Limited possibilities! (Fujifilm Finepix S2000HD)

Member Name: thebigc1690

Product:	Fujifilm Finepix S2000HD
Date:	07/01/09 (488 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Offers a non DSLR option to people ready to move beyond point and shoot .

Disadvantages: Too many limits to make it a real option to serious photographers .

I recently attended a seminar on photography lighting, I was there as a guest speaker as were a few others and the gentleman that spoke directly in front of me, inspired me to write this review on the Fujifilm FinePix S2000HD.

The reason he inspired me to write this is that the Fujifilm FinePix S2000HD is a camera I have tested in the past and found a few problems with, yet here was a professional photographer like myself, preaching to an audience of amateurs that if they wanted to get perfect results in portrait photography they could do it without a DSLR camera and that this Fujifilm camera was just as capable of producing the results when in the right hands.

What he was telling the class was absolute nonsense and as he told the class to go online and check out reviews on this camera and to consider it ahead of splashing out on a DSLR, I decided to write a review on it myself in the hope that they would find my review and be persuaded not to waste there money.

Now whilst the Fujifilm FinePix S2000HD is not a replacement for a DSLR it is in its own right a fine camera, Fujifilm are well known for producing this type of camera known as a "bridge camera" because it is supposed to bridge the gap between cheap point and shoot digitals and the much more up-market DSLR`s. This particular offering from Fujifilm is part of a line of bridge cameras that can be traced back to the FinePix 4900 Zoom, launched in the summer of 2000.

Cameras in general have come a long way in that time and so has the Fujifilm bridge range and this Fujifilm FinePix S2000HD is a 10.0 megapixel camera with a 15x zoom lens, sensor-shift image stabilization and HD video recording which really is some piece of equipment for less than £200 but if you are a serious photographer looking to produce images of the highest quality perhaps to sell or if you wish to do portrait work for people and charge them for it then this unit will let you and your customer down.

It is little surprise that the Fujifilm FinePix S2000HD has become a big seller because there is no other camera in it`s price range that comes close to matching what it offers but this does not make it a great camera, more of a decent camera at a great price and when you start to test it out to the full you soon find that there are problems a plenty to be found.

One of the things this camera seems to pride itself on is the fact that the single fitted lens can cope with wide 22mm shots or it can be zoomed in a massive 15 times, the trouble with this though is that the image suffers badly at either 22mm wide or at full zoom whereas a dedicated lens for a DSLR would be able to shoot at its limits no problem, so whilst you are getting the option to shoot at this range you are not going to produce clean crisp images.

The other big thing of note with this camera is its ability to shoot HD video, this means nothing to me nor to any other pro photographers as we do not buy big fancy DSLR`s to shoot video we buy them to take photographs and if we want to video we buy cam corders. The option of shooting HD video has nothing to do with photography but may be a welcome addition to a person buying this as purely a family camera, the trouble is that although it does shoot HD footage it is still like all other cameras that take video, in that if the light is short of perfect then the outcome of the video is poor.

The S2000HD features a sensor-shift image stabilization system, this is essential when shooting at long focal lengths or in poor light and for anyone who does not know what this is it is a system that counteracts camera shake to avoid blurry images in poor light or at full zoom.

The system on this camera unfortunately though does not work terribly well and whereas a similar system on the Sony A200 DSLR allows you to shoot at around three stops of extra stability, which basically means you can hand hold shake free as low as 1/100th of a second shutter speed, I found it impossible to shoot any lower than about 1/500th of a second without getting very noticeable blur in the image using the Fujifilm FinePix S2000HD, so whilst it is a good thing to have it is little more than a gimmick on this unit as it doesn't really do that much.

There are a few other features that let this unit down if you are attempting to compare it to a DSLR such as its thirteen shooting modes which when flicked through tend to do very little to alter the outcome of the image, the good thing in this department though is that there is the option to save two pre-sets of your own which will allow you to be able to at least go back to the pre-sets you have loaded and be ready to shoot those certain settings, if you are serious about your photography then you will probably be at the point where you choose your settings manually as you go anyway but it is worth mentioning to those not at this stage that the settings on this unit are very limited.

The camera also offers face detection and spot metering both of which I would have to say did work and did offer something extra that a lot of point and shoots do not but again they come nowhere close to the same settings when found in DSLR`s.

The last thing I want to point out as a fault in this unit is the promise that it can shoot continuously at the very high speed of 13.5 frames per second, when I saw this I was very impressed as that is an incredible speed for a bridge unit of ten megapixels but I soon found out that this was actually closer to ten frames per second and that you had to reduce the megapixel to a very low 3 megapixels in order to perform this task and also there is the fact that if the flash is needed it can't keep up.

Now this may be sounding like I am saying this is a bad camera and no one should consider buying it at all but that is actually not the case, if you are a person moving up from point and shoot but you do not feel ready for the jump to DSLR and the worry of having to change lenses and play around with every setting to get the correct image then this bridge camera by Fujifilm could be just for you but if you are trying to move on to the pro scene or attempt to make money from your photography then you will be fighting a losing battle without a DSLR as those with one will always be a good few steps in front of you.

Ok so you are decided and it is definitely a bridge camera that you want then as I mentioned earlier there is not another out there that can compete with this one on price although the new Canon PowerShot SX1 IS is a far better unit it costs around twice the price and when you start talking about £400 for a bridge camera it seems crazy when you can get a beginner level DSLR and a telephoto lens for around a hundred pound more.

So as a bridge camera let me point out what is good about this unit, starting with how it feels in the hand. Previous models by Fujifilm have felt very light and flimsy but this particular unit has a very good weight to it and the hand grip is rubber covered and feels very good in the hand, it has the look and feel of a small DSLR even if it does not have the quality.

Another good thing about this unit is that Fujifilm have done away with their determination to use the expensive XD memory card that they were involved in the making of and have reverted back to the smaller faster and less expensive SD card loved by most. The other noticeable thing with this camera is the very quick start up and shut down time which is unusual for a camera with such a large zoom and built in auto focus.

Moving on to the auto focus and you have something I was particularly impressed with, it can focus in almost pitch black and does so very quickly, very smoothly and almost silently which is a big improvement on recent offerings by Fujifilm.

During testing I took around 300 images with this unit and the ones that I took in good light and in the middle of its huge zoom range were actually good images that I would be happy to print but the images I took at a higher zoom or in not so good light all showed imperfections such as a high noise level or corner blurring and very noticeable chromatic aberration, so as long as you do not stretch the cameras capability it will perform for you but you really should be able to expect it to perform to its limits rather than having to limit those.

The camera uses 4x AA batteries and unless you use Energizer lithium's you will be replacing these every 100 photos or so especially if you use the zoom a lot or insist on having a look through your images as you take them. With the Energizers you will get around 400 photos so they are well worth the extra couple of pound that they cost as no one wants to run out of battery power just as that special moment comes along.

SPECIFICATIONS

Number of effective pixels

10.0 million pixels

CCD sensor

1/ 2.3-inch CCD

Storage media

Internal memory (Approx. 55 MB) / SD memory card / SDHC memory card

File format

Still image: JPEG (Exif Ver 2.2 ) Movie: MPEG4 (ISO standard) / Audio: WAVE format, Monaural sound (Design rule for Camera File system compliant / DPOF-compatible)

Lens

Fujinon 15x Optical zoom lens (F3.5（Wide) - F5.4 (Telephoto)

Lens focal length

f=5.0mm - 75.0 mm, Equivalent to 27.6- 414 mm on a 35mm camera

Focus

Auto focus (Area, Multi, Centre) / Continuous AF / Manual focus, AF assist illuminator available

Focus distance

Normal: Wide : Approx. 70cm/2.3 ft. to infinity Telephoto: Approx. 2.5 m/8.2 ft to infinity Macro: Wide : Approx. 10cm/3.9 in to 1m/3.3 ft Telephoto: Approx. 70cm/2.3 ft to 3.5 m/11.5 ft Super Macro: Approx. 1cm /0.4 in. to 30cm /1.0 ft.

Shutter speed

(AUTO mode) 1/4 sec. to 1/1000 sec. (All other mode) 4 sec. to 1/1000 sec

Aperture

F3.5- F7.0 (Wide) F5.4-7.0 (Telephoto)

Sensitivity

Auto / Auto(1600) / Auto (800) / Auto (400) / Equivalent to ISO 100 / 200 / 400 / 800 / 1600 / 3200 / 6400 (Standard Output Sensitivity) *ISO 3200/6400: 5M pixels or lower (Number of recorded pixels)

Exposure modes

Programmed AE, Shutter Priority AE, Manual

White balance

Automatic scene recognition. Preset (Fine, Shade, Fluorescent light (Daylight), Fluorescent light (Warm White), Fluorescent light (Cool White), Incandescent light) Custom

Viewfinder

0.2-inch, approx. 200,000 dots FLCD monitor (R/G/B colours are displayed in a single dot), Approx. 97% coverage, 60fps

LCD Monitor

2.7-inch, approx. 230,000 dots, low-temperature polysilicon TFT colour LCD monitor, Approx. 97% coverage, 60fps

Self-timer

Approx. 10 sec./ 2 sec. delay

Video Output

HD OUT, NTSC / PAL selectable

Digital Interface

USB2.0 High-Speed

Power source

4xAA type alkaline batteries (included) / 4xAA type Ni-MH rechargeable batteries(sold separately) / 4xAA type lithium batteries (sold separately) / DC coupler CP-04 with AC power adapter AC-5VX(sold separately)

Dimensions

111.0(W)×78.9(H)×75.7(D) mm/4.4(W)×3.1(H)×3.0(D) in. (excluding accessories and attachments)

Weight

Approx. 386g / 13.0 oz (excluding accessories, batteries and memory card)

Digital Zoom

Approx. 5.7x (max.)

Shooting modes

Mode dial: Auto, PS(Anti-Blur), Natural Light, Natural Light& with Flash, Zoom Bracketing, SP, P, S, M, C (Custom setting position), Movie SP: Portrait, Landscape, Sport, Night, Fireworks, Sunset, Snow, Beach, Museum, Party, Flower, Text, Auction

Movie recording

1280 x 720 pixels(HD), (Max recording time : 15 min.) / 640 x 480 pixels, 320 x 240 pixels, 30 frames/sec. With monaural sound, With Electronic Image Stabilisation * Optical zoom function can be selectable during movie recording.

OVERALL VERDICT

For me this is a camera that offers the chance for people to get to grips with setting shots up manually and could be a good way to get people ready for the jump to DSLR and as it is at such a good price it offers the chance to do so economically. The unit is very robust so once the owner feels the next step needs to be taken and they have outgrown this unit it should still be in a good working state and sellable.

I feel the camera could be outgrown very quickly by a serious photographer and if you feel confident enough to go straight to the DSLR market then go for a starter range DSLR such as the Sony A200 which can be bought for around £279 at the moment and will grow with you rather than stand still as you move on.
This unit has its fault but then every camera has things it does well and things it does not so well so unless you fork out a thousand pound or more for a top of the range DSLR then you are always going to find faults.

The images produced by this camera will probably satisfy most general photographers and will be great for simple family albums or uploading to web spaces but as I have mentioned several times this unit will not allow you to take photos good enough to sell on or allow you to become a portrait photographer charging for your work unless your customers are very easily pleased.
Even under perfect lighting set up by pro`s this cameras white balance struggled to perform and that for me is one of the most important things in getting good images of people, bad white balance will produce bad skin tones and although this can be fixed in photo shop who has the time to alter every image taken?

So there you have it, it is a good camera for the money but nowhere near DSLR performance, you will get more however out of this than you would out of a much more expensive point and shoot Sony Cybershot so you really need to weigh up exactly what your photography needs are before setting out to choose your unit.

MY SCORES

Build quality - 8/10

Features - 7/10

Colour reproduction - 7/10

Style and looks - 7/10

Ease of use - 8/10

Overall image quality - 6/10

Value for money - 7/10


Thanks for reading.

© thebigc1690

Summary: A decent non DSLR option but nothing to shout about.

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