Fujifilm FinePix S1000fd review: Fujifilm FinePix S1000fd

Superzooms bridge the gap between the control and flexibility of dSLRs and the size and simplicity of a compact camera. But as enormous great 18x and 20x zoom lenses become more common, we're also seeing smaller superzooms, such as the 10-megapixel Fujifilm FinePix S1000fd. It packs a 12x optical zoom lens and costs around £170.

5.5

Fujifilm FinePix S1000fd

$54 at Amazon

The Good

Decent noise control; small size.

The Bad

Uninspiring lens; hamfisted zoom; fussy controls.

The Bottom Line

The disappointing Fujifilm FinePix S1000fd is small but not pocketable, complicated but not compelling. Decent noise control is the highlight, but there's nothing else to write home about with a camera that wants to be the best of both worlds, and ends up simply wanting

Design
Small size is a big factor in the S1000fd's design. It's certainly petite for a superzoom. Despite this, the grip is a good size for the right hand, with plenty of room between the grip and the relatively small lens for your fingers. One-handed shooting is possible, although the AA batteries make it heavier than it looks. At least they're universally available. The S1000fd is also consumer-friendly in that it takes both proprietary xD cards and the more commonly used SD cards.

The screen is a decent-sized 69mm (2.7-inch) LCD. An electronic viewfinder sits above the screen. The 230,000-dot resolution isn't bad, but it looks rather gritty and renders diagonal lines very jaggedly.

The controls are straightforward, with a standard four-way clickpad, playback button, a button for toggling between the EVF and LCD, and an exposure-compensation button. A function menu gives access to some shooting options. We feel that the exposure compensation and F buttons duplicate each other: the F button only gives access to three rarely-used options -- ISO, quality and film effect -- which could easily have been put together with the exposure controls under one button.

We also couldn't get our heads around the dedicated burst mode button, which on our model just doesn't do anything: enabling burst mode involves pressing the menu button and selecting high-speed shooting.

One of the most important design elements of any superzoom is its zoom control. While the S1000fd's collar rocker switch is fast and pleasingly springy, it's not very sensitive. A smaller zoom such as this 12x lens would seem to be ideal for a more delicate zoom, but the control leaps in hamfisted increments.

Features
The lens has an equivalent focal length to 33-396mm on a 35mm camera. That's not particularly wide, to go with the zoom being not particularly long.

The face-detection system can find up to six faces at a time. It will then stay locked on to track a face around the frame. Face detection is also used to spot eyes and correct red-eye from every face in the frame, if necessary. These options can be turned on by a dedicated button.

There are no surprises in the scene modes, comprising portrait, landscape, sport, night, fireworks, sunset, snow, beach, museum, party and flower. The mode wheel gives access to aperture and shutter priority, as well as full manual mode and two customisable user-defined modes.

As well as seeing things far away, a super macro mode allows you to capture an image as close as 20mm. Video is available at VGA resolution, while panorama mode stitches together three 3-megapixel images to create a wide shot.

Performance
In a criminal move for a superzoom, the S1000fd has no optical image stabilisation. Instead it relies on the sensitivity-boosting method of increasing shutter speed. In any other manufacturer's camera this would be a major black mark for the consequent noise problems, but Fujifilm is noted for dealing well with noise.

Indeed, the S1000fd's biggest strength is its decent image quality at faster ISO speeds. Even at the maximum ISO 3,200, detail is still relatively crisp, with colours not too washed-out. Best of all, image noise, although clearly in evidence, does not overwhelm the picture.

This crop shows test images at ISO 200 (left), 800 (centre) and 3,200 (right) showing how a respectable level of colour and detail is retained

Despite not being the most heavyweight lens in the sector, the S1000 suffers from various optical problems. There is some barrel distortion at the wide angle, and purple fringing shows up more often than we'd like.

Face detection is great at finding static subjects, but autofocus is pretty slow and can be foxed by changing lighting conditions or fast-moving subjects.

This image shows a reasonable amount of detail in the darker areas, but highlights are somewhat blown out and purple fringing is in evidence

We had no complaints about battery life, bearing in mind that the S1000fd is powered by AA batteries. We didn't have to change the batteries in a week of use, taking about 100 shots. The flash even cycles quickly, considering it uses AAs.

Conclusion
The Fujifilm FinePix S1000fd is something of a let-down. In a category often accused of falling between two stools, the S1000fd fails to play to the strengths of a superzoom, as its bigger brother, the FinePix S8100fd, does so well. It may be small, but a half-heartedly specced lens and fussy controls mean that the genuinely pocketable and easy-to-use Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ5 does the compact superzoom thing much better.

Edited by Nick Hide