Preview mode not working

in the past I have operated by having my S3 set on preview mode. In that mode the image comes up on the LCD screen and stays there till I make it go away by pressing the shutter lightly or the delete button.

Yesterday, at the start of a wedding, it turned off after the 2-3 second delay that looked liike the other mode. Can't remember the menu name, but no matter where I set it, then or now, with or without reading the manual-as I thought I had somehow moved outside of a normal mode and that maybe when I got back I could re-set it after reading about what I had done wrong.

No deal, the camera just gives the 2 second screen and then that screen just goes blank.

A real pain since the review function takes so long on the S3 and this 2 second review has to be fixed or I can't use the camera.

Anyone seen it, heard or it?

Resetting everything does nothing, leaving the batterie4s out for an hour does nothing. Am trying 8 hours without batteries.

?????????????
Ideas,

Hi Walter,

I have the same prolblem with my S3, it only seems to have happened after I upgraded the firmware. It will not preview for 6 or seven shots then all of a sudden it seems to work, or it works fine, I like you tried resetting everything, but it still does it. It is a real pain as I only wish to see the histogram as the monitor is way out.

Regards Rob

This defect, and believe me it is a defect, is a killer in this cmera. The saving grace of the S3 with its oh so slow review mode for me in shooting weddings has been that the preview came up quickly with no fuss and I always used the brightness monitor to guage where I am was in terms of overall exposure. If that mode does not work then the camera is unusable for weddings.

I shot one yesterday in full sun and missed shots that I would have normally gotten. The miss is not unrecoverable but it really angers me that it happened.

Regardless of how good the images are I am not going back to meters and calculations on distances etc in the middle of important shots.

I love the image quality but without that feedback the camera will be a bust.

By the way, I have not upgraded the software so that isn't it.

I just have to say it....both you and Rob-uk are having the SAME problem??? Alan in Montana has an S3 that can hardly seem to shoot to its own xD card slot. Witness his post and saga at http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1020&message=13584107 The S3's got a suprisingly BAD reputation for mechanical/electronic reliability. Auto-rotate problems,even after firmware update. Slow,slow card writes and LCD review times. A two- or three-shot RAW buffer,depending on how the camera is set up. Is the preview feature different with the camera in Continuous mode or Single Shot mode? Some reviewers missed some things on the S3,depending on what mode they had the camera set to advance in,either Continuous or Single. The 17-55 Dx and SB 800 flash combo is malfunctioning on SnapHappy I believe it is, as well as his 70-200VR. I READ two posts from the SAME S3 shooter yesterday,asking about why the 17-55 Dx and 70-200VR are erring out.

Fuji had a lot of problems with the S2 being unable to recognize larger cards (4-gig), as well as a flat-out problem with some CF media....this was one of the biggest issues Thom Hogan pointed out that the Fuji engineers needed to get straightened out when they designed their S3 model. Now we're hearing that 1 gig xD cards are often much slower than 512 MB models.....and so on.

There are NOT many S3's in actual use. Just how reliable and "smooth" is this camera when the pressure is on? If it will not work,reliably with the 17-55 Dx and 70-200VR, who would want it? it's one thing to have a camera start balking when out in the back yard snapping practice photos,or shooting some fun pictures of friends or families, but as somebody's once in a lifetime day is going by, just how reliable is the S3? I'm surprised at the number of glitches and Err's I am hearing about this body,from a very small user pool.

So....lurkers....readers who have never posted--weight in: any problems with your S3???

Ideas? Spare S3 Pro,all readfy to go? Canon 20D? Nikon D70? Nikon D2x?

--
Happy Shooting!
Derrel

Derrel

Thank you. thank you, thank you---go fine the reliability problem hung elsewhere!

You sloved the problem.

I had been experimenting with trying to get the camera to fire quickly the day before with my Quantum T4D flash and I had set the frame to multiple instead of single shot. I just now turned it back to single shot and voila-my preview is back. In multiple frame mode the preview mode is apparently disabled.

Praise Derrel and wherever else he gets his information from.

It's fixed.
2

Derrel, with reliabiilty high and no issues other than it has now, the S3 is a jewel of a cemera for making images in bright sunshine.

Yesterday-wedding at Montecello Winery in Napa Calif. 90 degrees and absolutely clear sky. It has been raining a lot here recently so the air was as crisp and clear as I have ever seen it. Wedding march started promptly at 5 and I shot in two modes.

1. When the bride and groom were standing with the sun at their back I used a fill flash to give detail to their dark faces because the meter was being driven off the map with sunshine coming in at me with a lot of bright white chairs etc reflecting.

2. With the sun at my back and on that pretty white dress, I metered off the dress-in F2 mode, no flash and let it rip. I was chicken so I bracketed down 1/2 and 1 stop but it was a waste of time and lost me some perfect images. Direct metering of the dress in center weighted mode in bright sunshine, bright blue sky and a gentleman in a black tux standing necxt to the white dress and I did not wash out the whitedress one time, shadow detail is great and the images are so rich in color I am afraid to show them to the couple.

My wife loves them, a few prospective brides were over here this morning and they love the images but I know that they are so far from what the real color was that I am nervous. But, they are beautiful.

I shot the S2 at the same time and unless I under exposed by about 1 stop, at least half of the dress was always washed out in JPG mode.

I've said this before and a few of you have suggested that I might be smoking something for saying it but, if you have the S3 try it. Shoot in F2 mode in direct sunlight and shoot the same thing in RAW.

Try to get the same effect in your image that F2 mode gives you in JPG by manipulating the image in PS or where ever. My opinion is that you do not have access to the same handles that Fuji does to mix the big and little sensor data and that you just cannot get the same rapid fall off of intensity over short distances while not losing detail in that same high intensity area.

So far only problems with two xD cards on my S3. One a brand new Fuji appears to have been defective since it would not work on any camera I tried it on. It was returned to Best Buy for a replacement. The second card is a used Olympus 512 mb xD card that works fine on at least 4 other cameras but not on mine, yet. I have 7 other xD cards and 10 CF cards that seem to be working so far. I will be keeping an eye on things and each of my cards is marked so I can keep track of problems they might develop.

Here's hoping all works well. I would hate to have to take a loss on a trade on the D200 when it finally comes along. Of course I stuck with a 1972 Chevy Vega GT for 110,000 miles, all happy after I had the engine rebuilt and sleeved. I never did have to replace any of the exhaust system in all that time.

Alan, in Montana

Derrel said:

So....lurkers....readers who have never posted--weight in: any
problems with your S3???

Click to expand...

That's the problem with most internet forums like these. Most of the time only the people with problems post here. To make matters worst, people making good comments about any camera are accused of being cheerleaders so the number of people happy with their cameras are probably fewer than it can be. This can lead to people thinking that there is a higher ratio of complaints or problems. I always take the amount of complaints on any forums with a grain of salt because I know that most happy owners are out shooting and not reading these forums. I also pay attention to the problem being posted to see if it effects me in the real world and not just an excuse some people use to say that their camera is better than another's. Everyone has different needs from their camera so a complaint someone else has might be meaningless to me.

Also just to be clear I'm not directly replying to you Derrel. I just quoted you because I agree that every S3 owner should make a comment, but then again some happy owners may not even come here if they don't have problems with their camera. I like discussing with fellow S3 owners which is why I am here but so far I really haven't had any reliability problems with my S3. I own 5 Nikon lenses and the S3 works with all 5 of them and my SB-800 flash. I do agree that it's a shame about the 1 gig xD cards but I still use my CF cards and only use my xD card when I need it which isn't too often.

I have no loyalties towards Fuji or any brand because I would rather use what works for me and not blindly stick to whatever brand. So far the S3 has preformed well for me and I use it professionally without it failing. So for anyone reading these forums I would recommend actually trying out the cameras for yourself and base your judgements on your own opinions rather than relying too much on "professional" reviews and others. Before buying the camera, I admit that I was concerned about the reported slow write speeds but I found that my shooting style wasn't based on rapid fire. The pros out weighed the cons for me.

For Walter, yes as you found out the preview feature changes depending on if you use single shot or burst frame shot modes. In single shot mode you get the standard preview that has all your historgram, zooming features, highlight warning, etc and stays on until you turn click ok or press the shutter button. In burst shot mode you only get a brief 1-2 second preview.

No problems really.

Still wish it wrote to CF faster, but I knew that when I bought it so that is not a bug, that simply a fact and condition of purchase.

Derrel, I still don't reccomend the S3 for you though unless you find the stated limitations acceptable.

--
Thanks!
Mark
Fuji DReam Machine shooter
My new website!
http://www.eyesalive.com

we all discover this in our own way, but Derrel remembered the reviewer getting this wrong (and he doesn't yet have the S3!)
I was racing to post this when I decided to read Derrel's post first
this is a quirk of the S3 & may even have some arcane purpose

glad Derrel came through, but I wish you hadn't used such a flame seeking title for your post ...I suspect you knew what Walter's problem was as soon as you saw his post, just as I did

from what I have seen from reading carefully the DSLR forums reasonably regularly, the S3 does pretty well in reliability department, at least so far

I have seen many posts regarding series QC problems in the Nikon/Canon/Kodak forums ...other than the S2's bad series of sensors (which Fuji corrected honorably I think), their DSLR's have been pretty reliable, I think

--
pbase & dpreview supporter
Fuji SLRT forum member since 5/2001
http://www.pbase.com/artichoke

Is the camera in continous or single shoot mode. The preview only stays on screen when using single shot mode. Hope this helps

Thanks for the reply Derrel I shall give it a go tonight, but if I remember rightly I don't shoot continuous, but have been using timed release so maybe I set it wrong after that. But once again thanks for the reply.

Many Regards Rob

Haven't had a problem with it... so far so good...

Cheers

Steve

PS my S2 has given up the ghost though (shutter sticking)...

Thank you Paul... I had the same problem today and you just solved and saved me calling Fuji. I feel silly. And BTW, once you know how to use the S3 properly, the images are simply stunning.

Thanks!
Fred

Paul Adams said:

Is the camera in continous or single shoot mode. The preview only
stays on screen when using single shot mode. Hope this helps

Click to expand...