Introduction

Ease of Use

Bridge cameras are a funny sort. Generally they're very straight forward to use - like a digital compact in the shape of a DSLR. But then out of the crowd, what appears to be a little cracker pops it's head up and makes everyone take notice. On the surface, the Fujifilm FinePix SL240 is such a camera. It has many similar features of other bridge cameras such as manual controls, a large focal length and a full auto mode if at all gets too much.

The Fujifilm FinePix SL240 looks to add appeal to the more serious photographer by adding a couple of interesting features. First of all, as well as the zoom rocker around the shutter release  there's a separate zoom switch located on the left of the lens barrel. This is ideal when holding the camera using the EVF (Electronic Viewfinder) as that's where your thumb naturally falls. Then looking on top of the camera, there's a hot-shoe. If you're unfamiliar with this device, it's a metal slot that allows you to fit external flash or accessory trigger units onto the camera. The SL240 does have a flash, it's a pop-up type that is activated by pressing the mechanical release button on the side of the camera.

The manual controls are accessed via the command dial on the top plate. This dial is designed for fast access to different shooting modes. It has a mixture of pre-programmed and programmable modes such as Auto, SR (Scene Recognition) Auto which will analyse the frame and select the appropriate shooting mode to get the best results. There's also Panorama, Scenes, Video and in the programmable modes, you can choose from Program (P), Shutter priority (S), Aperture priority (A) and Manual (M). There's also a Custom option should be getting adventurous. Simply turn the dial to the desired mode and the camera will set itself into what you settle on.

Front	Rear

To use the manual modes, you have to press the Exposure compensation button on the back of the Fujifilm FinePix SL240 (denoted by the +/- symbol) and you make adjustments by pressing up or down for the shutter speed then left and right to adjust the aperture. If you're in either A or S modes, you only need up or down. These functions sound complicated, but they're explained very clearly on the screen and a handy slider will let you know when the image is properly exposed. It allows you much more freedom to be creative and not have the camera decide what looks best in your photography.

The rest of the Fujifilm FinePix SL240 seems to be set-up for the more in-depth photographer. On other bridge cameras in the Fujifilm range such as the S4200, there's a face detection button sat just behind the shutter release on the edge of the grip. However, on the SL240, this has been replaced by a metering button. Much more useful to a photographer who can understand how light works. The burst mode button is still in the same place just to the right of the shutter release and the FinePix button is also on the top right shoulder.

Front	Side

On past cameras, this has had a plethora of features, film simulations and other fun things to do. The Fujifilm FinePix SL240 has had all this stripped out. The FinePix button now has three modes: ISO, resolution and FinePix colour. The latter option allows you to choose between Standard colour, Chrome (slide film - slightly cooler colours to emulate Fuji 35mm film) and Black & white. In the past there's been Reala, Provia and Astia simulations, so it's a shame to not see them more regularly. Still, times move on and maybe not as many people remember these films?

The exterior of the Fujifilm FinePix SL240 is plastic with not much known about the interior. We can take an educated guess at a reinforced polycarbonate chassis. Despite the plastic casing, it seems solid enough but seems to lack that brick-like feeling that is associated with a metal body. Buttons are clicky and firm. Slightly larger than normal and we like it. The command dial also has a firmness to it which could make operation in cold conditions uncomfortable, but it's a sacrifice we'll make to ensure it doesn't get dislodged in the camera bag.

Top	Pop-up Flash

The screen is a 3in LCD which is bright, but does suffer from some motion blur. The extra zoom switch on the lens barrel and hot-shoe on the camera gives the impression that it's a higher classification and - ergo - higher priced. It has to be remembered that it's a £135 camera and there are certain requirements needed to keep it at that price. The HDMI door is a floppy rubber type and the tripod bush is made of plastic. It does take a lithium ion battery, though.

The menu system on the Fujifilm FinePix SL240 is as easy to use as any other Fujifilm camera. Back in the early days of digital photography when 2 or 3 million pixels was considered huge, Fujifilm led the way with ultra-easy menu systems for the layman. They've kept much of the original easiness although they've gone a little off kilter in recent years. The addition of the F button is really redundant as the three options in there are duplicated in the Main menu. Also, they have a feature called Photometry. It's basically metering modes but they've given it a unnecessarily complex name. To save money on adding a wheel to change the shutter speed or aperture, they've added a routine of pressing the Exposure compensation button before making adjustments. It would be easier with a wheel.

From the off position, the SL240 can start up, focus and take a picture in just under 3 seconds. This is consistent with other Fujifilm cameras (especially bridge models) but is slightly slower than other compact cameras.  Shutter lag is the time between focusing and taking a picture. There's the photographers reactions to consider, however, we use a system that allows us to pre-empt the shot, thereby all but eliminating reflex delay. We got results of around 0.08sec which is standard for a digital compact camera.

Memory Card Slot	Battery Compartment

The Fujifilm FinePix SL240 has a number of burst and continuous shooting modes which are accessed by pressing the burst mode button on the grip just behind the shutter release. The Long Period mode in the middle of the menu is what would normally be called Continuous. It starts off quite fast, then slows down. In a ten second period, we took eight shots in total. It takes three images in the first second, before slowing down to give the buffer time to download onto the card. This test also took until 22 seconds to finish downloading onto the card. There's a Top6 mode which will take six continuous, evenly spread images before stopping. You can't take more and it takes an age to download them onto the card. Final6 will constantly take pictures as long as you hold the button down but only records the last six taken after you remove your finger from the shutter release.

Images already taken can be viewed regardless of whether the Fujifilm FinePix SL240 is on or off by pressing the indented playback button. If the camera is off, the button has to be held down so that the camera recognises your requirement and that you haven't simply caught the button by mistake. Your pictures are shown full screen with some basic shooting information on-screen. Press the Display button at the bottom of the camera and you can scroll between having information on, no info or images you've tagged as favourites. In the menu, you can create a list of photographs to go in a Photobook, search for images (as long as you've tagged them) and perform some very basic editing such as red-eye removal, crop, resize and rotate. You can also protect images, create a print order and even mark them for upload to popular social networking sites. 

In the box, the Fujifilm FinePix SL240 comes with a lithium ion battery, charger, cables and neck strap. There's also a lens cap. The paperwork includes a basic manual which, essentially, gets you shooting while the full manual is on the enclosed CD as is MyFinePix Studio version 3.2, a basic editing suite.

Image Quality

All of the sample images in this review were taken using the 14 megapixe Finel JPEG setting, which gives an average image size of around 6Mb.

Noise

The ISO range on the Fujifilm FinePix SL240 starts at ISO 64 and goes all the way up to ISO 6400. The lower settings provide lovely images, but the lens isn't very bright and needs lots of light to use that setting. Either that or a tripod and very still subject. If you have those, then the image quality is superb. Very sharp lines, no noise at all in any areas of the image are what await you at this setting.

If we were to be hyper-critical, there's a fraction of noise creeping in at ISO 100 which is both disappointing and unusual given that it's only a third of a stop difference between the two. We view these images at full magnification and normal viewing won't pick this up and, as we said, we are being very critical. Again at normal viewing distances, you won't see the noise creeping in, but ISO 200 sees a slight addition of salt and pepper noise to the darker areas of the picture. By ISO 400, colour noise is taking over with blobs of it now noticeable. Edge definition is also starting to decrease and this continues steadily through the next stage; ISO 800.

ISO 800 sees a slight cast appear all over the image which gets worse at ISO 1600. This fixes at ISO 3200 because Fujifilm have reduced the number of pixels to 3 million. By doing this, the pixels are more spaced apart and therefore suffer less from heat noise caused by neighbouring pixels. However, the downside is a lower amount of detail in the picture. The same problems start to creep back as the ISO is put up to 6400.

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 focal length of the Fujifilm FinePix SL240 is 4.3 - 103.2mm or 24 - 576mm in 35mm terms. The 24mm wide-angle setting is great for getting those sweeping vistas in while the long zoom will ensure you rarely have to walk to the subject you want to take a picture of. Wide-angle does tend to suffer from barrel distortion and we did pick up traces of pincushion at full zoom too.

24mm	576mm

Sharpening

The Fujifilm FinePix SL240 has in-built sharpening which can be found in the Main menu on the second page. There are three options to choose from (Hard, Normal and Soft) and they do make a difference. Using the Hard setting gives roughly the same result as using sharpening in Adobe Photoshop. The camera defaults to the Normal setting, but it doesn't reset when the camera is switched off.

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

File Quality

The Fujifilm FinePix SL240 has 2 different image quality settings available, with Fine being the highest quality option. Here are some 100% crops which show the quality of the various options.

Fine (8.55Mb)	Normal (3.31Mb)

Chromatic Aberrations

We noticed evidence of chromatic aberration on various pictures. The time we had to test the Fujifilm FinePix SL240 was dull and grey. Chroma is usually more noticeable on high contrast areas and on the few pictures we got it, it was worse at the edges of the frame; as we'd expect.

Chromatic Aberrations 1 (100% Crop)	Chromatic Aberrations 2 (100% Crop)
Chromatic Aberrations 3 (100% Crop)

Macro

There are two macro features of the Fujifilm FinePix SL240. The first is a standard macro and has a close focusing of 7cm. That's respectable enough without being the best available. However, you can switch to Supermacro if you need to get closer. Supermacro allows you to get in as close as 2cm.

Macro	Macro (100% Crop)

Flash

The flash on the Fujifilm FinePix SL240 is a pop-up type. It flops over the lens when not in use. To flip it up, press the button on the left of the camera and it will activate. There's a slight amount of vignetting without flash, but it's very soft. Using flash makes it worse but it disappears when the camera is fully zoomed out whether the flash is on or off.

External flash can be used but to get full compatibility with the camera, a dedicated Fujifilm flash has to be used (not necessarily Fujifilm made, but dedicated). It is possible to use a non-dedicated flash although Fujifilm may not support a repair under warranty if a fault occurs due to you using it. Not that it would cause a problem, but you never know. Non-dedicated flash can be bought for around £85 while a Fujifilm flash is roughly double that for a good one.

Flash Off - Wide Angle (24mm)	Flash On - Wide Angle (24mm)
Flash Off - Wide Angle (576mm)	Flash On - Wide Angle (576mm)

The raised flash of both types means that red-eye isn't a problem and we didn't get any. There is a red-eye removal system on the camera in the remote occasion that you do get it.

Flash On	Flash On (100% Crop)
Red Eye Reduction	Red Eye Reduction (100% Crop)

Night

Our night test shots were surprising. It's rare get such good results from the Program/Auto mode while getting the opposite in Night scene by comparison. The white-balance can be balanced to a custom setting which is great. Saying that, in our test shot, the street lights were casting a strong yellow light, but we measured from the snow and the Fujifilm FinePix SL240 has balanced that brilliantly.

In Night mode, the camera will choose the ISO for you. However, if you're steadying it on a tripod or wall etc, then turn off the image stabiliser and use the Night (Tripod) mode. This allows the camera to use a lower ISO and a longer shutter speed. In our test shot, the camera selected ISO 200 to get a 0.5sec exposure. In manual, we managed a 2.5sec exposure at ISO 64 because in Program the ISO can be manipulated.

Night Scene	Night Scene (100% Crop)
Night Program	Night Program (100% Crop)

Sample Images

This is a selection of sample images from the Fujifilm FinePix SL240 camera, which were all taken using the 14 megapixel Fine JPEG setting. The thumbnails below link to the full-sized versions, which have not been altered in any way.

Sample Movie & Video

Product Images

Front of the Camera

Front of the Camera / Lens Extended

Front of the Camera / Pop-up Flash

Isometric View

Isometric View

Isometric View

Rear of the Camera

Rear of the Camera / Image Displayed

Rear of the Camera / Turned On

Rear of the Camera / Shooting Modes

Rear of the Camera / F-Mode Menu

Rear of the Camera / Scene Mode Menu

Rear of the Camera / Shooting Menu

Rear of the Camera / Playback Menu

Rear of the Camera / Set-Up Menu

Top of the Camera

Bottom of the Camera

Side of the Camera

Side of the Camera

Front of the Camera

Front of the Camera

Memory Card Slot

Battery Compartment

Conclusion

The Fujifilm FinePix SL240 is a pleasing camera to take pictures with. The controls are nicely laid out and the buttons being slightly larger are easier to use. The additions of a hot-shoe and zoom switch on the lens barrel are welcome ones, they will be very useful to a beginner photographer who wants to experiment with flash. The downside to the zoom switches are that the zoom is stepped and not smooth. To get this, the camera needs to have a zoom ring that has to be physically moved.

The build quality of the Fujifilm FinePix SL240 is good although it's a shame there's not more metal on show. Still, you can't have everything and this is a sub-£150 camera. The buttons and switches are solidly made and there's no creaking in the chassis. There's a certain amount of play in the lens - especially at full zoom - but that's to be expected.

Keeping the ISO low will ensure good quality images. If you can avoid it, don't go over ISO 200 and you should be ok. However, the lens isn't the brightest, so the lack of light will give problems when shooting at low ISO unless you're in very bright light. Colours are good and the images we got were sharp enough. Metering works well in most conditions but it does struggle a bit with complex light conditions.

For the price, the Fujifilm FinePix SL240 is a great camera. If you're on the lookout for a bridge camera then you could do worse than this. The type of photographer that will benefit from this camera is either someone that likes to get out to photograph landscapes and wildlife or a newcomer that wants to try messing around with flash. The only downside we can see is the lack of digital filters. They're very popular at the moment - especially with younger photographers. Maybe they're still too expensive to put on a camera of this classification. The Film Simulation modes have been around for around 4-5 years now and filters such as Toy camera and Miniature are still all the rage.

Still, for a camera at this price, it's pretty good. So if you're looking for a long zoom bridge camera with good image quality and an absence of noise at low ISOs then take a look at the Fujifilm FinePix SL240.

Ratings (out of 5)
Design	4
Features	3.5
Ease-of-use	4
Image quality	3.5
Value for money	4

Specifications

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