Fujifilm 16MP FinePix HS30 EXR 30x SuperZoom

Fujifilm announced the FinePix HS30EXR SuperZoom digital compact camera. Looking and handling like a DSLR, the bridge-style Fujifilm HS30EXR boasts a 30x zoom lens which covers a 35mm equivalent focal range of 24-720mm and features mechanical image stabilisation and twist-barrel manual zoom and focusing controls. Other highlights of the HS30 EXR include a 16 Megapixels EXR Back Side Illuminated CMOS sensor, a 3-inch tilting 460k-dot LCD monitor, 920k-dot electronic viewfinder with eye-sensor for automatic switching, and full 1080p HD movie recording with stereo sound. 

In addition there's an ISO range of 100-12800, High Speed movie capture at 320 fps, continuous shooting at 8fps, 0.16 second auto-focusing, 600 shot battery life, a customisable Function button, full manual controls and support for the RAW file format. The Fujifilm FinePix HS30EXR is listed for $499.95. Here is the summary of review by PhotoReview Australia, giving the camera a rating of 8.5 out of 10:"First the good news: some features in the HS30 are performing a little better and there's been no overall deterioration in picture quality. The bad news is that many of the factors we found problematic in the HS20 haven't changed. The autofocusing problems we identified with the HS20 have not been fixed. 

This is extremely frustrating and, consequently, we have reduced our rating for the HS30 accordingly. While the AF system is capable of locking onto reasonably contrasty subjects in bright light, it remained very slow in any but the most optimal conditions. Hunting was common in low light levels and with moving subjects as well as for close-ups. We often had to wait for a second or two for the system to lock on to subjects. To complicate matters, there's no shutter lock to prevent out-of-focus shots from being captured so good shots were often missed. Interestingly, digital zoom shots were sharp and clear (when correctly focused) and the built-in stabilisation enabled us to hand-hold the camera at an equivalent focal length to 1440mm in 35mm format using shutter speeds as slow as 1/300 second with ISO 100 sensitivity. 

The exposure metering system was also somewhat variable, being easily upset with backlighting, particularly at the wide end of the zoom range. Dark subjects that covered a large part of the image area tended to be over-exposed when the Auto Dynamic Range setting was used. Despite the revisions to the 16-megapixel sensor, our Imatest testing showed resolution to be only marginally higher than we found with the HS20. It remains below expectations for a 16-megapixel camera for both JPEG and RAF.RAW files. Even using Adobe Camera Raw to process the latter failed to bring the top resolution to within a megapixel of expectations. 

Tests across the focal length and aperture ranges of the lens showed edge softening was similar to the HS20 and of concern at the widest apertures, where resolution was highest. The graph below shows the results of analysis of JPEG files at the focal length and aperture settings we were able to test.The results of the lateral chromatic aberration tests were almost identical to those from the HS20, as you would expect since both lenses are the same. In the graph of our Imatest results  below, the red line separates 'negligible' and 'low' CA, while the green line marks the border between 'low' and 'moderate' CA.  

 

Coloured fringing was less evident than we found with the HS20, although it could be seen as a cyan edging along high contrast boundaries in some shots. The lens was fairly flare-prone, even with the supplied lens hood fitted, particularly at the wide end of the zoom range. Long exposures were similar to the HS20, with noise becoming visible by ISO 1600, after which is became progressively more obvious. Both long exposures and flash shots taken at ISO 12800 were soft and blotchy. Flash shots were similar to those from the HS20, although under-exposure was less apparent and exposures were evenly balanced across the sensitivity range. Noise and softening became increasingly visible  from ISO 6400. 

Auto white balance performance was slightly better than the HS20. The review camera failed to totally remove the colour cast from incandescent lighting but produced neutral colours with fluorescent lighting. Manual measurement also delivered neutral colour rendition and there are plenty of pre-sets and in-camera tweaking adjustments to enable photographers to correct most lighting casts."

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