Exmoor Photography Gallery and Camera Shop,
T: 01643 862026
Contact Jack for competitive price and stock status.
FUJI FINEPIX
SL1000
Jacks review
‘Please note, these reviews are my opinion on the
cameras that I stock and sell, the reviews are not meant to be full blown
technical reviews and I do not post any test images on line, they are designed
to give you some assistance (in layman’s terms, as requested by my customers)
when choosing a camera that is right for you. I try to keep them as simple and
short as possible.
These reviews are the result of requests from my
customers.’
THANKS JACK
I am very impressed with
this camera, thought I would say this straight away. I still find it amazing
that you can buy a camera for about £300.00 that has a built in 50x optical
zoom lens that gives you the equivalent reach of 1200mm! (35mm), which also
allows you to focus in super macro mode down to 1cm. This camera covers an
enormous focal range, without the need to ever change a lens or carry heavy kit
bag!
I have been putting this
brand new model from Fuji through my usual test and I have printed some test
shots from it.
The camera produced some
very clear, sharp, correctly exposed images, from Fuji’s newly developed
Fujinon lens. I was particularly
impressed with the results at 24mm its widest angle of view. At the other end
1200mm it was also very good. Perhaps just a little bit softer for my liking
but still very good all the same. It did take a bit of getting used to having
such a big lens on a bridge camera, however the focusing was accurate and the
IS image stabilization worked well. You do have to hold the camera properly and
it would probably benefit from using a tripod at full zoom. I took my test
shots all hand held and got some very nice, printable results from the camera.
I like the inclusion of an
eye sensor on the EVF (electronic viewfinder), which is normally only found on
more expensive models. I found the viewfinder to be very bright, clear and it
gave you all the readings you need while taking your image. There is also a
dioptric adjustment dial next to the viewfinder.
Another feature that I
really like is the inclusion of an adjustable,tilting 3” LCD display. A nice touch that
makes taking shots a difficult angle very easy. The screen is very crisp and I
could easily see the image while taking pictures in bright sunshine, directly
on it.
As well as the zoom switch
positioned in front of the shutter button on top of the camera, there is also a
zoom switch on the lens barrel. I always like having this extra switch and I
like it that Fuji has included it on this model. The zoom itself is very quick
and easy to adjust with either switch. In fact, like the design of the camera,
it has a nice grip and feels well balanced to hold. Although larger than most
bridge cameras, it does not feel heavy or too large to hold.
I have not tested the
camera at night but the images produced in daylight where nice and smooth and I
couldn’t see any noticeable noise in them at all.
The camera has a
continuous shooting mode of up to 10fps (frames per second) at full resolution.
This worked very well during my test. All be it a large subject (moving car) it
produced a series of sharp images and tracked it well.
I am pleased to see that Fuji
has kept the Scene Recognition Auto; this model has 6, portrait, landscape,
night, macro, night portrait and backlit portrait. It has always impressed me
how Fuji models with this feature recognise the lighting conditions and choose
the correct mode for you. This model is no exception and works very well in
scene auto mode. Ok, so I took my test shots in bright sunshine so it should be
good, but I was very impressed with the cameras metering system, the images
were perfectly exposed without any adjustment from me. It has TTL (through the
lens) 256 zone metering including, multi zone, spot, and average. The colours
are spot on and the cameras WB (white balance) worked extremely well. As I
always say, the true test of any camera is its ability to accurately reproduce
the scene you were looking at when you pressed the shutter. This camera did an excellent
job for me. It also has SLR style
shooting modes that allows you take more control of the cameras settings if you
want to including, Panorama assist, Program AE, Shutter Priority, Aperture
Priority and manual. The panorama assist is slightly different to the way they
have done it on previous models and I’m not sure if I prefer it or not. With
this model a horizontal line appears on the screen that you follow after
pressing the shutter in the direction you want to go, it then takes several
frames of your ‘sweep’ until you press the shutter again. It does work but I
think I preferred the old system. There are also several manual scene modes
that you can select including, portrait, landscape, sport, snow, beach, sunset
etc.
The camera has full HD
video 1080p and there is a quick start button on the back of the camera. You
can also still use the optical zoom while shooting video.
There are several other
features that I think are worth a mention. I like the auto bracketing function as
well as manual bracketing. You can also select the focusing mode from single or
continuous and select the focusing point to either, centre, multi, area or
tracking. I tried all of these during my test and was very impressed with the
focussing speed and accuracy.
This is another great
model from Fuji, if you want a massive lens but funds are limited, then this
would be a very good option to consider. I think the camera is well built, is
easy to use and produced good quality images. Yes, an SLR with the same focal length
would produce slightly better images, but you can’t do it at this price or
carry it in a small bag that you could put on your trouser belt if you wanted
to! My favourite bridge camera has always been the Panasonic FZ200 but I must
admit the reach this cameras lens gives you is awesome.
I sell it with the LOWEPRO
REZO TLZ10 camera bag, which it fits into perfectly.
·
50x optical zoom (24-1200mm 35mm equivalent)
·
Powerful optical image stabilization
·
Electronic viewfinder and eye sensor
·
Wide angle tilting LCD (920K-dot) 3”
·
Side-lever zoom control
·
16-megapixel sensor with hi-speed reactions
·
Continuous shooting: 10fps at full resolution (max. 9
frames**)
·
Six scene SR AUTO (Scene Recognition Auto)
·
Versatile shooting modes - P / S / A / M mode dial
·
SR AUTO, AUTO,
Adv, P, S, A, M, Custom, Panorama, SP
·
A host of Scene Positions
·
Portrait, Landscape, Sport,
Night, Night (Tripod), Fireworks, Sunset, Snow, Beach, Party, Flower, Text
Update,
I have just been showing a customer the camera and have looked
at the ADV mode (Pro Low-Light, Advanced Filter, Natural Light & with
Flash, Natural Light, HDR, Zoom Bracketing, Individual shutter 3D) in more
detail. I will have closer look at these settings when I get time and post my thoughts.
This mode offers the following settings, which are all
very useful. But will take a bit of practice and will be dependent on lighting
conditions.
- Advanced Filter
- HDR
- Zoom Bracketing
- Individual Shutter 3
Fuji UK SPECIFICATION LINK
No comments:
Post a Comment