Fujifilm FinePix S4800 Review

January 27, 2014 | Matt Grayson |

Introduction
Ease of Use
Image Quality
Sample Images
Product Images
Rating & Conclusion
Main Rivals
Review Roundup
Specifications
Comment
More…

Introduction

The Fujifilm FinePix S4800 is an ultra-zoom digital compact camera sporting a 30x Super EBC Fujinon optical zoom lens, full manual controls, a 16 megapixel sensor and sensor shift stabilisation. In this review, we'll find out if the stabiliser is powerful enough for the long zoom to keep pictures sharp. Priced at around £135, the Fujifilm FinePix S4800 is available in black, red and white.

Ease of Use

When you're in the market for buying a new digital camera it's worth taking a few factors into consideration. For example, is it a camera for the family to use, does anyone want to further their photographic knowledge, how big a zoom do you want? These questions are the ones you should be asking when looking around.

The Fujifilm FinePix S4800 seems to fit those three questions at least. You see, the S4800 isn't a high spec camera. It's a mid-range model which offers two fully automated modes in the shape of Auto and SR (Scene Recognition) Auto. The latter mode is far more intelligent and will analyse the frame as you start to compose the photograph. Once the camera has worked out the type of photograph you're taking (landscape, portrait, close-up, etc) it will switch into the appropriate mode for the best possible quality. It's a great option for the beginners in the family or for those who simply don't care about how to operate a camera and just want to point and shoot. For the keen photographers in the family the S4800 provides manual control over the shutter speed and aperture. While the range is limited, it means that you can start to experiment with light and begin to understand how it works.


Front	Rear

That's pretty much where the manual interaction ends, though. The Fujifilm FinePix S4800 is not a bridge camera and not intended to replace a DSLR, but can certainly give you a taster of photography. Should you decide, though, the S4800 will do everything for you.

The Fujifilm FinePix S4800 comes with an Individual Shutter 3D feature that takes two shots from the same viewpoint. It records in MPO (Multi-Picture Format) and when used in combination with a Fujifilm 3D printer, is supposed to create high resolution 3D images. Another cool feature is the Motion Panorama. Unfortunately, it's not what it sounds like. It employs an easy-to-use guide to framing the panoramic shots. All you have to do is align the symbol and the camera will automatically take a picture for you. Once you have three images, the camera will also stitch them into a panorama. Unfortunately, it doesn't make a panoramic picture that moves.


Top	Pop-up Flash

For those of you that enjoy taking pictures of your kids while they play, the Fujifilm FinePix S4800 is capable of combining face detection with Tracking AF to create a system that will track faces through a frame as they move about. Face detection works by recognising the triangular shape of two eyes and a mouth. It then locks onto that shape and optimises the photograph so that the face is sharp and exposed properly. It's a program that Fujifilm pioneered for use in their photo processing and printing machines of all things.

There are a number of burst and continuous modes that you can choose from on the Fujifilm FinePix S4800. There's Top5 and Final5. They will take five pictures in around three seconds. Two are within the first second and then it slows down a bit. When the camera takes the photographs depends on the mode you select, so if you want the burst to start immediately, say at a track day, then use the Top5. If you want to track something and you're not sure when you'll want to shoot like at a snowboarding event, then choosing Final5 will allow you to hold the button down and it will only save the five photographs prior to you taking your finger off the button. It records these at full resolution. For slower, but longer bursts, you can use the Long Period (continuous) mode. Top20 and Top40 emulate the Top5 option but unlike Top5 and Final5, it doesn't record at full resolution. However, you can get 20 and 40fps (frames per second) from these modes. Downloading a short burst at full resolution takes it's toll on the processor. It took us 27 additional seconds to download the five pictures we shot in Top5 mode. That was using a Class 10 SDHC card.


Front	Side

Start up time from cold is a respectable 2.1sec. That's slightly slower than other cameras, but we have to take reflexes into consideration. There's also the issue that when the Fujifilm FinePix S4800 is switched on, it takes a moment to get itself in order. It won't focus in that time and if it would, it would knock the start up speed under 2sec.

There's only one menu on the Fujifilm FinePix S4800 which is accessed via the Menu button. It's superimposed over the view from the lens and is a light/mid grey with blue highlighter. Lettering is contrasting black which turns white when highlighted. The Main menu is split into two factions for Shooting and Set-up. The latter accesses the main features that you'll use sporadically such as date & time functions, format the card, AF illuminator (the little light before you take a picture) or volume options. The Shooting menu will be used the most as it provides access to ISO, white-balance, resolution, face detection and video options.


Memory Card Slot	Battery Compartment

Press the Playback button at the bottom of the Fujifilm FinePix S4800 and the last picture you took will be displayed on the screen. You can choose to have basic information such as the time & date it was taken, the file number, resolution, ISO setting and aperture/shutter speed. Pressing the Disp button will scroll through the display options available to you. The Playback menu replaces the Shooting menu when in Playback. There's notable features such as image search, slide-show creator, red-eye removal and some other basic editing features such as crop, rotate, protect and resize. Interestingly, you can also mark images for upload to Facebook , YouTube or MyFinePix.com and use the Photobook Assistant.

In the box there's a small separating shelf that holds the Basic Manual and warranty information. There's also a CD which has the full manual on it and MyFinePix Studio Ver 4.2 editing and tagging suite. It's a way to look at, edit and file your pictures if you're currently without an editing suite. Beneath the shelf, you'll discover the camera, a set of AA batteries, a neck strap, lens cap and USB cable to transfer pictures to the computer if you don't have a card reader.

Image Quality

All of the sample images in this review were taken using the 16 megapixel Fine JPEG setting, which gives an average image size of around 8Mb.

Noise

The sensitivity range on the Fujifilm FinePix S4800 is ISO64-6400. The final two settings drop the resolution to 3 megapixels in an effort to stamp out some of the noise affecting the images at that point. If you want to use the Auto ISO range on the S4800, it ends at ISO 1600 to retain the full resolution.

Get enough light in the frame and you can drop the rating to ISO 64 or 100 which are extremely similar. In fact there's only around a third of a stop difference in the aperture range. This means from an image quality point of view, the differences are barely noticeable. What you will get is a slight increase in shutter speed, though. ISO 200 does see a little colour noise start to appear in the darker areas of the pictures but it's very faint and you can't see it at normal viewing distance. Edge sharpness is still great although at full magnification it is possible to see a softening of the image as noise reduction software gets to work.

ISO 400 sees an increase in noise that reduces the amount of detail in the darker areas. Move up to ISO 800 and the noise starts to affect the mid-tones. Well, that's not entirely accurate. Noise reduction is affecting the image by blurring out areas of a certain tone while lighter tones are unaffected. By ISO 1600 noise reduction has completely lost out to the purple colour that now swamps the images. An ugly cast covers the pictures and you really should only use this setting if you have no other choice. If you have the options, open the flash and drop the ISO that way.

ISO 3200 sees spots of blue starting to appear and while the cast has disappeared, the resolution has had to remove 13 million pixels in order to save the image. ISO 6400 sees a similar fate to the full resolution ISO 1600 image with a colour cast falling over the entire frame.

ISO 64 (100% Crop)	ISO 100 (100% Crop)


ISO 200 (100% Crop)	ISO 400 (100% Crop)


ISO 800 (100% Crop)	ISO 1600 (100% Crop)


ISO 3200 (100% Crop)	ISO 6400 (100% Crop)

Focal Range

The 30x optical zoom on the Fujifilm FinePix S4800 ranges from 24mm to a spine tingling 720mm in 35mm terms. There is a bit of distortion at wide-angle but we couldn't detect any at full zoom.

25mm	720mm

Sharpening

One thing we like about the pictures from the Fujifilm FinePix S4800 is how sharp the pictures. At low ISO we did get an improved image when sharpening on an editing suite, but for the most part or at higher ISO, the pictures are perfectly good.

Original (100% Crop)	Sharpened (100% Crop)

File Quality

A full size image from the Fujifilm FinePix S4800 can pump out 8.4Mb of information. There's the option of dropping the compression from Fine (detail) to Normal. Knocking the setting down to Normal will still give you an image over 6Mb in size. That's still a fair size but will free up some memory on your card should you need it.

Fine (8.52Mb) (100% Crop)	Normal (6.18Mb) (100% Crop)

Chromatic Aberrations

We did notice chromatic aberrations in images at the edges of the frame and only in very high contrast of blacks on whites. Don't get lens flare confused with it, though because the Fujifilm FinePix S4800 does seem to get a lot of that in the form of blue or purple bleeding over edges when the sun is in the frame. If the purple line is on a contrasting edge that doesn't involve the sun or any bright direct light, then it's chroma.

Chromatic Aberrations 1 (100% Crop)	Chromatic Aberrations 2 (100% Crop)


Chromatic Aberrations 3 (100% Crop)	Chromatic Aberrations 4 (100% Crop)

Macro

There are two macro features on the Fujifilm FinePix S4800. You can choose from regular Macro which has a close focusing of 5cm at wide-angle. Or you can choose SuperMacro which will get down to 2cm. However, the latter setting doesn't allow you to zoom out.

The regular macro mode keeps the lens far away enough to prevent any harsh image problems such as image drop off getting too close to the centre of the frame.

Macro	Macro (100% Crop)

Flash

The Fujifilm FinePix S4800 produces mild vignettes at wide-angle while the flash is switched off. Zooming out to full telephoto setting, eradicates the vignette. Using the pop up flash doesn't do anything to quash the vignette at wide-angle but in fact creates one at full zoom.

Flash Off - Wide Angle (24mm)	Flash On - Wide Angle (24mm)


Flash Off - Wide Angle (720mm)	Flash On - Wide Angle (720mm)

The advantage to having this kind of pop-up flash means that red-eye is virtually non-existent. We never got any of it throughout the test. There is a red-eye reduction option in the flash menu should you need to use it.

Flash On	Flash On (100% Crop)


Red Eye Reduction	Red Eye Reduction (100% Crop)

Night

The Fujifilm FinePix S4800 has a night shot mode in the Scene menu and if you're unsure of how to set the camera manually then it does a good job. There are two settings for use with a tripod and without. We recommend using the Tripod mode and resting the camera somewhere solid if you don't have a tripod handy. The camera will use a lower ISO to reduce noise on this setting which gives a much better image. In our test, the camera shot at ISO 400 with a 3sec exposure. We also shot in shutter priority (S setting on the command dial). The camera will only allow a range of ISO to select from over a specific setting, which is unfortunate. If you want to do this, you have to choose Manual and learn how to use the shutter speed and aperture to get the right exposure. We chose a 2sec exposure. On review, the camera selected an ISO 400 setting in shutter priority which is a shame as the results are alike.

Night Scene	Night Scene (100% Crop)


Night Shutter-priority	Night Shutter-priority (100% Crop)

Sample Images

This is a selection of sample images from the Fujifilm FinePix S4800 camera, which were all taken using the 16 megapixel Fine JPEG setting. The thumbnails below link to the full-sized versions, which have not been altered in any way.

Ratings (out of 5)
Design	4
Features	4
Ease-of-use	4
Image quality	4.5
Value for money	4

Model	FinePix S4800
Effective Pixels	16.0 million pixels^*1
Sensor type	1/2.3-inch CCD with primary colour filter
Storage media	Internal memory (none) SD / SDHC / SDXC memory card ^*2
Number of recorded pixels	L : (4:3) 4608 x 3456 / (3:2) 4608 x 3072 / (16:9) 4608 x 2592 M : (4:3) 3264 x 2448 / (16:9) 3264 x 1840 S : (4:3) 2304 x 1728 / (16:9) 1920 x 1080
Lens	name Fujinon 30x optical zoom lens focal length f=4.3mm - 129.0mm, equivalent to 24- 720mm on a 35mm format full-aperture F3.1 (Wide) - F5.9 (Telephoto) constitution 11 groups 15 lenses
File format	still image JPEG (Exif Ver 2.3 ) / (Design rule for Camera File system compliant / DPOF-compatible) 3D still image MPO compliant movie AVI (Motion JPEG)
Digital zoom	Approx. 7.2x (up to approx. 216.0x , with 30x optical zoom)
Aperture	F3.1 / F8 (Wide) F5.9 / F8 / F20 (Telephoto) with ND filter
Focus distance (from lens surface)	Normal Wide : Approx. 15cm to infinity / 5.9in. to infinity Telephoto : Approx. 3.0m to infinity / 9.8ft. to infinity Macro Wide : Approx. 5cm - 3.0m / 1.9in. - 9.8ft. Telephoto : Approx. 1.8m - 3.0m / 5.9ft. - 9.8ft Super Macro Wide : Approx. 2cm - 1.0m / 0.8in. - 3.3ft.
Sensitivity	AUTO (400)/AUTO(800), Equivalent to ISO 64/100/200/400/800/1600/3200/6400 (Standard Output Sensitivity) * ISO3200 / 6400 is effective in image size S.
Exposure control	TTL 256-zone metering, Multi / Spot / Average
Exposure mode	Programmed AE, Shutter priority AE, Aperture priority AE, Manual exposure
Shooting modes	SP Zoom Bracketing, Natural Light & with Flash, Natural Light, Portrait, Baby, Smile, Landscape, Sport, Night, Night (Tripod), Fireworks, Sunset, Snow, Beach, Party, Flower, Text, Individual shutter 3D MODE DIAL SR AUTO, AUTO, SP1, SP2, Panorama, Custom, P, S, A, M
Image stabilisation	CCD shift type
Exposure compensation	-2.0EV - +2.0EV 1/3EV step
Shutter speed	(Auto mode) 1/4 sec. to 1/2000 sec. , (All other modes) 8 sec. to 1/2000 sec. with mechanical shutter
Continuous shooting	TOP approx. 1.2 fps (max. 5 frames) approx. 3.3 fps (max. 10 frames; size M, S) approx. 8.0 fps (max. 40 frames; size S) LAST LAST6 : approx. 1.2 fps; last 6 frames recorded others LONG PERIOD : approx. 1.2 fps; maximum number of frames varies with image size and available memory
Auto bracketing	AE Bracketing (±1/3 EV, ±2/3 EV, ±1 EV)
Focus	mode Single AF / Continuous AF (SR AUTO, Movie) type TTL contrast AF, AF assist illuminator available AF frame selection Center, Multi, Area, Tracking
White balance	Automatic scene recognition Preset Fine, Shade, Fluorescent light (Daylight), Fluorescent light (Warm White), Fluorescent light (Cool White), Incandescent light, Custom
Self timer	Approx. 10 sec. / 2 sec. Delay
Flash	Auto flash (i-flash) Effective range : (ISO AUTO) Normal Wide : approx. 40cm - 7.0m / 1.3ft. - 22.9ft. Telephoto : approx. 2.5m - 3.6 m / 8.2ft. - 11.8ft. Macro Wide : approx. 30cm - 3.0m / 0.9ft. - 9.8ft. Telephoto : approx. 2.0m - 3.0m / 6.5ft. - 9.8ft.
Flash modes	Red-eye removal OFF Auto, Forced Flash, Suppressed Flash, Slow Synchro. Red-eye removal ON Red-eye Reduction Auto, Red-eye Reduction & Forced Flash, Suppressed Flash, Red-eye Reduction & Slow Synchro.
Hot shoe	-
Electronic viewfinder	-
LCD monitor	3.0-inch, approx. 230K-dot, TFT color LCD monitor, approx. 97% coverage
Movie recording	1280 x 720 pixels / 640 x 480 pixels / 320 x 240 pixels (30fps) with monaural sound. * Optical zoom function can be used.
Photography functions	SR AUTO, Instant zoom, Face Detection, Auto red-eye removal, Framing guideline, blink detection, Frame No. memory, Histogram display, Motion Panorama, Date stamp, Individual shutter 3D
Playback functions	Face Detection, Auto red-eye removal, Multi-frame playback (with micro thumbnail), Protect, Crop, Resize, Slide show, Image rotate, voice memo, histogram display, exposure warning, Photobook assist, image search, Favorites, Mark for upload, Panorama, Erase selected frames
Other functions	PictBridge, Exif Print, 35 Languages, Time difference, Silent mode
Terminal	Video output - Digital interface USB 2.0 High-Speed HDMI output HDMI mini connector
Power supply	4xAA type alkaline batteries (included) / 4xAA type Ni-MH rechargeable batteries (sold separately) / 4xAA type lithium batteries (sold separately)
Dimensions	122.0 (W) x 93.0 (H) x 100.0 (D) mm / 4.8 (W) x 3.6 (H) x 3.9 (D) in.
Weight	Approx. 518 g / 18.2 oz. (including batteries and memory card) Approx. 426 g / 15.0 oz. (excluding batteries and memory card)
Operating temperature	0°C - 40°C
Operating humidity	10% - 80% (no condensation)
Battery life	Alkaline batteries : Approx. 320 frames (AUTO mode) Ni-MH rechargeable batteries : Approx. 500 frames (AUTO mode) Lithium batteries : Approx. 700 frames (AUTO mode) * Fujifilm research based on CIPA standards
Accessories included	4xAA type alkaline batteries Shoulder strap USB cable Lens cap and Lens cap cord CD-ROM Owner's manual
Optional accessories	AC Power Adapter AC-5VX DC coupler CP-04
	1 Number of effective pixels : The number of pixels on the image sensor which receive input light through the optical lens, and which are effectively reflected in the final output data of the still image. 2 Please see the Fujifilm website to check memory card compatibility.

Fujifilm FinePix S4800 Review

Latest Reviews

Introduction

Ease of Use

Image Quality

Noise

Focal Range

Sharpening

File Quality

Chromatic Aberrations

Macro

Flash

Night

Sample Images

Sample Movie & Video

Product Images

Conclusion

Main Rivals

Review Roundup

Specifications

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