Aug 23, 2010 06:03 PM
2527 Views
This is a great camera for with all round good functionality and quality. It's a bridging camera at the end of the day and you have to remember that but it's so much better than using a compact camera in terms of results and option and there are situations where the lens is so useful that it's better than having an SLR around - it's much smaller than an SLR too so you can still carry it around without too much hassle.
The super zoom is amazing: 30x optical zoom just can't be beaten. The starting point for the lens is a wide angle which can then be zoomed to an amazing level so you have the best of both worlds. bought this for a safari trip and it was perfect: other cameras couldn't zoom in close enough to the subject and those that could had SLR lenses that were not suitable for use in between taking pictures of the animals. With the Fuji I could just concentrate on taking the shot I wanted.
There is a lot in the way of control that you can have with this camera and many of the options can be accessed via buttons on the back of the camera quickly instead of having to trawl through menu options. All the usual suspects such as different exposure types, white balance, focus options etc. etc. and there is even an option for manual focus using the ring at the back of the zoom lens. When you use manual zoom the view finder magnifies so you can be sure your image is in focus.
There are lots of good things about this camera and everything you read from the manufacturers listing seems to work as intended and is generally useful or else a great little add on to play with on occasion.
My only gripe is shutter speed in that it can be a little slow but then you do tend to get this with bridging cameras so I can't hold it against this model in general.
Also, the use of 4 AA batteries is a mistake in my opinion as it makes the camera much heavier than it needs to be.
The camera feels good to hold and is well balanced and all of my shots so far have been great, from sunsets to animal shots, to nice scenes, tropical beaches, stormy weather and so on. The results have been fantastic .
