Superzoom for girlfriend, advice needed

Skyline On Fire

Skyline On Fire

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Luke
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Well she has a 1000D, enjoys it occasionally, did well on safari etc... But I can tell she would be better off with a superzoom/all in one type of deal.

I've been looking at the Fujifilm Finepix HS10 and HS20.

The HS20 is 350, HS10 around 200. Is it worth the step up in price for the HS20?

Any real world experience from experienced photographers on both of these?
Thanks in advance,
 
One comment I've heard from a HS10 user is that the batteries drain very fast.
So some high capacity rechargeables are required.
 
Hi Luke,
i have an HS10 and i think for a bridge camera it is amazing.it has allthe functions of many more expensive dslr cameras including auto,aperature and shutter priority.
it also has very good low light level performance and absolutely amazing macro capabilities.
the 30x zoom is also a god send,taking the place of at least a couple of lenses.
the only negative point is the lack of facility to use a remote shutter release unless you buy one of those ugly third-party brackets and cable release.
i can highly recommend the HS10
 
squishy said:
One comment I've heard from a HS10 user is that the batteries drain very fast.
So some high capacity rechargeables are required.
Click to expand...

Yeah I always had a niggling doubt about the battery life on these things for some reason. So a couple sets of high capacity rechargeable batteries are on the list too.
 
philangel8 said:
Hi Luke,
i have an HS10 and i think for a bridge camera it is amazing.it has allthe functions of many more expensive dslr cameras including auto,aperature and shutter priority.
it also has very good low light level performance and absolutely amazing macro capabilities.
the 30x zoom is also a god send,taking the place of at least a couple of lenses.
the only negative point is the lack of facility to use a remote shutter release unless you buy one of those ugly third-party brackets and cable release.
i can highly recommend the HS10
Click to expand...

How is the image stabilization when shooting at 30x zoom?
 
The hs 10 bateries drain quite fast if you use continuouse auto focus mode,i leave mine set to single focus where the camera only focuses when you press the shutterrelease half way.
with rechargables i can usually get 400 to 450 shots.
 
the image stabilisation is superb,even at full 30x zoom...there are three modes you can use.
 
philangel8 said:
The hs 10 bateries drain quite fast if you use continuouse auto focus mode,i leave mine set to single focus where the camera only focuses when you press the shutterrelease half way.
with rechargables i can usually get 400 to 450 shots.
Click to expand...

400/450 is reasonable enough definitely.

Have you got a flickr or something where I can see real world examples of the camera being used? I've checked a few samples on reviews, but I never really trust them as they are under review conditions rather than day to day usage etc...
 
Took the plunge and brought one today.

Had a quick play with it this evening, I'm really quite impressed. The 24-720mm zoom is f5.6 at its slowest, so that's not too bad, it's relatively sharp throughout. It wont be replacing my 7D and L lenses any time soon but I cant lie, it's surprised me. The IS is excellent, focusing is quick enough. The electronic viewfinder is absolutely awful, turned it off and I'm just going to rely on the flippy screen, which is large, bright and crisp.

No complaints, other than the awful EVF, and the menus are pretty clunky. Oh and the circa 1995 effects when deleting a photo.
 
luke, you will be surprised many times by this camera,especially if you start using the manual settings.also try giving the motion removal mode a try. you can take pics in a place full of people and the camera will remove them from the scene.
you also have motioncapture where the camera takes several shots in a set time and then stacks them to show movement in the final picture
 
Skyline On Fire said:
Took the plunge and brought one today.

Had a quick play with it this evening, I'm really quite impressed. The 24-720mm zoom is f5.6 at its slowest, so that's not too bad, it's relatively sharp throughout. It wont be replacing my 7D and L lenses any time soon but I cant lie, it's surprised me. The IS is excellent, focusing is quick enough. The electronic viewfinder is absolutely awful, turned it off and I'm just going to rely on the flippy screen, which is large, bright and crisp.

No complaints, other than the awful EVF, and the menus are pretty clunky. Oh and the circa 1995 effects when deleting a photo.
Click to expand...

Does it do that cheesy thing where the screen fills with blue pixels while it deletes the image? I borrowed my brothers fuji s5800 for a while before buying a dslr and it did this. The evf on it was very poor as well and the rear lcd was used 100% of the time. It did take food pictures though
 
If I had the choice, the HS20 would be my pick.
It is based around the same body, however the HS20 has a larger sensor. Not massively larger, but larger, and size matter in sensors.

The HS20 will take a remote release, and as well as taking a standard flash, there is also a E-TTL flashgun to be released for it.

The HS20 is really an improved version of the HS-10.

There were some reports of the HS20 overheating, however a firmware fix has been released, and it seems the issue was the update speed onthe LCD screen. The factory setting was 50 FPS, and the firmware drops it to 30FPS.
 
lawrie29 said:
If I had the choice, the HS20 would be my pick.
It is based around the same body, however the HS20 has a larger sensor. Not massively larger, but larger, and size matter in sensors.

The HS20 will take a remote release, and as well as taking a standard flash, there is also a E-TTL flashgun to be released for it.

The HS20 is really an improved version of the HS-10.

There were some reports of the HS20 overheating, however a firmware fix has been released, and it seems the issue was the update speed onthe LCD screen. The factory setting was 50 FPS, and the firmware drops it to 30FPS.
Click to expand...

I was debating the HS20 over the HS10, but reviews were saying the image quality has dropped considerably on the HS20, as the increased pixel count was detrimental. Just too many pixels on such a small sensor.

And the sensor itself hasn't increased in size, they've just upped the pixel count, making for higher resolution, but lower quality photos.
 
lexie said:
Does it do that cheesy thing where the screen fills with blue pixels while it deletes the image? I borrowed my brothers fuji s5800 for a while before buying a dslr and it did this. The evf on it was very poor as well and the rear lcd was used 100% of the time. It did take food pictures though
Click to expand...

Yep that's the one, like a windows XP movie maker transition or something, absolutely horrid and I'd love to know what a designer for an international corporation is thinking with reviving those nasty 90s effects in 2010/11

The IQ is fine, the LCD is brilliant, but as you said the EVF is horrific. I've just disabled it permenantly in the settings, I don't want anything to do with it. If I leave it on, whenever anything is within 8 inches of that sensor next to the viewfinder, it disables the LCD and switches to the viewfinder, meaning you cant shoot in many positions via the LCD with the Viewfinder option on.
 
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