Fuji Finepix HS30EXR Jacks review

FUJI FINEPIX HS30 EXR REVIEW

Another great Bridge camera from the Fuji line up.  Just finished putting it through my usual tests and I am very impressed with it. Fuji has kept the controls layout the same as the HS20, which is a good thing if you’re used to the HS20 and thinking of upgrading. Customers who have bought this camera form us tell me that the layout is simple and easy to use once you learn what the buttons do. I would have to agree with this, if you want to be creative, you should find most things you need on this camera. Not forgetting of course that you can let the camera do everything for you in EXR auto mode and not worry about any settings if you don’t want to.

The HS30 includes a number of upgrades and improvements on the HS20 it replaces, the electronic viewfinder has been improved, to me it looks a bit brighter, clearer and is slightly larger. Fuji have kept the sensor that automatically changes the camera from screen mode to viewfinder mode when you look through it, which I still think is neat idea! It also includes a dioptric adjustment. The 4x AA batteries have been replaced with a Lithium-ion rechargeable power supply that Fuji claim will be good for 600 pictures per charge. You will also find a new EXR-CMOS sensor, which is designed to improve low light quality amongst other things.

The HS30 has a large 3” adjustable LCD screen, which looks very clear and was very bright,  it coped well in direct sun light when I tested it. It now has a ‘sunlight’ mode to help make the screen easier to view.

There is a new sensor in this camera, which seemed to cope very well with the different lighting conditions I tested the camera under. I particularly liked the performance of the camera in low lighting conditions. Not only did it autofocus extremely quickly on difficult subjects, it produced nicely exposed, sharp and relatively noise free images.  I have always been a huge fan of Fuji colour reproduction and you will not be disappointed with this camera. Should you ever need to manual focus, they have kept the manual focus ring on the lens barrel, which I think is a good thing.

So the new sensor and metering system perform very well, definitely and improvement I think. As I said I deliberately tested it with difficult lighting situations while in full EXR (auto) mode and it returned very nice images, in fact I was very, very impressed with it!

Fuji have kept the 30x optical zoom on the camera, which for me is good, I like the manual zoom ‘twist’ of the lens barrel, which remains accurate and quick to adjust. The focal length of the lens is 24 – 720mm (equivalent to a 35mm camera), trust me this is a powerful lens! The biggest lens that I often use for my wildlife photography is a 500mm lens. The results at all settings on this lens are very good if not excellent, I really like the sharpness it returns at the 30x full zoom, which after all is what most people who buy this camera will want to use at some point. The image stabilization works very well and makes framing your shot even at full zoom very easy. One thing I was interested to try on this camera was the ability to increase the optical zoom from 30x to a staggering 60x intelligent digital zoom. As you will know if you have bought a camera from me, I am not usually a fan of digital zooms, however to my surprise this one seems to work very well and returned some nice images. You have to option of increasing the lens optical ability by 1.4x or 2.0x in other words the 2.0x doubles the 30x optical zoom to 60x. In 35mm terms, this gives you a lens focal length of 1440mm!!!! I have some test shots at the shop at this setting if you want to have a look.

The camera can capture 1080p HD movies and they have kept the quick record button on the back of the camera, which saves you having to change mode and possibly miss the moment. Not only does the camera auto focus during video recording but you can now manually focus it as well, for more creative focusing effects.

For fast moving subjects you can now record up to and impressive 11fps (frames per second) and 8fps at full resolution. The read/write seems to be quicker so it looks like Fuji has installed a bigger ‘buffer’ in this model.

You have all the usual scene modes that the camera will select for you in EXR or full auto. Alternatively, you can select them manually and even save your favourites. There is also the cool up to 360 degree panorama mode, this is very easy to do and great fun! There is also a custom settings mode, Manual, Aperture priority, shutter priority and program mode. The camera even has film simulation modes including B&W and velvia slide film a feature that I have always liked.

The macro mode (close ups) is now down to 1cm and  gives very nice images indeed, ideal for those of you that like macro photography. It amazes me how well it still auto focuses in this mode.
For landscapes etc, the camera has a built electronic level and you can even display a grid in the screen to help with horizontal and vertical lines, no more wonky pictures then!

There is a whole host of other functions, including face recognition that assist with focus and metering people, several metering modes including spot metering, exposure bracketing and of course a built flash. It does have a hot shoe mount if you want to use a bigger flashgun.

In conclusion then, I think Fuji have made some great improvements over the HS20 but have kept some of the tried and tested features as well.  The HS30 feels very well built and comfortable in the hand to hold. The lens barrel has a nice grip pattern to it and everything is well set out and has nice balance to it. It might be just my imagination but the camera seems to do everything that little bit faster. Of course, the main achievement is giving you a massive amount of features and a big lens in a relatively small and lightweight body.  I would thoroughly recommend this camera to anyone who enjoys their photography and doesn’t want to carry around lots of heavy cameras and lenses.

Jack

Exmoor Photography shop page

Fuji website

Fuji Finepix HS30EXR

•             16 mega-pixel EXR-CMOS sensor

•             30x Fujinon Optical zoom lens (24-720mm equivalent to a 35mm camera)

•             Up to 60x Intelligent Digital Zoom

•             3-inch LCD screen with Sunny Day mode

•             17 scene modes

•             1080p Full HD movie capture

•             Hot shoe for TTL flash & built in flash

•             RAW file format & jpegs

•             Lithium-ion rechargeable battery – 600 shots

•             Programmes AE, Aperture Priority AE, Shutter Priority AE, Manual exposure modes

•             Macro focusing down to 1cm

•             DOLBY STEREO SOUND RECORDING