Fujifilm FinePix S8100fd Review

Review Date: August 1st 2008
Author: Gavin Stoker

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Conclusion

Ratings (out of 5)
Design	4.5
Features	4.5
Ease-of-Use	4
Image Quality	3.5
Value for Money	4.5

The Fujifilm FinePix S8100fd sets itself up as a jack-of-all-trades device for a very reasonable price. On that claim it very nearly succeeds – though it's not perfect. White balance is variable, there's some softness at maximum wide-angle and maximum telephoto zoom settings – though neither ruins the shot – and it's really not worth straying above ISO 800 despite the fact that up to ISO 6400 looks good on paper. However, the Fujifilm FinePix S8100fd does offer some interesting and useful hand holding features that make it easy enough – almost – for your mother to use, whilst throwing a few enthusiast pleasing, or at least intriguing, gimmicks into the mix. Coming to this camera straight after I'd been playing with the S100FS showed that its more expensive bigger brother is in a different class – although, since it's roughly twice the price, that's to be expected. The usefulness of having a whopping 18x optical zoom at your disposal shouldn't be underestimated however, and for the price the solidly built S8100fd, though it's not the prettiest camera around, literally feels like pretty good value at £299. On that note the Fujifilm FinePix S8100fd comes recommended. There may be better performing bridge models or super zooms out there, but not many in the S8100fd's class.

PhotographyBLOG is a member of the DIWA organisation. Our test results for the Fujifilm FinePix S8100fd have been submitted to DIWA for comparison with test results for different samples of the same camera model supplied by other DIWA member sites.

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