlashMeter III anymore, preferring the histogram on the LCD. When I shot film, the handheld meter was accurate for ambient light, but seemed a stop slow with studio strobes. I always had to shoot Polaroid anyway. As I recall, the last time I used the handheld meter with my S2, I had to open the lens from the metered value. I find the histogram far more useful because it tells me what the sensor actually recorded rather than what a foreign meter says I might record. I find the S2 handles studio strobes much like film did in the studio (slower than rated).

Call Fuji. I think you got a bad unit.

:(

[Tom V]

Mike,

It sounds like a bad camera to me. I have had my camera for 11 months and have not had the bad experience it sounds like you are having.

1) I don't get a cyan cast, or any other cast in any appropriate mode. This sounds like a fault to me.

2) It is impossible for me to determine the problem of underexposed fill-flash. There are so many variables. Some flashes don't seem to work as well as others, and I could be wrong here, but the Nikon Speedlight DX flashes seem to generate more than their share of complaints compared to older Nikon Speedlights. The Nikon DX flash features are not needed on the S2. There is a whole forum here for flashes, which probably will shed some insights into camera flashes, uses, problems and solutions.

3) Possible cause of missing pictures: Shooting in Preview Mode show the image on the LCD. If you are in Continous Shooting Mode, the images are recorded to your media. If you switch to Single Frame Shooting Mode, the images will not be recorded to your media unless you push the "write file" (for lack of a better term) button. But since you did not change the Preview/Postview button, you may be unlikely to think about this side effect of the shooting rate, and your shots are not recorded. This caused me a huge headache on one shoot.

3 & 4) The battery level indicators are just lousy when they are "normal." Yours sound worse than normal. Normally, they indicate that there WAS enough juice for the LAST exposure. As soon as you notice any ERR or funky reading, writing, LCD anomoly, viewfinder darkening, or other glitch -- change the batteries. If you happen to notice a low battery indication, change the batteries NOW. I don't think anyone has ever posted that their battery level indicators work like you would expect them to work. Part of the problem is probably caused by the nature of NiMH batteries - they maintain high power (amperage?) until exhaustion rather than tapering off like alkalines do. When the CR123As go bad, remove them. The camera can work (sans internal flash) without them. Leaving dead or nearly dead CR123As in the camera will cause all sorts of problems, if the camera will work at all. A lot of people opt not to use CR123As at all. Always have spares with you.

5) You are one of the minority using Smart Media cards. Most users use the CF or MicroDrive cards. I cannot comment on the workings of SM cards. I never write to the cards via the computer. I copy all the images to the computer to work on them. I format the card every time I return it to the camera. I avoid deleting files on the camera, it seems to ask for trouble.

6) Loss of detail is a side effect of using JPG compression. Details, most noticeably in the highlights and shadows are lost in the JPG compression routine. For subjects with high contrast, you will get the most range shooting in RAW format. It is a pain to use the Fuji EX Raw convertor, but it does the best job. There are other RAW converters, but they have some problems. Adobe has a Photoshop plug-in that can handle Fuji's Raw files, and almost does it right. If Fuji would cooperate with Adobe, it would be perfect. The Tone and Color settings should be understood before they are relied on, especially when shooting weddings. If you are experiencing more loss of detail, higher contrast, more saturation than normal, then the camera is faulty IMHO.

7) I use studio strobes all the time. I rarely use my Minolta FlashMeter III, but rather the histogram on the LCD. When I shot film, the meter was accurate for ambient light, but seemed a stop slow with studio strobes. I always had to shoot Polaroid anyway. As I recall, the last time I used the handheld meter with my S2, I had to open the lens from the metered value. I find the histogram far more useful because it tells me what the sensor actually recorded rather than what a foreign meter says I might record. I find the S2 handles studio strobes much like film did in the studio (slower than rated).

Call Fuji. I think you got a bad unit.

:(

[mike-C]

Thanks for your reply, it doe seem like there are issues with the s2.
Maybee I didnt explain things well with the flash. Its not that fill-in underexposes, this is the problem, try this, in an adequately lit room take a picture with no flash, the camera will shoot the picture fine, exposure wise, (but with a cyan/blue cast)
NEXT STEP. Dont move the camers.Put a flash gun on to the camera (one that talks to the camera), and switch it on , using the flash on a lower power setting, say minus 2 stops lower , set on the flash gun,for fill in. The flash light will be so weak that it will not influence the shot atall and is only meant to fill shadows. Now take the same shot again. WHAT HAPPENS the camera grosely underexposes for the ambient light in the room.
I can do the same thing with any other pro/semi pro digital camera and the shots do not turn out underexposed for the room light.
A more realistic situation for using this setting, camera on auto plus flash would be at the alter in a church when the rings are going on. The camera set to auto exposure for the light in the church and the flash on and maybee set one stop lower just to pop in a little flash whilst retaining the ambient light in the church for the main light

[mike-C]

At first I thought fuji didnt realy care but I found the right person at Fuji UK and they have gone out of their way to get this one sorted out, so Im not worried any more .
FULL MARKS TO FUJI your customer care realy does do what its name states.

[puglover]

Hi Mike, I am glad Fuji is helping you with your camera. I have already sent mine back once and had it replaced. The new one is now giving me fits. I will call tomorrow to discuss the options. Now the camera turns off at will like the batteries are dead - even with new batteries. I have never been so frustrated with a piece of machinery - I hate that I can't trust this camera. I have big problems with the flash as well. What are the odds that I got two bad ones...I envy the S2 user that hasn't experienced any of these issues. :(

stupid camera:mad:

[mike-C]

I will be interested to hear how your new one behaves. It would be great to hear that everything is ok on your replacement and perhaps we can both do some tests and see if our results are identical or if yours is doing things that mine does not and mine is doing things that yours doesnt do.
It will be good to find out if certain problems are "within tollerance" (they are all like that) or if some problems are unique to individual cameras.
I photograph weddings, I need to be confident with my kit.
please post a message when you get it back and we can keep in touch.

[puglover]

I haven't had time to get on the phone with Fuji yet today - busy editing a bunch of soft images:mad: ...i just can't imagine that they would have sent my another bad one...you would think they would run some damn tests. guess not - i'll keep you posted.

[Rockett8]

Tom, you say you reccommend deleting files from the CF card in the computer instead of in the camera. Is that the best way to do It?, I have been reformatting the card after downloads to a CD. Rockett

[Baron]

Hello,everybody!
I had this problems with missing files too. Ahd I found out that it happens most of the time when I load files to comp from CF.

1. Disable function in Fuji viewer that erases files on CF after loading
2. If you shoot TIFF or JPEG and there are no files on CF (but you saw them on in-camera viewer after shooting and you KNOW that you saved them), use "Digital Image Recovery" soft (It was free) It can find images on your card even browser says that it is emty.It does not work for RAF
3. If you shoot TIFF,JPEG AND RAF, use "Easy Recovery Pro". It casts money, but it can find ANY files on your CF .
4. Always format card before shooting.
P.S. Dear Mr.Moderator this is not ad of the software just the way to resolve problem of missing files.(when I got "no files to be loaded" I was about to cry)