Review: Fujifilm Finepix S8100fd camera

Fujifilm consistently delivers reliable digital cameras, and the 10-megapixel S8100fd – the suffix denoting the inclusion of 'face detection'– of which more later – doesn't buck the trend.

Its biggest feature is the huge 18x zoom lens (the equivalent of 27-486mm on a film camera) giving the camera the appearance of a small SLR camera.

Combine that zoom lens and face detection – a technique with which the camera automatically biases focus and other settings toward human faces – plus image stabilisation to avoid camera shake – and you have possibly the perfect parent-friendly camera for capturing school sports days, among other things.

For such action photography, the machine gun-like 13.5 frames per second (fps) capture rate is very useful, though the compromise for such speed is a drop in the camera's resolution to three megapixels. Alternatively it can capture at 6.8fps at five megapixels.

Images can be easily composed using either the clear 2.5in rear screen or the smaller viewfinder above that. They can be saved to the 58MB internal memory or SD or xD memory cards – it has slots for both.

The camera can take close-ups at 1cm away from the subject, has a pop-up flash with automatic red-eye removal, and 13 pre-optimised scene modes covering common subjects and conditions. Power comes from four alkaline AAs rather than a longer-lasting rechargeable battery pack, but these do make it easier to replace them.

Disappointingly, after a two-second power-up the zoom action proved slightly jerky, and it can’t be used when shooting movies. Still, the camera is quick to focus, with minimal delay between pressing the shutter and taking the picture.

The results, while good, were a little softer than those from rivals, but we preferred the punch provided by selecting ‘chrome’ colour mode. Images were free of noise up to ISO800, with ISO1600 usable at a pinch. It goes up to ISO6400 for shooting in near-darkness, but then noise is a big problem.

Not a perfect showing for the S8100fd then, but plenty of hand-holding and that huge lens should still tempt tentative snappers to make the jump up from a pocket compact.

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