Fujifilm FinePix S1000fd First Thoughts

[Howard Creech]

The Fujifilm FinePix S1000fd is a stylish, budget-priced, extended-zoom digicam that looks a lot like a scaled down DSLR. The long-zoom digicam class has ballooned from just a couple of models in 2000 to the bloated list of entries currently available, and that means that each new model is obliged to provide a few more bells and whistles than the model before in order to garner any notice. Fuji claims the S1000fd (which replaces the S700) is the world's smallest 10 megapixel digital camera with a 12x optical zoom.

The S1000fd features a 12X (33-396mm equivalent) Fujinon optical zoom, but strangely no optical or mechanical image stabilization. The S1000fd provides users with Fuji’s version of Face Detection (with automatic red-eye removal) – which works by triangulating the eyes and mouth and then optimizing all exposure parameters (AF, white balance, sensitivity, etc.) for up to six faces.

In addition the S1000fd features a 2.7-inch LCD screen, a 30 fps VGA movie mode, sensitivity that extends to ISO 3200 (at reduced resolution), macro shooting as close as five inches, and a new panoramic mode.

My initial impressions after some quality time spent shooting with the S1000fd under a variety of conditions suggest that the control layout is somewhat counter-intuitive, which makes the camera harder to use than it should be.

Shooting anything other than static subjects can be pretty frustrating because the S1000fd’s auto focus system is bit slower than average and shutter lag is noticeably longer than average.

On the control side, with most digicams you push the OK button on the compass switch to confirm menu choices and select camera functions, but not with the S10000fd: somewhat confusingly, you must remember to halfway press the shutter button to confirm/select.

In the full review I'll address image quality, noise levels, optical performance, battery life, and general usability in more detail, but overall the S1000fd looks to come in near the middle of the pack.

 

 

[Andy Stanton]

Doesn't sound good so far. The S700 was extremely popular and I wonder if the S1000fd is worse in the areas of performance, ergonomics and image quality.

[David Rasnake]

I was surprised by this as well given the S700's popularity. Slow AF and too much shutter lag can definitely take a good thing and make it bad though, and I'll be interested to see how the rest of the assessment turns out.

dr

[bob_katayama]

I came to very similar conclusions after spending 16 days with the S1000fd.

Useless features:
Continous shoot modes only work in lower resolutions and only uses settings based on the first image only.
Sports mode mostly generated very dark or black images since the exposure and focus was too slow to keep up when moving with the action.
Picture Stability is a mode only and stabilization is not applicable in all zoom related modes. Therefore in Picture Stability mode, you have very little control over the other settings. When using telephoto/zoom a tripod is highly recommended with all other mode settings.
AUTO mode produced far below average picture exposure.

Really annoying lens cap that falls off when the power is turned on and the lens extends out.

I did a comprehensive review on my site www.technobrains.com that indicates similar findings as Howard and I was totally disappointed with this camera.

Bob