Fujifilm FinePix S100FS

Overall Rating
 4 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
3 Months to 1 year

Visitors rate this review
2.29 of 5,
7 votes

Price Paid:  $700.00 from internet

Summary:
Excellent camera with Excellent lens. This camera is a great find and have been comparing very closely to my D-80 with serious lenses and E-510 with the same.
No, the D-80 is way better but looking at the end result(the pictures) no landslide.
As for the reported run away (ca). I have yet to experience this with many high contrastpictures? Forget the lab talk and just look at the pictures. this is why we buy cameras. The 13 element lens at 67mm speaks for it self over the tradidtional 15-16 light stealer lenses.
Very impressed with this camera love the main features of film simulations and dynamic range enhancements. Well made but the memory door is lite but so is my e-510 and never broke it.
This is a great camera on a picture level that will not let you down in my opinion.
Have no problem with saying I blew it and it is not a great camera but it truly is a wonder and use it all the time and to the max! One of my favorites to say the least!
Use your eye's to determine the value of the pictures no LAB! common sense...

Strengths:
Super macro zoom to .4" really spectacular pictures to be had on this mode for nature photograhy. The film simulation modes are excellent and no gimic as only fuji could show you.
Dynamic range really shows better gradient levels in fine pictures.
The heavy lens of 67mm just a work of great art. Look around at the pictures people are taking with it.
Construction is really great other than the memory door but who cares it's fine ans works. So many other features like the the iso strengths and high speed shots. Have had great low light pictures and the dual image stableizer design is obvious by the effectivness. The EVF that I usually do not like at all is the best have ever seen and can fool you for a momoent as to how good it is and fas

Weaknesses:
Some say too heavy but have no problems with it as it is easier to hold stable from shake and just feels like a real camera. Fixed lens....But what a fixed lens!
Memory door very lite.Battery life somewhere in the 250 shot range but recharge is fast around an 1-1.5 hours.
EVF not for everyone. Not as quiet noise wise as an slr. But so close that you cannot see any difference in 90%+ of your pictures. Extremely acceptible.

Similar Products Used:
Owned a Leica Vlux-1 NO Competition! and noisy. Owned a canon s5 is and talk about CA! Noisy too...

Use a D-80 with a large arsenal of great lenses and a olympus E-510 with great lenses also.

Customer Service:
Have not needed so far...

Daniel H

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 4 of 5

Used product for
Less than 1 month

Visitors rate this review
3.33 of 5,
6 votes

Price Paid:  $669.00 from www.cameracanada.com

Summary:
i have only owned this camera for about 2 weeks now and i must say i find it a big step up from my old fuji finepix S9000...i get great shots even at 400mm zoom..DR works well(no washed out highlights)....i really like all the FS modes...they work well for the most part.....iso up to 10000 at 3m is a big pluse for me....it takes good night shots with some slight tweeking of the settings.....all in all i think it is a great camera for the price..

Strengths:
well constructed
menu easy to navigate
great shots even at 400 mm

Weaknesses:
macro could be a bit better
get a slight purplish ting in some high contrast shots..but this can be fixed some what by useing a polorizing filter
battery runs down quickly

Similar Products Used:
Fuji FinePix S9000

CameraDude1

Overall Rating
 4 of 5

Value Rating
 3 of 5

Used product for
Less than 1 month

Visitors rate this review
3.25 of 5,
4 votes

Price Paid:  $620.00 from AdenCamera

Summary:
Over all I was please with the FUJI s100fs, it is a great camera for hiking, travelling, or if you are a Paparazzi. I purchased my new Fuji S100fs from Aden Camera at $620 Canadian + 20.00 Shipping, but they send me a demo with pictures of their store and employee still in the camera. There were finger prints all over the camera screen, and a small scratch at the side of the flip screen’s frame. I called Aden camera, and they refuse to do anything about it.
My advise is to wait for this camera to go on sale and try not to buy any expensive camera on line.

Strengths:
Good Lens with Effective Optical and Digital Image Stabilization functions.
Good adjustable Flip screen.
Takes good pictures at Low Light settings (needs to increase ISO and Lower Aperture Numbers)
Great Camera for Travelling (you don’t have to carry a camcorder and a DSLR with multiple lens)
Has CCD-RAW
Takes great Telephoto at 400mm.(make sure you change the macro setting.)
Light Weight
It comes with a Lens hood
Good Macro
Low Image Noise when shooting below ISO 200
Also good camera for beginners and novice user

Weaknesses:
Starting Price at $799, it is too expensive for a Mega Zoom Camera.
And the picture is not as Sharp as a DSLR.
Battery Charger is big and it also comes with a large inconvenience cable
Some purple fringing can be found
Buttons and thumb wheels are not well design
Slow Auto Focus
Continuous shooting only has 3 Mb at 7 frames/Sec
Play back mode is frustrating to use.
Camera screen is small compares to the New DSLR

Similar Products Used:
Sony H9, Kodak EasyShare Z812 IS, Canon S5, etc.

Customer Service:
AdenCamera(Canada) has some attrative advertised Sale Price.
But be very carefull and do not buy any expensive items online from them.
Once they have your money, they will not care.
Poor Customer Service.

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
Less than 1 month

Visitors rate this review
2.75 of 5,
4 votes

Price Paid:  $699.00 from vistek.ca Toronto, C

Summary:
This is an excellent camera for the price. The last reviewer gusravo said it was hard to focus. I found that if you use Manual Focus mode and the one-button- focus inside the focus selection dial, it can focus at any difficult condition.

Furthermore, if you shoot in raw file and use the free software s7raw to process the raw file, you get double resolution of 22.2 mega pixel due to the unique diagonal arrangement of the pixels inside the sensor.

It has 28-400mm Fujinon lens, 14.3 times optical zoom with optical stabilization. It has super-macro mode to focus as close as 1cm. It can shoot 7 pictures per second in jpeg, or 3 per second in raw. It also has 400% dynamic range, so you can say goodbye to blown-out highlights.

It weighs like a SLR and shoots like an SLR, except that it is not a real SLR so it can also shoot in movie mode.

I will say it is a good buy.

Strengths:
14.3 time optical zoom
Optical stabilization.
22.2 mega pixel using free software s7raw.
400% dynamic range.

Weaknesses:
It is not a real SLR

Similar Products Used:
Fuji s5pro
Fuji s9000

gusravo

Overall Rating
 3 of 5

Value Rating
 2 of 5

Used product for
Less than 1 month

Visitors rate this review
3.58 of 5,
31 votes

Price Paid:  $850.00 from TED's

Summary:
A good attempt by Fuji at giving a camera that would try to compete with a baby DSLR / superzoom lens combination, but at around the same price. The camera is solidly build, good ergonomics, feels good in the hand. The sensor is quite OK, the film simulation is a geeky feature, I would prefer to have ADOBE RGB than "Provia". Noise performance in line with 'super CCD" standard, that is better than any other small sensor camera, but still below current DSLR capability.

The lens is dissapointing, with visible PF at the edges, distortion at wide end. Too ambitious, if Fuji marleters had any smarts they would have gone for a narrower range but higher quality optics to complement the electrocnics which are quite good.

I have one as a ready anytime casual camera, and that it's all it will ever be.

Price is in Australian dollars

Strengths:
Metering is excellent as is noise performance. Handling, size and ergonomics.

the dual IS works great too.

Weaknesses:
The Fujinon lens designers need to go back to school!!! Very poor here, even the lens on my old S9500 is better.

Poor focusing in low contrast light, even hard to get focusing in macro mode. Film simulation a gimmick, but why???

Similar Products Used:
S9500, S7000

Customer Service:
no experience with customer service