Finepix s8000fd

[Tokyo-dave]

Well I did it! I after almost 6 months of research, I finally decided to get the s8000fd. Other cameras I considered were the s6000, the Canon s3 and s5. My journey started with me leaning almost 90% towards the Canon s5. Primarily because it just seems that every review site I ever looked at that had some kind of a "top ten" list had Canon, Canon, and Canon. Just seemed to me that Canon was the more popular maker among professionals and amateurs alike. Then I was a little interested in the s6000 because of it's low light performance and better indoor image quality. However, it didn't have image stabilization. To me, a camera with the Super CCD combined with IS would have been the perfect camera. Then I saw the s8000 that comes with "Dual Image Stabilization" and I thought I had finally found the perfect camera! Until I discovered that it didn't come with the Super CCD!! WTF? In my opinion, this was Fujis chance to to really shine. Like I say, a super CCD, true IS, and the 18X zoom with the wide angle..............and Fuji would have had the perfect camera!! Near miss!! This threw me back into a 50/50 debate between the Fuji and the Canon. I ended up buying the Fuji simply because I managed to find the camera on auction here in Japan with a 2G memory card deal for about $345 which was a great deal compared to everywhere I had looked.
I've had it for about two weeks, and although I'm still learning, I have to say that in general I'm pretty pleased on most points. If I keep the ISO at or below 200, I seem to get some really nice pics. 400 ISO is acceptable, but nothing that makes me say "wow!". I'm particularly impressed with the flash. I've always hated how most flash pics came out but the Fuji takes great pics with the flash without any of that over exposed whitewash you see in other cameras. It seems to do what I've always thought a flash was intended to do. It takes a poorly lit situation, and turns it into a well lit situation.
I'm a little let down with the face detection feature as it doesn't appear to work as well as what I thought it would. It's my first camera with such a feature, so maybe this is the norm, but I was expecting a little more. I've taken several pics, and many group photos, and I have yet to see the camera detect more than one face consistently.
I don't use any of the automatic modes because they all seem to want to boost the ISO more than I like. I'm not very familiar with photography, but I am learning every day, so up until now, I've been 'playing' around mostly with the program shift mode. I may be wrong, but it's my understanding that this mode allows me to adjust the ISO setting manually, while the camera will adjust the shutter speed and aperture automatically. For now, this seems to be getting the best results. Til now, I've only been taking indoor pics of family and friends with pretty good results. I haven't had a chance to take it outdoors where I suspect this camera will really shine.
I'm pretty sure that the way this camera performs will depend greatly on how much I can learn to use it.
Pretty happy in general, but it would be nice if the face detection really worked as well as it appears in the brochure. Fuji could really make me a happy camper if they could somehow find a way to improve this with a firmware update!! (mine came with the firmware 1.01, so as far as I know, I'm up to date.)
dave

[johnpierce]

Well I did it! I after almost 6 months of research, I finally decided to get the s8000fd. dave

Hi Dave,

I am looking at the Fuji Camera and have three questions:

1. Does the camera have a button to activate lines dividing the viewing screen into 1/3 segments; and do the lines stay activated after power off/on and after a picture is taken?

2. Is the exposure lock button on the back of the camera; and is the button required to be activated until after the picture is taken?

3. Do you find the Zoom ring works smoothly?

Johnp

[Tokyo-dave]

1. Does the camera have a button to activate lines dividing the viewing screen into 1/3 segments; and do the lines stay activated after power off/on and after a picture is taken?
There is a feature that divides the screen into 9 sections I believe. I'm not sure if it needs to be 'reactivated' after a power off. It's my understanding that this feature is used as a guide to help you align shots when taking pics of objects that have lines or some other form of distinct linear structures that need to be aligned properly. I've found that this particular review has been quite helpful in describing features and ways to use them in a way that is easier to understand than the actual users manual. http://www.photoxels.com/fujifilm-s8000fd.html

2. Is the exposure lock button on the back of the camera; and is the button required to be activated until after the picture is taken?
I'm not familiar with an exposure lock button. There is a -/+ button that is used to adjust shutter speed, aperture, and exposure depending upon what mode/parameter you're currently in. As far as I know, once you set the required setting in any of the P, A, S, M modes, those settings stay set until you change them even after the camera has been powered down.

3. Do you find the Zoom ring works smoothly?
The s8000 fd doesn't come with a zoom ring like the S6000, or the s9000/91000/9500. This seems to be a common complaint about the s8000fd. As far as the zoom with the s8000fd, it's my first 'big' zoom, and for now the only one I've been exposed to. I'm pretty happy with it as it seems to work as smoothly as you can be with the zoom lever. If I had a complaint (it's trivial) the zoom motor is pretty noisy and sounds extremely and cheaply mechanical. Almost makes me wonder if somewhere down the road weather or not I'm gonna have to take it in for an oil change!!! But, since it's not a video camera, obviously motor noise is not a problem with images. It's my understanding that the Canon s5 has an extremely quiet zoom motor but I haven't seen it in action personally.
Hope I've been of some help.
dave