DP Review, and others I am sure, have just published an updated spec sheet for the forthcoming Fuji S5 Pro.

http://www.dpreview.com/news/0612/06120701fujis5pro.asp

This camera is of particular interest to underwater photographers as it is based on the Nikon D200 and should slot directly into existing D200 housings. The S5 will have different strengths than the D200, and is expected to offer excellent colour reproduction combined with exceptional dynamic range. It might also be expected to have better high ISO noise control than the D200.

This creates the interesting situation where an underwater photographer who already has a D200 can buy a S5 as a backup. As the cameras have different strengths the photographer could then choose the tool that they prefer for a particular dive. The high dynamic range of the S5 should make it better for wide angle shots containing the sun, and its high ISO noise reduction make it better for low light wrecks and filter photography. The higher resolution of the D200 would probably be better for macro shooting.

We'll learn more when the S5 is actually available next year.

Alex

Looks promising. That's the one that does 30 seconds of live preview isn't it? I hadn't realised it was a D200 body. That makes it a very useful underwater proposition.

The resolution issue is an interesting one. Judging by the spatial performance of the old F700, I'd expect the S5 Pro to deliver about 9-10 MPixels of useable resolution in its 12 MPixel mode. At which point there may not be much at all to choose between the image quality of this and the D200. Definitely something to watch. Maybe we'll see even better sunball rendering than the 5D.

Martyn

For those interested there is some more S5 discussion in this thread

I can't wait to get my hands on one to compare.

The Fuji's sensor is 23.0 x 15.5 mm as against the d200's 23.6 x 15.8mm, which means the images shot with your wide angle won't be quite as wide (approx 2.5% less effective angle i think). Not much when you say it fast (some might say too little to worry), but a couple of degrees at the 10-12 mm end of the range.

Sharpness was always an issue with the fuji d-slrs, hopefully there will be some improvement on that front.

darren

I'm still shooting my Fuji S2 and sharpness has never been an issue for me. I do apply more sharpening in post to my Fuji images than my D200 or my D2h(before I sold it) but I assume that's only because the Fuji applies less in camera sharpening than Nikon. The resolution on the S2 is fine.

I'm really looking forward to seeing what this camera brings. I just hope it uses the same battery. The recent DPReview preview listed the battery as a NP-150. I'm hoping that's just a difference in Nikon vs Fuji part numbers and the batteries are interchangeable. I've also seen the MSRP of $1899 from a couple of different sources - sounds pretty good.

My interest in sharpness stems from a commercial photographer colleague of mine that was is in a similar situation to Lionfish43, shooting first S2 and now both S2 and D200. He shoots them both in different situations, depending on the job. We spend a lot of time comparing notes on RAW processing (I have a d200 and a 1ds), and I do some printing for him. I find his fuji files to be fabulous in all aspects except sharpness, and his nikon files take more work to get to look as good as the fuji colour/tone/noise-wise, but are always sharper.

I was interested in the comments on the Luminous Landscape site about the (albeit pre-release) prints from S5 files displayed there. And I know they were, and still are still working on the camera at that point.

The new S5 buffer specs just released don't look that encouraging, but I guess there will be compromises to get the best image quality.