Just to let you know...

[Bas]

In 1975 I bought my first Nikon, a Nikormat FT3. With a 55/3,5 MicroNikkor. What a fine set! I traded it in 18 years later and got the same price back as I had paid… Than came the F90X, later the F5 and 6 lenses, from 20/2.8 to 80-200/2.8. Thus, having also used almost two years the Coolpix 990 on top, it was time for a Real Digi Now!
That’s why I ordered the D100, last April. Should be here (Amsterdam) June/July. Nope. July/August. Nope. What does one do, in the time between? Licking your computer screen as tests from the D100 roll over. Comparisons with Canon (sorry folks) D60. Who needs a Canon, with 6 Nikkors? Comparison with a body from that film company, not known in the professional 135-camera business, Fujifilm. The FinePix S2 Pro. Hm, not bad. Another D100 test, difficult to read “thru the lines”, it seems that they like the S2 Pro better then the D100, but do not dare to say it. Lets look for more S2 Pro tests, it is the first week of August now and more tests appear. And test-pictures too, wow…
Sigh. I am happy to tell you that I did two things today. I cancelled my ordered D100 (yes, I waited 4 months for nada) and are now LAST on the waiting list for a S2 Pro.
And I became member of the first S2PRO.com fan club.
Cause I’m a fan; no, I’m a FAN!

Luv ye all.

Bas.

P.S. Please write me once in a while how good it is to have one, a Real S2 Pro, and how much happier your life is now, and, and…

[Digi4Ever]

Dear Bas,
I do not know whether to laugh or cry! Your story is sad, yet hopeful. Hope in the fact that you, too will soon be the proud owner of the best (currently!) 6MP DSLR around today. Okay, next month is another story, but we'll get to that then.
I guess until then you will have to live vicariously through those of us who are just a bit luckier.
Just out of curiosity, what is the S2 selling for in Amsterdam?
Anyway, here are a few shots we took over the weekend. Nothing fancy, just some fun.
Hope you enjoy!
http://www.photo.net/photodb/folder.tcl?folder_id=227644

[Bas]

Hi Will, great to get an answer from another member so soon, thank you!
Took a look at your S2 pictures, looked nice, clean, friendly, well done.
But who are you, Digi4ever, Will, or Bill McAdoo? From Denver or Parker, Colorado?
Anyway, feel free to drop by if you visit Amsterdam
You do not have to feel sorry for me; I have a lot of film equipment (just returned from 5 weeks Mozambique with my Leica) so my hands are not tight.
About the price of the S2: you will be surprised.
As a professional photographer I can deduct VAT. The price excluding VAT at one of our “for-pro’s-only” shops is 2,200 EURO, minus 50 for the price in US$: about US$2,150. VAT has NOT to be paid by people outside the European Union. If you cannot deduct it, add 19%. Not bad uh?

Take care,

Bas.

[Digi4Ever]

Wow! Maybe we should all be buying our cameras there! You are right, I am surprised. I did not know that Pro's could get excluded from paying the VAT. That makes it great for you (not so good I guess for the ordinary folks) and actually cheaper than here. The street price is supposed to be $2199 once the cameras are readily available. We just ordered a second one and it was $2175.
What Leica do you have? I lived in Hawaii for 8 years and owned a Leica 35mm R5 model for most of that. Took some great pictures with that body.
As to me, I live in Parker, work in Denver, Digi4ever is just my handle on this board and I go by either Will or Bill.
I think there may be another European trip coming up next year so maybe I'll take you up on that visit. This year the big trip is Australia for the month of October with, hopefully, 6 days in Thahiti at the end. Should be fun. I am looking forward to giving my S2 a real workout down under.
Will

[Bas]

Yes, Yes, YES! I just collected my S2, Sigma 15-30 and IBM 1 GB microdrive.
I did not unpack it yet, but I’ll keep you informed…
Bas

[teski]

Very nice pics! Were these straight out-of-camera? If not, what post-processing did you do?

Thanks,

Teski

[Digi4Ever]

Hi Teski!
Thanks for the kind words. With all the critics out there it's nice to hear a little praise. These are just some "fun" pics though. There are pretty good, but not my best.
I am starting my own collection of Sunsets. We live at @6000 feet, which is about 700+ feet above the Denver valley below. We have a pretty spectacular view of the Rockies and get some incredible Sunsets here. I liked this one and is now one of my favorite. It really looks like the whole sky is on fire.
I use Photoshop 6 and usually for these type of shots, perform some simple adjustments. Autobalance & Unsharp-mask are all I did to most of these.
It really did not do much on the autobalance. The Unsharp did help though.
The sunset pic I adjusted manually using Levels and Black-grey-white.
Bill

[Bedpan]

Just thought I would share some of my pics from around Singapore for those interested..
All 100% un-editted straight from Camera..

http://208.231.0.96/bedpan/S2/thumbs_d/thumbs_p.html

Feedback is welcomed!

Cheers!

Mike

[Bas]

To Mike ('s pictures).

Beautiful pictures Mike, and a beautiful way of showing them! All others: take a look.

Question – to whom it may know - : with my former Coolpix 950, all the to the computer downloaded pictures came with a text file with information about all the pictures I took. Not so with the S2 PRO. It must be in there somewhere. Do you know how to get it out?
Thanks, Bas.

[Bedpan]

Thanks very much Bas,

If you are interested. I used a program called Thumbs (not Thumbs+) to create the webpages. Still needs some work, but Thumbs has several templates that are fairly easy to use.

Thumbs can be found here http://www.greggman.com/thumbs

As for the information about the shots...

Digicams embed the details into the picture in a area called the EXIF Header. You need a program that can read this detail and export it to a text file if this is what you like.

Just looking in the Fuji Viewer software. I cannot find how to view the Exif. Personally I use a program called Irfanview though. Its FREE and very powerfull.
www.irfanview.com
If you do get it make sure you get the free plug-ins as well. As they provide things such as EXIF, and JPG lossless rotation and more..

Cheers!

Mike

Originally posted by Bas
To Mike ('s pictures).

Beautiful pictures Mike, and a beautiful way of showing them! All others: take a look.

Question – to whom it may know - : with my former Coolpix 950, all the to the computer downloaded pictures came with a text file with information about all the pictures I took. Not so with the S2 PRO. It must be in there somewhere. Do you know how to get it out?
Thanks, Bas.

[Digi4Ever]

With Fuji's original version of 'Exif Viewer', you could right-click on each picture and go to properties, or hightlight the picture and click the 'i' up at the top. This would display all the Exif data about each image complete with tab stops for each type of data. The newer versions, now called 'Finepix Viewer', you click the 'Show/Hide Playback Plane' which is the second button from the left up top. This opens an area to the right which displays the exif data. It also drastically cuts down on the area for thumbnails.
I liked the old way better.
I have the last version of 'Exif Viewer' which came out in 2000, ver. 1.1.01E. I received it with my Fuji Finepix 4900.
I cannot imagine that Fuji would care if I made this available to the only official (that I know of!) Fuji S2 Pro Users Group out here. It is basically a down-grade to your existing Finepix Viewer, but it can co-exist with it, which anyone who owns a Fuji camera is licensed to use. I have both loaded on this PC and usually still use this instead of Finepix.
I can send it to anyone who wants it. Just let me know.

[SSonnentag]

PhotoShop 7's new image browser also includes an EXIF pane for viewing the info.

PIE Studio from PicMeta Software displays EXIF info also. http://www.picmeta.com/piestudio.htm But the feature I like best about PIE Studio is its ability to rotate JPG pictures without any loss of quality! Rotation is done without decompression/compression.

Shawn

[Adrian Gilbert]

One of the most useful programs for reading the exif data is Breezebrowser.
Intended for Canon but works equally well for just about anything.