The Fujifilm FinePix S1800 is an entry level high end digital camera, with a chassis designed to be as compact as possible for a camera of this class. The shutter release button of the S1800 has a polished metal finish and sits at the top of the outward protruding palm grip just like any other bridge model, which makes reaching it a little less awkward with your fore finger. Mode selection can be controlled quickly through clockwise turning of the mode dial……, situated at the top of the camera.
The FinePix S1800 runs on 4 AA size batteries, atypical for cameras in this class which normally run on 2 AA batteries, but necessary to charge the cameras powerful pop up flash. Batteries and memory cards are found at the base of the pal grip. Fuji generously ships the FinePix S1800 with 4 AA size batteries to get you started.
The S1800 camera is not available in a range of colors, and comes in standard black with a leathery palm rest. As you would expect of any digital camera, the S1800 can store all your photos and video recordings directly to a range of supported SD memory cards or onto 23MB of internal memory; you will have to buy the memory card separately however as the FinePix does not ship with one.
The FinePix has a large high contrast 3.0 inch LCD display that sports an electronic view finder. External interfacing to view photos in you gallery or recorded videos can be done using the supplied cables to link to any device with AV input or to a PC with via high speed USB. Being able to record high definition video at 720p, an HDMI port would have been quite useful to quickly stream to your HDTV. Unfortunately it is not included on this model; you can consider the S2500 instead or the HDTV kit which gives you this functionality.
Camera Lens
The Fujifilm FinePix S1800 is capable of 12 mega pixel photo shots, and supports automatic focus for multiple focus objects in your photo scene and tracked auto focus for objects in your photo scene that are in movement. The camera’s optical wide-angle zoom reaches a maximum of 18x producing very high resolution photos right through focal range in telephoto or wide angle.
The Fujifilm FinePix S1800 has a large lens reach with a very effective anti shake image stabilization technology that improves shots blurred by camera movement. The high speed shutter allows the S1800 to take up 20 still pictures sequentially though image quality degrades somewhat in this configuration. For video shoots, the Fujifilm FinePix S1800 can record at high definition with mono sound or you can set it to VGA maximum resolution.
Picture Quality
The Fujifilm FinePix S1800 produces photos in detail with up to a maximum resolution of 4000×3000 pixels. Added post shot photo features such as noise reduction, sharpening, chromatic aberrations work well to improve image quality. Pictures taken with the FinePix S1800 will ordinarily occupy about 5.5 MB of storage space if taken at maximum photo quality. File quality setting adds a level of two compression types available which can reduce photo size up to 2.82 MB but still retain a high level of detail in the photo.
The Fujifilm FinePix S1800 sports a flash with 4 settings including slow synchro. Automatic red-eye reduction for photos distorted by ambient light or night for night shots is a welcome feature. An added mode, panorama mode, allows you to take panoramic photos easily with the S1800 handling the processing behind the scenes.
Battery Life and Added Features
The Fujifilm FinePix S1800’s four AA size batteries included, will give you roughly 300 shots. Lithium batteries will definitely give you more value at roughly 700 shots before replacing, depending on the settings you have enabled on the camera and how often you use the LCD to view your photo and video gallery.