FujiFilm FinePix S1500

Full Review

If you are on a budget, but want a camera that has the look and feel of a dSLR camera, the Fujifilm S1500 may fit the bill. But once you hit the shutter release button, its pictures tell a different story.
Featuring a 33-396 mm lens with 12x optical zoom, dual image stabilization and an electronic viewfinder, the S1500 scored high in terms of specs. It has full manual controls for more advanced users and automatic scene recognition mode for amateurs. Video is recorded in VGA resolution and zooming is possible. Designed and built very similar to dSLR cameras, the S1500 had a very rugged design and was very comfortable to use.

Low light performance was a bit of a disappointment. Images were noisy even at ISO 200 and there was quite a bit of loss in detail.

The S1500’s performance is a mixed bag. Focusing happened quickly but shutterlag was longer than the rest of the cameras in this category of compact zoom camera. The overall operating speed of the camera was also noticeably slower than the other cameras. Image quality was good in low ISO but the rest offered much better quality in terms of sharpness and exposure. Some noise was noticeable even in some of our outdoor shots. The double image stabilization is quite effective though as it helped us getting sharp focus even at slow shutter speeds.
Color reproduction was also quite accurate, so was the auto white balance. Low light performance was a bit of a disappointment though. Images were noisy even at ISO 200 and there was quite a bit of loss in detail. Videos captured were grainy and noisy, and were accompanied with a lot of mechanical noise which was disappointing.The FujiFilm FinePix S1500 is reasonably priced at Rs.15,499 considering its long zoom lens and other stack of features, but its overall image quality is not the best in this category.

Bottom Line

Rugged design with long list of controls. The FinePIx S1500 has longer than average zoom lens in this category but is rather noisy at ISO 200, which brings the rating down.