The Fujifilm FinePix S100FS is an 11-megapixel bridge camera. It seriously blurs the line between dSLR and bridge cameras, with features borrowed from the Fujifilm FinePix S5 Pro, and is available now for around £400.
Design
The first thing you'll notice is the S100's size. It's actually chunkier than entry-level cameras such as the Olympus E-510, with the giant lens dwarfing the E-510's kit lens. There are opposing schools of thought on this subject, with some preferring more hefty cameras. The S100's size fortunately translates into a solid grip, with a comfortable rubberised contour for the fingers of the right hand.
The lens starts at a pleasingly-wide 28mm, equivalent to a 35mm film camera. It has a long 14.3x lens, making it very versatile. The zoom lens is mechanically stabilised, to keep the shakes from spoiling pictures. You can also use the zoom while filming video, which is unusual -- although the autofocus is occasionally foxed by zooming in or out.
Zoom and manual focus are controlled by turning the lens ring. This is great for zooming, but we're not sold on the manual focus. The fault lies with the viewfinder: it's electronic, and even though switching from autofocus to manual focus magnifies the centre portion of the image, the EVF isn't clear enough for really precise focus. That said, you do get a slider scale that shows how accurately you have focused. Moving the camera around also leads to the red, green and blue artefacts appearing on-screen. It's not an unpleasant effect -- like wearing 3D glasses.
Other features are controlled by a plethora of buttons and dials, including a metering selector. Despite the number of buttons, the controls are straightforward and unintimidating. One SLR-like feature is a control wheel that decides the shutter speed -- or aperture, if the exposure compensation button is pressed -- for manual control similar to an entry-level dSLR.
One of the S100's most interesting features is the 64mm (2.5-inch) tilting LCD screen. It hinges out from the back of the camera in a similar way to the Sony Alpha series. Somehow, this method doesn't feel as elegant as the camcorder-style sideways-folding method employed by the Olympus E-3, but the angle of view is insanely good, with the contents of the screen visible right up until perspective cuts the screen off from view.
As well as a hot shoe, the S100 has a PC sync socket for connecting external flashes.
Features
Imaging is handled by an 11-megapixel CCD, which is 2/3 of an inch -- bigger than the average compact's sensor. The larger size would be expected to resolve more detail and reduce noise.
You get all the usual scene modes -- landscape, portrait and so on -- as well as four modes for shooting nature. We're not sure why these nature settings merited a separate menu and position on the mode wheel. Meanwhile, film simulation -- hence 'S100FS' -- modes mimic the look and feel of different types of film.
There are two custom white balance options, so you don't have to manually reset custom settings. You also get Fuji's clever face detection 2.0, which will find up to 10 human faces in a scene, even if they're in profile, and also corrects red eye. The macro focuses on items 100mm away -- at the widest angle -- but a super macro goes as close as 10mm.
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TonyB 29 October 2012
Good: great photos, having actually used this camera, & taken over 200,000.0 shots, using 3 batteries in rotation, I have achieved in excess of 500 shots per charge, and still going.
Bad: Excessive wait time when using RAW
Comment: When are fuji produce a descent replacement for this camera. Takes great shots in low light. Far, far better than the hs30, shame, everything else about the hs30 seems fine.
Dr Nelmes 17 July 2008
Good: SLR-like features - all in one package
Bad: Battery life too short
Comment: Let'sfirst get the price issue out of the way. It is entirely subjective so I haven't considered this in my appraisal.
After nearly 30 years of lugging around a large and very heavy bag full of lenses and equipment I'd had enough so I was looking for everything all in one package. This is where the S100FS meets my needs perfectly. I'm no longer picking which lense to use as it's all in one. The range of features - Auto, Selective Bracketing (very useful), Fully Manual, Aperture priority, Shutter priority to name but a few leave nothing wanting for total control of shooting conditions and subject matter.
The fringing is there (as with many other manufacturers' offerings) but it is easily corrected in Photoshop Elements (earlier versions being almost given away now).
Shutter lag is virtually non-existent and, when compared to the Panasonic Lumix FZ18 and the Canon Powershot S5 IS, the digital viewfinder is streets ahead remembering that it is not an SLR!
Optically it is very good and having been a frequent user of 28mm wide angles it is one of the few bridging cameras with it as I have found in the past that 35mm isn't wide enough for me and the 400mm "other end" is more than enough.
The tilting screen is superb and the best bridging camera offering that I've seen by a long shot with images being crystal clear, even on a sunny day.
Although it has a miriad of features it is relativley easy to work through the menus and the 2 Custom settings are great for creating such things as a one-touch external flash manual mode. Just put on the flash, switch to custom 1 (or 2) and you're ready to go.
On the subject of flash, as it doesn't support dedicate flash, I can use my old Olympus-dedicated and Vivitar non-dedicated units with perfect results.
Build quality is very good and although heavy, it has a great balanced feel, unlike many other that felt and looked cheap.
If I were to loose it tomorrow would I by the same camera again? Without hesitation. To me, the perfect all-round solution has arrived.
David Yates 25 May 2008
Good: Easier to use than any DSLR and more powerful than any compact
Bad: Could not have found it sooner!!! I love it
Comment: I own the camera and can not put into words how amazing this is. My friend wasted so much money on a DSLR. He has the Nikon D60 by the way, he spent loads on the body, then lenses, and it takes him ages to change the lenses for each shot.
So when I found this I was amazed how great the quality of images were, how easy it was to quickly zoom in on anything and how amazing this looks. And yes people do stare at the camera in envy :)
Though the images dont do it as much justice as they do in real life like in the image below;
http://fc05.deviantart.com/fs26/f/2008/144/4/a/Trees_Alley_by_grenouille_enchantee.jpg
and this is scaled down.
If you are looking for a camera, any camera then buy it.
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