Jack of all trades, master
of... all
With the X-S1, Fujifilm has set its sights
on class-leading quality on all fronts, looking to rival the Canon PowerShot
SX40 HS for image quality, the Panasonic Lu- mix DMC-FZ150 for performance and
video quality, and its own FinePix HS20EXR for ergonomics. So how did it fare
in our tests?
Fujifilm X-S1
Its 12-megapixel sensor generates even less
noise than the PowerShot SX40 HS’s. Its performance is only a shade behind that
of the I.umix DMC-FZ150, taking 0.9 seconds between shots in normal use. Its
controls are largely based on the HS20EXR’s, with lens rings for zoom and
focus, and lots of single-function buttons. It’s a big camera, but it’s
extremely comfortable to hold and the rubber-effect finish gives a really firm
grip. The only area where it falls behind is for video, where it can’t match
the DMC-FZ150’s 1080/50pAVCHD recording with full manual exposure control.
There are no issues with video autofocus and stabilization problems, though,
and the microphone input is a welcome new addition.
“In shorty the X-S1 is a triumph and
exactly the camera we had hoped for”
In short, the X-S1 is a triumph, and
exactly the camera we had hoped for. It’s also pretty expensive, at around $310
more than any of the other cameras mentioned above. As such, it seems fair to
be extremely fussy in our appraisal.
Seeing spots, White discs around specular highlights are infrequent enough
to not worry about; we found them hard to trigger in our test
The electronic viewfinder (EVF) leaves
nothing to be desired: its 1.44 million-dot resolution is a seven-fold
improvement over its cheaper rivals’ EVFs and gives a bigger view than any SLR
at this price. A sensor switches between the screen and EVF automatically when
the camera is raised to the eye. The 3in, 460,000-dot tilting LCD screen is
bright and clear, too, although we prefer the fully articulated screens in the
Canon and Panasonic cameras, which are hinged at the side for a wider range of
viewing angles.
It’s great to have so many single-function
buttons, and the strip down the left side of the screen works brilliantly in
tandem with the command dial. There’s one more button and switch than on the
HS20EXR, leaving the menu largely redundant in normal use. The menu isn’t well
organized, though, with face detection appearing as the 14th entry below
obscure parameters such as highlight tone and white balance shift. The latter
would be more useful if it was accessible alongside the white balance presets,
which have a dedicated button. The RAW button is useful, but only to a point.
It switches between RAW and RAW+JPEG modes, but only for one shot before reverting
back. Changing the setting indefinitely requires a lengthy delve into the Setup
menu.
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Details
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Price
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$852
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website
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www.parkcameras.com
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Info
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www.fujifilm.eu/uk
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Needs
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OS X 10.6.8 or 10.7
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Pro
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Good ergonomics * EVF * Great image
quality * Fast performance
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Con
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Ought to find more detail under favorable
lighting conditions
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Rating
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4/5
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Performance is generally excellent, with
responsive autofocus and rapid shooting in normal use, including in RAW mode.
The autofocus sometimes completely failed, but it was so obvious that there was
no risk of taking home blurry shots - we simply took the picture again.
However, the X-S1 shares a problem we’ve
seen many times before on Fujifilm cameras: although it can capture a shot
while the previous one is being saved to memory card, all other controls are
unresponsive during this time. It’s a mild inconvenience when taking a shot and
then realizing that a setting needs changing before taking another, adding a
second or two to the process. However, attempting to do this after a burst of
shots added around five seconds, and selecting continuous and RAW modes
together added ten seconds. These figures are with a fast UHS-1 SDHC card; they
were quadrupled with a slower Class 4 card.
See ya crater. Focus at the full telephoto zoom extension is impressively
sharp, as we discovered when shooting the craters of the Moon
It’s not the quickest camera to switch on,
either, taking 2.7 seconds from power-up to shoot in our tests. Pressing the
shutter button before it was ready meant nothing happened at all - we expect
cameras to shoot as soon as they’re able. Continuous mode was pretty quick at
6.5fps, slowing to 1.5fps after six frames. Reducing the resolution to six
megapixels raised performance to 9.6fps for 14 frames, slowing to 3.2fps.
However, the Panasonic FZ150 managed 12fps for 12 frames at full quality, or
5.4fps for 22 shots with continuously updating autofocus. That’s not an option
in any continuous mode on the X-S1.
The video mode is generally excellent, with
1080p capture in AVC format and stereo sound, but, again, there are a few
niggles. The lack of anti-alias filtering made sharp diagonal lines look
blocky, and it’s frustrating that manual exposure settings and even the
exposure lock button are ignored for video capture. Autofocus was smooth and
silent, and although it wasn’t as reliable at tracking moving subjects as the
Panasonic model, it wasn’t bad. This is only possible when the front dial is
switched from AF-S to AF-C, though - something we often forgot to do before
commencing recording. Thankfully, it can still be switched after pressing
record. The microphone input is a great asset, but the lack of level metering
or a headphone socket means there’s no way of knowing if the microphone’s
battery has run out or if there’s a loose connection.
Shadow play, it’s rare for an ultra-zoom camera to excel in low
light, but the X-S1 is a notable exception
The X-S1 sailed through most of our
image quality tests. The lens performed well throughout its zoom range, with
no sign of chromatic aberrations and only mild corner softness at medium-to-long
focal lengths. While its 26* zoom range isn’t as impressive as the Canon SX40
HS’s 36xzoom, in practice the latter only had a small advantage for resolving
detail at the maximum zoom extension. Low-light shots exhibited remarkably
little noise, especially in the EXR mode, which reduces the resolution to six
megapixels specifically to combat noise. Another mode extends the dynamic range
to rescue blown-out highlights, and was highly effective.
The issue of blown-out highlights on this
camera is controversial, with widely reported problems of white discs appearing
in photos. However, we found it to be rare and not hugely intrusive when it did
appear. Boosting the dynamic range to the maximum 1600% setting significantly
reduced it. The disc in the Gherkin shot (above) was caused by sunlight
reflecting off a window pane on the Gherkin - it took a heavily over-exposed
highlight such as this to trigger the problem.
Paradoxically, the X-S1’s photos were least
impressive in the most favorable shooting conditions. Photos taken in bright
light at medium focal lengths were reasonably sharp, but not quite a match for
those taken with the Panasonic and Canon cameras. Processing the X-S1’s RAW
output in Lightroom 4 or the bundled Silkypix editor didn’t help, either, which
makes us wonder whether the sensor’s unusual pixel array (for lowering noise
and extending the dynamic range) takes its toll on detail. Whether lower noise
and extended dynamic range are an acceptable trade for detail will depend on
your usage.
The X-S1 leaves room for improvement, but
as a general purpose camera none of its flaws are critical. The bottom line is
that this piece of kit removes the need to choose between image quality,
performance and ergonomics. It’s up there with the best in all three areas, and
its EVF is without equal among ultra-zoom cameras. You’d have to spend a
fortune on an SL R and lots of lenses to get a more versatile camera than this.
