fujifilm finepix s200exr review

fujifilm finepix s200exr Customer Review 1
My first Fuji bridge camera was the excellent S7000 a couple of years ago. I bought it used, refurbished, and I was amazed what a fantastic imaging chip it had with 12MP, wonderful dynamic range, brilliant fuji film emulation JPEG, and ease of use. Some of my favorite shots were done using the S7000. One of my shots using that camera has gotten well over 19,000 views in Flickr.

I also have the S2 and S3 Fuji SLRs using the Nikon 16-85mm lens for which I have nothing but wonderful things to say about the imaging chip (basically the same as the S7000) and the very sharp Nikkor lens. This is a great line of imaging chips Fuji has developed and continues with the EXR version and the JPEG software in-camera that brings out the best this remarkable imaging chip can do.

But the Fuji S2 and S3 are quite large and heavy, especially with a Nikkor zoom lens attached. So I was glad to see that a successor to the Fuji S100 was available at a reasonable price and with additional features.

This might become your preferred walk-about gear. You can do quite a lot with its features. The 435mm zoom is real. The 30mm wide-angle is about all you need for most situations. The sharpness varies according to how steady you hold the camera. Yes, there is vibration reduction, but at such an extreme zoom it never hurts to brace yourself against something on these long telephoto shots for optimum results.

This review is based solely on using the EXR setting. I wanted to see what it would do on its most touted super automatic mode. It pairs three ways of using the imaging chip's two types of pixels along with six scene modes. The choices it makes are not always what I would choose. Too often it would select too low an ISO speed or shutter speed on a telephoto shot but it generally got good results. The color was excellent but not as exaggerated as I prefer in the Velvia film emulation mode. But certainly no complaints.

When in EXR mode it selected ISO 800 or higher, graininess or noise was visible on high magnification in Picassa 3, the editing software from Google. But this is only something you would see if you blew up a photo to print at 20" by 30" or greater. It is not noticeable on my 22" monitor at full size. And certainly not on a snapshot or even 8" x 10" print. You would have to spend at least two to three thousand dollars more for an SLR and top lens to get better image quality. It is not the same quality I get with my S2 or S3 and a top nikkor lens.

But fortunately, the camera does not cost nearly as much or weigh as much! The results from my use so far in my limited use are encouraging, to say the least. This is a great bridge camera. The F2.8 lens is fast at wide angle settings. On automatic modes it will even jump to ISO 6400 if needed to get the shot. I don't think there are many amateur photographers who would regret buying this.

The battery, right out of the box, had some charge. You can load it in the well designed battery compartment (when you flick the yellow tab it falls right into your palm) and take a few test shots to get some familiarity with the features. But charge it for a couple of hours and you will get over three hundred shots. It is a good idea to buy the AC power input unit for doing your upload to your computer lest the battery give out during the process. Also, the external power unit is good for studio type work where you are shooting many hundreds of shots daily. You can find aftermarket batteries and power bricks for this on Amazon at very good prices.

The feel, the ergonomics, of the S200EXR are excellent. On manual, you use the control dial to change the shutter speed, but hold the +/- button on top while using the control dial to change the aperture. On photo review mode, use the up and down on the main dial to magnify the reviewed image. It has no front control wheel as some cameras of this type do.

I'd recommend keeping it on continual autofocus. It hunts a bit on single autofocus. In general, I was pleased with the focus I got. There are three modes you can choose so experiment to find what suits your needs.

The latches for the memory card, battery, and I/O connections are sturdy and fit perfectly, avoiding accessory compartment rage a few cameras engender. The lens takes a 67mm filter. I noticed no vignetting on wide angle, but a thin filter is always a good idea. Just get lens protection, not UV or warming or anything like that. The editing software in your computer is what does those things now. If you want motion blur, get an 8X neutral density filter. Another good one to have is the polarizing filter which brings out the sky, cuts through reflections, and reduces the shine on skin in portraits.

fujifilm finepix s200exr Customer Review 2
Let me say for starters I have been dabbling in photography for years and have always had Nikons. F100, D100, D90. I wanted something to carry around without the huge camera case and lenses so I tried the Canon Sx10is which in itself is a nice little camera, then Panasonic FZ35, which again is a nice little camera, both of which feel like toys in comparison to Nikon D90, but their results are very good, but Pany was just too small for my hands. Then comes the SX200EXR. All the feel of an SLR without the motorized zoom, which I hated, and so far results that are very impressive. The colors and resolution are IMHO on par with any DSLR I have used without even trying to get it right. Although you can go full manual if you want to, all the programs from shutter priority to auto EXR are showing great results. Auto EXR is very impressive and I usually wouldn't say that about any "auto" mode!
There has been alot of talk about the fringeing problem that it's predecesor, the S100SF has and I have yet to see any with this camera. I love it.

fujifilm finepix s200exr Customer Review 3
I have shot about 40 pictures so far with the camera and love it! I have yet to take a poor picture with it. The three bracketing shots with their different film emulations works great. So do the macro modes for clear close-ups with very blurred backgrounds. I have owned four Fuji cameras, if you count the one that I gave my wife, but used when my S9100 bit the dust. This fifth one takes the cake. Noise is visibly reduced and usually non-existant. I did get some dots on a hummingbird's tummy, but I don't know if that was the camera or the bird. The hummingbird was in shadow with strong backlighting. The learning curve is a little steep, because there are so many bells and whistles on it. I need to keep reading the manual until I figure out all that it does. But, then again, I never did use some of the features on the S9000 and the S9100. I recommend the S200EXR to anyone who wants a very capable super-zoom digital. No, it isn't an SLR. I seriously considered buying the cheapest Canon so I could use the lenses from my old film camera. I am happy I didn't. I can get all the telephoto and wide-angle effects that I would have gotten with the Canon and my lenses, but I don't have to swap lenses and I don't have to worry about dust on the mirror and sensor like an SLR owner does. Check it out on Fuji's website and here for more information.

fujifilm finepix s200exr Customer Review 4
An excellent camera, solid body and excellent picture quality once one has mastered the handling of this camera. A bit pricey but worth it in the end. Although I have had the camera for well over 6 months I have yet to fully utilize all the camera's features. It's one of the best and hardest to learn camera I have owned to this date.

fujifilm finepix s200exr Customer Review 5
I have worked with quite a few high-end point-and-shoot cameras during the course of a few years. This camera I feel I can give without hesitation 5 stars. This Camera takes awesome pictures with high ISO!! I have Panasonic LX-5 which is the best point and shoot camera anytime but this Fuji S200exr can take very sharp pictures with long zoom. The color and detail are just incredible. I love this camera and cannot say enough about it. Fuji is definitely the way to go!!. What can you ask more with under $400!!!

fujifilm finepix s200exr Customer Review 6
I have had this camera for a month and must say it has turned out to be much Better than I expected,Fuji makes some cheap stuff but this model is Not one of them,It is the best bridge camera for the money PERIOD..nuff said..Now Buy it before it goes up in price even more!

fujifilm finepix s200exr Customer Review 7
Mega-zoom P&S camera are great for most part as long as you don't have to take lots of indoor pictures under poor lighting conditions. That's where DSLRs, even the cheapest ones, shine due to much larger sensor (full-frame, APS-c, or 4/3) and larger pixel size. Now days, small P&S cameras with larger (relatively speaking) 1/1.6 sensors and fast lenses (i.e. f2.0 or faster) are all the rage because they do better with indoor low light situations - Canon S95, Panasonic DMC-LX5, Samsung TL500 to name a few. Fuji likes to march to a different drum beat, coming up with EXR sensor that varies pixels with wide dynamic range setting to better capture images under less than ideal lighting situations rather than just using the brute force solution of putting faster lens and larger sensor. S200EXR is different from all other maga-zooms in that when you manually turn the zoom, it continuously refocuses automatically without having to push the shutter half way. It makes for much faster zooming and shooting. I've used a number of mega-zoom P&S cameras over the years (Panasonic DMC-FZ28, Nikon P90, Fujifilm S5100, Olympus SP-550UZ); they all take great pictures outside in daylight but all are lousy when taking pictures in dim indoor settings. S200EXR definitely does better than most all of them indoors; still not good as a recent vintage DSLRs but definitely an improvement. For me, S200EXR's ability to take better indoor picture was the main reason for getting it. It would be nice if had HD video recording and longer zoom. HD recording was not important for me; that's what HD camcorders are for. As for the longer zoom, because it's sensor and the lens were larger, 14.3X was about the maximum that it could go. Due to the market pressure of having to keep up with other manufacturere putting out cameras with longer zoom lenses, Fuji ditched the larger sensor and went with smaller sensor (1/2.33) and less megapixels (10 mp) in HS10 to go to 30x zoom. I didn't try out the HS10 extensively but it's pictures are grainier at higher ISO than S200 EXR. Now with HS20 EXR replacing the HS10, Fuji put the bigger sensor back (1/2) - well not quite as big as 1/1.6 sensor in S200 EXR but still slightly bigger; however, they crammed 6 more megapixels, totaling 16 mp. I haven't seen it up close as to what it can do but I wonder how grainy high ISO pics are when 16 megapixels are crammed into that puny sensor, despite boasting EXR high dyanmic range sensor technology.
Also, S200 EXR is huge, as big as my Nikon D90, although not nearly as heavy. Large size almost defeats the purpose of using it as a point & shoot but I don't mind the size. Having external flash shoe mount is a bonus if you need more light; it's useless in all other settings except in full manual since it is not TTL type. It needs a lens hood but but doesn't come with one like its predecessor, S100fs. You can pick up a generic one on Amazon. (67 mm size)
Bottomline, in my opinion, it is the best megazoom P&S in the market now in regards to low light situations unless the camera manufacturers start putting bigger 4/3 or APS-c sensors in the P&S cameras. Highly recommended!

fujifilm finepix s200exr Customer Review 8
Here's the deal. This camera is simply a lot of fun. I have many cameras from point-and-shoot to DSLR, and each one does something really well. This one is my "take with me on a quick trip to the Rocky Mountains and have a lot of fun camera". I have captured some really great images with this camera. Of course, it is not a DSLR and does not perform like a DSLR. It will never be as fast as a DSLR. The images can be as good as some mid-level DSLRs if you take your time with the shot. Remember that cameras don't take pictures. Photographers take pictures.

fujifilm finepix s200exr Customer Review 9
I have bought 5 digital cameras from Fuji and each one is better than the old one. The only complain I have for this is the display color and brightness is not true and come out too bright for the real photo. Great low light and operation. Picture are sharp but need better anti shake system when fully zoomed under low light.

fujifilm finepix s200exr Customer Review 10
I just purchased the S200EXR when I noticed it was on sale for such a low price even though I own multiple DSLRs and lenses. The Fujifilm S200EXR is hands down one of the best big zoom "bridge cameras" (cameras that are in between a point-and-shoot camera and a DSLR) on the market.

The 14.3x zoom lens is sharper than any of the lenses I've seen on newer bridge cameras like the Fujifilm HS10, and the battery life is better as well. Not only do the images from this camera look great in my family online photo gallery, but the 12 megapixel images make fantastic 16" x 20" prints. If you can make a giant 16" x 20" print with this camera you know that it will be more than enough for typical 4x6 or 5x7 prints.

The ability to use an optional external flash is also great since it means that I can give my photos pro-quality lighting if I'm interested in shooting more than just snapshots.

If you want a good camera with an all-in-one lens and don't want to pay for an expensive DSLR and an equally expensive all-in-one zoom lens then the S200EXR is a perfect choice.

The only reason you might want to consider another camera is that this camera is roughly as big as a small DSLR and it only shoots SD video (which won't look as good on an HDTV if you're planning to shoot family videos). Bottom line, this is a great camera for still photos!

fujifilm finepix s200exr Customer Review 11
The S200EXR is one of it not the best camera in it's class. I've been using this camera for about three months now and have taken hundreds of photos with it. Overall I am very satisfied with it's performance.

Pros: Lots of settings and options, RAW formart, decent zoom, sturdy build, easy to use, rechargeable battery.

Cons: No HD video, sensor could be in a better place, view finder isn't optical, somewhat bulky.

Prior to owning this camera I had a Fuji F100. That was a great camera but it's no in the same league as this camera. The picture quality compared to the F100 is acctually close in normal enviroments but when you want to take pictures in bright light or low light the S200 is better.

When dealing with low light this camera does well. You can capture almost anything as long as you use a tripod. Even without a tripod you can get decent photos up to an ISO of 800. Beyond 800 the image stablization just doesn't work without a tripod.

In really bright light this camera takes great photos but keep in mind that Fuji's EXR will do some things you might not expect. One of the settings is Dynamic Range if you turn this on you will see more deatil in your photos. The only problem with that is sometimes your photos will look unnatural. If you're trying to take a photo where you want to show the contrast between light and dark areas, turn this off. If you don't the camera will try to brighten up the dark areas.

This camera has a fixed lens but you can get other lenses that will screw onto the end. You can also get some nice filters that fit perfectly without the use of an adaptor.

I really only have two gripes about this camera. The first one is that it doesn't do HD video. Everyone else does it so there is no real reason why Fuji didn't. In fact just having standard video makes that setting almost useless. I always bring my camcorder with me if I want video. If this did HD video I wouldn't have to do that.

My second gripe is the view finder. It's not optical. I think it just reroutes the LCD screen into the view finder. It just doesn't look good when you are using it. You don't get a crisp preview of what you are taking a photo of. I know that's minor but I find it to be annoying.

fujifilm finepix s200exr Customer Review 12
This is my first digital camera ever. Using it since last 4 months. I did a lot of online research and analysis before my purchase and I am very satisfied with my selection. Nice lens. Crisp picture. Lots of options for manual settings. Vivid colors. Very balanced. Solid construction. Good low light capacity. Great with tripod. Zoom is more than sufficient for general use. Financially this is very much affordable. This camera is more than what I expected.

EVF is just OK. It takes a lot to learn all the settings because without knowing the camera I can not get good results. I will say this is one of the best camera for beginners to learn digital photography. Great for students.

fujifilm finepix s200exr review

Saturday, November 12, 2011

fujifilm finepix s200exr review

SALE @>> Fujifilm Finepix S200EXR 12MP Super CCD Digital Camera

Search

Blog Archive

Labels

Followers