Fujifilm FinePix HS10 Digital Camera – (10MP, 30x Wide Optical Zoom) 3 inch Tilting LCD
Posted by Notcot on Oct 1, 2010 in Photography |
- 10,3 MP, 30X OPT, SD/SDHC
Fujifilm FinePix HS10 Digital Camera – (10MP, 30x Wide Optical Zoom) 3 inch Tilting LCD <- Read More Buy Now for £399.99 (Best Price)
Review by M. T. Bannister for Fujifilm FinePix HS10 Digital Camera – (10MP, 30x Wide Optical Zoom) 3 inch Tilting LCD
(5 / 5)
Rating:
If you want to see all the pluses and minuses of this camera, head on over to the DPREVIEW Forums and lurk in FujiFilmTalk. The opinions differ widely there, from those who hated it and sent it back, to those who love it and regard it as almost faultless. You will certainly be able to see plenty of sample images taken with the HS10.
This review is my opinion.
I bought this camera for the extreme range of the manual zoom lens and was worried that the image quality would suffer because of that lens. At normal printing sizes up to A4, I can honestly say that this camera delivers exemplary images all the way from the wide angle end (a very wide 24mm) to the very close up telephoto (a stunning 720mm reach). It encompasses all the needs of myself as an aspiring amateur photographer in that it delivers over Macro, Landscape, Portrait and Wildlife photography, in a single package with no lens changing, no danger of getting dust or dirt on the sensor and without a tripod being essential (although having one helps!).
It has good ISO performance down to ISO800 and can be pushed further if needed. It has all the modes and settings that I need to get creative in my own, less than expert, way but can also be used in a variety of automatic modes when I am feeling lazy. This will suit the less experienced. The on-board flash is very good.
Although it will take good pictures out of the box, this camera can take some getting used to to get the very best out of it. The manuals (you get a slim printed one and a more comprehensive one on CD) are pretty awful, but reading the CD manual twice will make the learning curve less steep.
The HS10 shoots video in lots of modes from full HD with stereo sound to 1000fps slow motion. There are some downsides to it (like camera noise on the audio and the zoom being less than perfectly smooth). This doesn’t concern me because I bought it as a stills camera.
This camera lets you shoot RAW images, but the write times to the card are extremely slow.
Lots of owners have had problems with old rechargeable batteries giving erroneous low battery indications. A new set of ENELOOP type AA cells seem to sort this out. These are available under various brand names.
Despite its quirks, this is a superb value camera for this sort of money. You cannot buy, anywhere, a single body/lens combination with exactly this performance for any money. You can get close to it, but at enormous expense (severral thousands of pounds) and only by post processing images after taking them.
IN MY OPINION, OVERALL, THE BEST BRIDGE CAMERA FOR MY NEEDS, TO DATE.
Review by Mr. C. Jones for Fujifilm FinePix HS10 Digital Camera – (10MP, 30x Wide Optical Zoom) 3 inch Tilting LCD
(5 / 5)
Rating:
. . . the good far outweigh the bad.
I suppose it all comes down to what you want to use it for and what your criteria are. Mine are:
a) must be able to take good still photos of:
wildlife
people
landscapes and outdoor scenes
rock concert scenes
b) I also want a camera that’s got the facility for HD video (now we’ve got a grandchild)
c) needs to have a good manual zoom
d) isn’t too heavy
e) reasonably priced
I could satisfy all the above apart the last two with a decent DSLR – and I’ve looked at these in the past – but DSLRs are nearly twice the price (and even more if you want a decent 30x zoom lens) and heavier (and heavier still if you have to have the sort of zoom that’s integral to the HS10).
I’ve had my HS10 for around three weeks now, and I’m still getting to know my way around. I’ve tried most of the basics, and it seems, so far, pretty-well exemplary. I had a wren family nesting right outside my back door and set up the camera on a tripod in HD movie mode and got some terrific half-hour movies at the touch of a single button (and the stills from the movie were good too). I’ve tried it on full extension of the zoom for photos of birds, the early evening moon (even without a tripod, it produced brilliant results) and aircraft at my local gliding club. I’ve used the macro setting (much better than that of my previous Fuji S9500 zoom) to great effect. It’s comparatively light (well under a kilo). And, as has been remarked, it takes standard AA batteries (and I haven’t had a problem with battery life to date).
There are some downsides though and it’s only fair to point them out:
The printed brief manual that comes with it is very brief indeed – it just tells you the basics. As well as being provided on disc, the full manual is available to download from Fuji in PDF format. In many ways this is better than a printed version as you can do a search on your computer for key words – and find things far faster than thumbing through a booklet (and you can, of course, print out relevant pages if you’re going to be using the camera out and about).
The manual zoom doesn’t glide smoothly, so is not entirely satisfactory for video work (though for many people the HD video will be a bonus, so this won’t be a big factor).
Start up time is slow, and it can also be slow to change mode. This speed issue is something which seems to be endemic to Fuji cameras (this is my fifth Fuji digital camera, so I speak from experience) and really should have been addressed by now. I don’t, as a rule, use raw mode but again, long write delays are unacceptable these days.
The default is for the image to show on the screen rather than through the viewfinder (VF). The camera is clever though, and if you place your eye close to the VF, the display switches to the VF. But that produces a delay. I prefer to use the VF for most work, though for video it can be useful to use the screen. I’ve not worked out yet if there’s an override (let me know if there is!).
Despite these flaws, overall I’m very pleased. It’s well built, solid, compact, and good to the touch, with a positive response from the controls. It’s very reasonably priced for a camera with such good specs. So, if you’re looking for a high-spec all-in-one bridge camera, this could well be the one for you.
Review by A. Darkins for Fujifilm FinePix HS10 Digital Camera – (10MP, 30x Wide Optical Zoom) 3 inch Tilting LCD
(5 / 5)
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This camera is truly spectacular. The wide angle 30x zoom is brilliant. On a bridging camera i feel the manual zoom is far more convenient than a fiddly button for an auto zoom (also saves on battery). The wide angle is great for capturing groups and the zoom is just truly awesome, occasionally on extreme close ups I’ve had to use the view finder to steady the camera, not often though. The quality of photo’s is brilliant, I have viewed images on my 42″ TV and they are very clear, on my computer they are excellent, i don’t feel the need to zoom right into each pixel as other reports have done, after all i have a stonking optical zoom to do it for me. This camera also takes beautiful low light photos, only starting to get grainy at iso 1600. Pop up the flash for night time or for backlit photo’s it’s a synch. Optional manual settings including focus are easily accessed if you like that sort of thing, as are a multitude of other settings; i did have to cheat and read the manual to make use of the extra settings. The tilting screen is also i nice toy. The video recording is better than i expected but then again i didn’t buy a still camera to take video. If you are stepping up from a compact camera, as i have and are considering his camera, consider no more, just buy it.
Review by Neal Parkinson for Fujifilm FinePix HS10 Digital Camera – (10MP, 30x Wide Optical Zoom) 3 inch Tilting LCD
(5 / 5)
Rating:
I wanted to upgrade my present Fuji camera (a Fuji Sj8100fd) and decided to go for the Fuji HS10. I have had the camera a month now and can confirm this is one quality camera.
Inside the HS10 is a “CMOS” sensor which appears to account for the clearer pictures I’m getting compared to my previous Fuji. It also allows you to take stunning “panorama” shots by simply panning the camera around to make up your own compositions. I also like the “tracking auto-focus” function. By pressing the shutter button half way down the camera will lock onto a moving object but keep that object tracked and in focus until the shutter is pressed fully. Great for taking shots of moving objects.
The camera itself is simplicity itself to use. Along the left hand side of the camera are a range of buttons to quickly change ISO, auto-exposure, auto-focus and white balance. This is great for someone like me who hates having to scroll through a dozen different menu’s to change one setting. The camera has a “zoom ring” around the lens for manual focusing which is very easy to use. This was a big plus over my previous Fuji which was fiddly as anything when using manual focus! Now when I use manual focus I press one button and then just rotate the zoom ring. Much better!
Should you want to record video then the HS10 will record in full HD. The picture quality is stunning. The only negative part of using video however is that the camera microphones are very sensitive and tend to pick up the sound of the auto-focus mechanism within the camera itself. When you pan around for example you will hear a clicking noise in your recordings as the camera keeps auto-focusing. However I have found that by switching the camera to manual focus mode does appear to alleviate this problem. It is only a small gripe but at the end of the day I use my camera for talking pictures. If I wanted to take professional video’s I would go and buy a camcorder!
No review is complete without mentioning the mega 30X zoom this camera has! Although it is a fixed lens camera, the 30X zoom is more than adequate for taking a great range of pictures. The camera has 3 “image-stabilization” modes to ensure that your pictures are blur-free. I have been surprised at the quality of the pictures I have taken on the full 30X zoom – no blur or degradation in the final image at all. To give you an idea of the quality and value of this camera, if you bought a standard digital camera with removable lens, you would be paying well over a £1000 to get the same amount of zoom this camera already has.
In short my final assessment is that this camera performs as well as any mid-range DSLR. The camera was definitely money well spent in my opinion. Great pictures and a massive 30X zoom! What more could you want?!
Review by MacAvity for Fujifilm FinePix HS10 Digital Camera – (10MP, 30x Wide Optical Zoom) 3 inch Tilting LCD
(4 / 5)
Rating:
If it had a larger, slightly higher resolution sensor of around 12+ MP I reckon that many people currently in the market for an entry-level DSLR would buy this Fuji Finepix HS10 instead – mainly due to its chunky feel, fantastic manually-operated 30x zoom lens (with manual focus) and use of four ordinary AA rechargeable batteries. However, in terms of pure image quality I don’t think HS10 takes pictures on a par with those from another bridge camera I bought recently – the Panasonic DMC-FZ38, which is smaller, lighter, cost over a hundred quid less and was much easier to source.
But FZ38 only has an 18x ‘power’ zoom lens and uses an expensive Li-ion battery.
This comparison aside though, HS10’s brilliant lens combined with its ability to shoot RAW makes it very worthwhile having. The other thing you should know is that the Silkypix RAW Converter as bundled with HS10 is not a fully-functional version of the program. For example, the ‘trim’ feature is disabled and you can only save to JPEG as opposed to uncompressed TIF. Meanwhile I believe that HS10 RAW files are supported by Serif’s recently-launched PhotoPlus X4. So this might be a reasonably-priced alternative worth investigating.
On the video front HS10’s 1280×720 efforts are pretty impressive, especially when you consider that long lens. But be aware that any videos you shoot will be hampered by rattling and clicking noises made by the automatics inside the camera. This is a well-documented issue with HS10. Although switching off the automatics via the menu system will ameliorate these noises somewhat, better positioning of the on-board mics would have done that better, while the provision of an external mic input would have banished the problem entirely. Take note please Mr Fuji.
Would I buy HS10 again?
Yes. Definitely – because of its wonderful zoom lens. If you need to get ‘really’ close from ‘afar’, right now there’s nothing comparable for the same sort of money. HS10 could be a proper boon to serious wildlife photographers on a budget.
I’m thinking of buying a bridge camera for the zoom – although not a serious photographer, I’m keen to get good wildlife shots. I have an Olympus E500 DSLR which is a lovely camera but I don’t have the technical know-how to get the best out of it and use it really as a point-and-press, so the poor thing’s sorely under-used! Without the ability to fork out £1000+ for a telephoto lens I’m sadly forced to squint at vaguely bird-shaped dots in the sky or blurry brown things on distant hillsides that disappear altogether in close-up. I’ve been looking at various reviews and am leaning towards buying the Fujifilm Finepix HS10. Can anyone with more photography experience than me tell me – is the fantastic sounding 30x zoom a gimmick that fails to live up to expectations, or will it do what I want it to, which is basically to take good wildlife photos from a distance, and also to take closer action shots of animals, notably pet dogs & horses? If not, can you suggest a better choice? I’m very tempted by this camera, but reviews seem to be either really enthusiastic or totally condemnatory!
Can anyone who has more knowledge of photography than us help Sarah out with his?
Personally speaking I’ve always had best results from Lumix cameras they have fantastic Carl Zeiss lenses and amazing optical zoom levels!