8 out of 8 people found this review helpful.
very good bridge camera
Date of Review: Sep 16, 2009
The Bottom Line: a very versatile camera giving full DSLR settings is required and solid Auto functionality. Excellent sensor giving high quality images. lens zoom range is ideal.
I'd been looking at a bridge camera for a while and decided upon the Fuji S100FS, just before they released the S200FS! it has evolved technology from the superb Fuji S5Pro DSLR and so produces images with great dynamic range: good depth in blacks & shadow detail and highlights retain detail rather than just blowing out.
I use it for general everyday photography as it's light and easy to carry all day. It's not too big & the zoom range 28mm to 400 is very good. I also use it for in church wedding photography as it is near silent as it has no mirror & therefore no 'click slap' to echo around the place!
the colours are true at the standard setting, I normally like mine a little saturated, but these are good from default. it has Velvia (saturated) Provia (natural) and a Soft mode these can be manually configured & stored in user settings which can be recalled with a single twist of the command knob.
it's a very good camera for people photography and it's face detection technology really works.
the major plus point is the lens 28-400mm, for a travel camera it's all you need the image stabilisation works fine though I still like to rest against something solid and breath out slowly if I need a particular shot. at 28mm it gives a very reasonable wide angle coverage which works great for landscapes & closeups (macro mode) at the far end 400mm the results are fine, not perfect, but for the price and weight very good.
my big frustration with the lens & camera in general is the slow focus, but I think that is just me expecting too much from the camera in certain situations, lower light and extended zoom & fast moving subjects. in macro mode there are warning indicators that let you know auto focus issues, adhere to those and focus is fine.
The macro mode was an unexpected and superb bonus. I used the camera to photograph jewellery for a clients website. the resuts were excellent: very sharp detail, good colour and able to get within 4cm of the subject in super macro mode.
I use the camera in JPEG rather than RAW recording mode as the RAW format makes huge files. The JPEGs produced have been of a high quality: good colours, shadow & highlight detail.
The camera has Movie, Auto, a couple of user configurable modes also: Manual (you set everything) Aperture (you set the size of the shutter from 2.8 to f8, the camera sets shutter speed) Shutter (you set the shutter speed & the camera decides the best aperture setting) and Program mode (camera decides shutter & aperture, very much like Auto mode though you can still set ISO & exposure)
another nice feature is the foldout & tilt rear LCD screen that at the press of a button doubles as the viewfinder: good for overhead & awkward shots.
the menu is a little clunky, but I find most are until you get used to them. If you are used to a Fuji menus, you'll be fine else a little learning curve.
a coupe of well thought out features that are unexpected and would benefit major DSLR manufacturers are the lens cap attachment that fits to the neck strap & the removable lug that allows easy access to polarising lens filters (if you buy & attach one)
the battery takes about an hour to charge and I shot 200+ (11mp, fine) images on a 2Gb SD card, at room temperature, in 5 hours, non-stop, before it gave up.
the ISO rating is 100 to 3200. I try never to go over 800. 100 to 3200 are at full 11mp. 6400 ISO reduces the images to 6mp and 10,000 ISO to 3mp. Would anyone ever shoot at those high ISO's and get a decent image? if you need the shot the option is there. Up to 800 the noise in dark areas of a photo is acceptable over 800 the quality starts to drop off.
overall a very good everyday camera: travel, portrait & macro photography are areas where it excels.
