Digital Home Thoughts: Fujifilm FinePix S1600 Super-zoom

"The Fujifilm FinePix S1600 is a new super-zoom digital compact camera that looks and feels like a DSLR. Featuring a 15x zoom lens with a 28-420mm focal range, 12 megapixels and a 3 inch LCD screen, the Fujifilm S1600 offers full manual photographic control for the more experienced user and an Automatic Scene Recognition mode for beginners."

Although it may indeed be a case of "another day, another superzoom," FujiFilm's FinePix S1600 does appear to have at least one thing going for it: a remarkably low price tag ($229 CAD MSRP) for its feature set - so much so that I literally had to look twice to be certain that that was not a misprint! Although at a 15x zoom it stands near what is now the lower end of the "superzoom" market, the S1600 includes a number of competitive features, including image stabilization, 720p video, a panorama mode, and a "Natural Light & With Flash" mode that takes two pictures in quick succession, with and without flash. In addition, Photography Blog gives the S1600 a nice review, and it includes two items that I find very attractive: a 2-year manufacturer's warranty, and the ability to run off AA batteries. Indeed, the primary drawback from a personal perspective is that it is not officially available in the USA: instead the US market starts with the S1800, which adds an 18x lens and lists for $229 (USD), but is readily available for less.