Fujifilm FinePix S8000fd

DSLR cameras are becoming cheaper seemingly every month that goes by, with a camera body and standard zoom kit now available from most of the major manufacturers for under £350.

With their physically larger image sensors and therefore better image quality, DSLRs are widely predicted to be the next big growth area in the world of digital photography. With that in mind, why would you consider a camera like the new Fujifilm Finepix S8000fd, which looks very much like a DSLR from the outside, but is actually a very different proposition?

Fujifilm is one of the few big companies, along with the likes of Kodak and HP, who has stayed out of the DSLR race. While it does offer the Finepix S5 Pro, as the name suggests, this is an expensive camera aimed at the working wedding and portrait photographer. Instead, Fujifilm has doggedly stuck to producing so-called ‘bridge’ cameras, which promise to offer the handling of a DSLR combined with all the benefits of a compact camera, such as live view through the LCD screen and video modes.

The S8000fd is the latest bridge camera from Fujifilm, and with a recommended price of £299 it’s almost competing with those entry-level DSLRs in terms of the price.

So what do you get for your money? The headline specs are very impressive, boasting one feature in particular that should grab your attention. The Fujifilm S8000fd has an 18x optical zoom lens – yes, you read that correctly – which is equivalent to 27-486mm on a 35mm camera. This focal length will cover virtually every possible photographic subject, from wide-angle landscapes and architecture shots, through close-up people portraits, to nature and sport photography at the long end of the zoom lens. Trying to match that focal length with a DSLR system would require a bag full of heavy lenses, so if you’ve ever wanted a camera that can truly cover all eventualities, this is it.

What’s more, Fujifilm has at long last added a mechanical image stabilisation system to its ultra-zoom range. Previous Fujifilm ultra-zoom models have been hampered by the lack of a true stabilisation system, instead relying on tricks like boosting the ISO speed to ensure that pictures remain sharp. The new S8000fd has the best of both worlds, with a CCD-shift system that offers up to three stops of compensation and the usual plethora of Fujifilm shooting modes for low-light shooting. The end result is a wide-angle, fast and very versatile lens that delivers sharp pictures even when the camera is handheld in low-light conditions.

The Fujifilm Finepix S8000fd is styled and handles very much like a DSLR camera, with a chunky handgrip, shooting mode dial on top of the body, and powerful built-in pop-up flash.

The LCD screen is another feature that sets this camera apart from its DSLR competitors. The 2.5-inch display of the Finepix is large and clear enough to playback images comfortably, and more importantly you can also compose your shots by viewing the LCD. Admittedly there are some DSLR cameras that now offer this functionality (most notably the Olympus E-510 and E-410), but they are certainly still few and far between.

For many people brought up on a diet of compact digicams, it’s second nature to hold the camera at arm’s length to compose a picture, rather than at eye-level and looking through the viewfinder. The S8000fd actually caters for both methods by also providing an electronic viewfinder, and it’s one of the better examples that you’ll find. We still prefer a true optical viewfinder, so if you always compose your images in this way the S8000fd is probably not for you, but the ability to view detailed information and even playback your images on the EVF is a very compelling one!

Face detection, Super Macro mode and video recording are three more reasons why you should consider the S8000fd instead of a DSLR. An improved face detection system can now track up to ten different faces in a scene. Movement tracking also keeps the camera locked onto its subjects until they’re out of the picture, helping to ensure that your portraits are both well-focused and well-exposed. The Super Macro shooting mode allows you to get as close as 1cm away from your subject and take a picture, something that no standard DSLR zoom lens can do.

Finally the S8000fd can shoot 640x480 pixel movies at 30 frames per second, up to the capacity of your memory card.

With an array of fine features and the only real drawback being a plastic body, we can confidently conclude that Finepix S8000fd is Fujifilm’s best ever attempt to create the ultimate ultra-zoom camera. It’s a serious challenger to the likes of the Olympus SP-560 UZ and Panasonic Lumix FZ18, a real alternative to a digital SLR and an excellent camera in its own right. A competitive price of around £250 only adds to the appeal.