Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I bought this camera so I could leave my heavy DSLR and lenses at home yet still get some decent pictures while on a trip to Alaska. I don't regret the decision, but was reminded that this is indeed a bridge camera and not a replacement for a DSLR. My bottom line conclusion: I'll use this camera when on tours where I'm on a moving platform (bus, train, boat) and don't have the freedom or time to set up a tripod, change lenses, etc. But I will use the DSLR whenever there is the ability to choose the shooting location and the time to set up a tripod and take greater care with composition. Pros: - The zoom lens is truly amazing, and when combined with the excellent image stabilization, I found it to be useful even when handheld at maximum zoom. This camera got multiple beautiful shots of a bald eagle perched on a treetop while I was standing on a rocking boat -- at maximum zoom. And I could hardly see the eagle with the unaided eye. This was far better performance than I had any right to expect! - The macro performance of this lens is good. It won't do everything a high-end macro lens will do, but it is quite good. - I like the ability to use AA batteries in the camera (it requires 4 batteries). I took 3 sets of inexpensive NiMH rechargeable batteries and a charger on our vacation, and these worked great. I took 2000 photos and 50 videos with this camera in 8 days, and I never had to change the batteries during the day. (I charged them each night to top them off.) Caution: don't leave alkaline batteries in any electronic equipment for more than a few weeks as they can leak and ruin your gear. (voice of experience!) - The electronic viewfinder (EVF) made the difference between getting a picture and not getting one more than once. When the sunlight is super-bright, you simply can't see an external screen to know if you have composed the photo properly. The EVF on this camera works very well in such cases. Cons: - The High Dynamic Range (HDR) feature did not perform well. HDR is designed to help you get good shots when the scene has both bright and dark portions such as you encounter when taking pictures of scenery with bright sky and relatively darker foreground. I tried using the HDR feature several times and 100% of the shots were unacceptable. (Fortunately, the HDR feature on my Samsung Galaxy phone is superb.) This shortcoming is mitigated somewhat by the fact that you can set the camera to save the three shots (normal, under-, and over-exposed) that it used to create the HDR picture. So you can at least put those images into other software to try to get a better HDR image on a computer. Also, this camera has adjustable Auto Exposure Bracketing so you can generate your own images to combine into one HDR photo on a computer. - The WiFi feature isn't all that useful yet -- not so much because of a limitation in the camera, but because the app isn't quite ready for prime time. (I used the Android version of the app.) It was difficult getting the camera and phone to connect, and when they finally did, the connection wasn't stable. It was more trouble than it was worth. This problem rendered the geotagging feature useless. Let's hope this problem will be remedied with future updates to the app. - A camera like this really should have threads in the lens barrel so that filters can be attached! Why Fuji doesn't offer this basic, low-tech, feature on a camera like this is a mystery. UPDATE: The $17.99 LA-58SL1000 lens adapter made by Kiwi Foto fits this camera perfectly. (Available from Amazon.) The adapter adheres securely to the rim of metal which surrounds the lens and it has threads for standard 58mm filters. You'll need to get a 58mm lens cap to replace the original. Finally, I've read reviews with complaints about the noisy images that these small-sensor cameras produce. I definitely saw that in some of the images I took with this camera. When the ISO was set to 400 or below, however, the noise wasn't bad. And I even got some decent shots at 800 ISO. Here's something that a potential buyer should consider: If you need to use long zoom in conditions with relatively low light, you will have to use high ISO to keep your shutter speed from being so slow that the pictures will be blurry, and that will lead to noisier (grainier) images. If you're going to use it for bright outdoor scenes, you should be able to keep ISO at 400 or below and still get nice shots. I hope this information will help prospective buyers to have the right level of expectations for this camera. If so, you won't be disappointed with it.