The Fuji Finepix s3 Pro features a 12.34 million effective pixels Fujifilm Super CCD SR II image sensor designed specifically for professional photography. It creates a wider dynamic range to produce images that approach true photographic quality. As a result, the S3 Pro will capture highlight and shadow detail often lost by digital cameras in high contrast scenes. In addition, Super CCD SR sensor technology provides a higher level of sensitivity, improved signal-to-noise ratio and more natural color reproduction. The S3 Pro offers several digital SLR “firsts,” including the ability to adjust the camera’s dynamic range, activate a Film Simulation tool that enhances skin tones and color, and the ability to briefly use the LCD monitor as a live viewfinder.

The Imaging-Resource have reviewed this professional digital camera and say-

“Now comes the S3 Pro, a camera that takes a somewhat different path, trading off image resolution to achieve dramatically greater dynamic range. Its body size and design will prompt many to compare it with lower-end (and much cheaper) “prosumer” d-SLRs, but that’s not really a fair comparison, given its amazing imaging capabilities. When it comes to preserving difficult highlights without disturbing the tonality or color rendition of the rest of the image, the Fujifilm S3 Pro is unquestionably without equal anywhere in the digital camera market. If you’re a wedding photographer, perpetually challenged by the need to capture white-on-white detail under difficult lighting conditions, you shouldn’t even think twice. — This is the camera you need, it’ll save you thousands of dollars in lost shots and missed opportunities, most likely in the first few jobs alone. Portrait and commercial photographers should find a lot of benefit in the S3 Pro’s exceptional dynamic range as well, as it could help relax lighting requirements (and therefore setup times) quite a bit. The one minor negative note about the S3 Pro’s amazing dynamic range performance is that you really need to work in RAW mode and process its files through Adobe’s Camera Raw 2 Photoshop(tm) plugin to get the absolute most out of it. (That said though, JPEGs straight from the camera do noticeably better with difficult highlights than even images processed from RAW files from competing d-SLRs.)

Other camera parameters are fairly middle-of the road, with less than spectacular shot to shot speeds, and mediocre battery life. It’s easy to forgive these minor shortcomings though, in exchange for the incredible dynamic range the S3 offers.

Bottom line, Fujifilm appears to have achieved exactly what they set out to do with the S3 Pro, delivering a camera with dynamic range that equals or exceeds that of film, with excellent color and tonal rendition in the bargain. Highly recommended, especially if your work involves a lot of tricky highlight detail. (An easy Dave’s Pick.)”

A glowing report indeed!

Read the entire Fuji FinePix S3 Pro review here.