Fujifilm FinePix HS30EXR Review

April 23, 2012 | Mark Goldstein |

Introduction
Ease of Use
Image Quality
Sample Images
Product Images
Rating & Conclusion
Review Roundup
Specifications
Comment
More…

Image Quality

All of the sample images in this Review were taken using the 16 megapixel JPEG setting, which gives an average image size of around 6Mb.

The Fujifilm FinePix HS30EXR produced images of good quality during the review period. It handled noise fairly well, with a little noise appearing at the relatively slow speed of ISO 400 and then becoming progressively worse at the faster setting of ISO 800. The fastest full-resolution settings of ISO 1600 and 3200 suffer from a loss of fine detail and colour saturation, while the headling-grabbing settings of ISO 6400 and 12800 are both actually shot at a reduced resolution (medium and small respectively) and they're very noisy too. Chromatic aberrations were well controlled, with limited purple fringing effects appearing only in high contrast situations. The 16 megapixel images were just a little soft straight out of the camera at the default sharpen setting and require some further sharpening in an application like Adobe Photoshop, or you can change the in-camera sharpening level.

Macro performance is excellent, allowing you to focus as close as 1cm away from the subject when the lens is set to wide-angle. Commendably barrel distortion is well controlled even at the 24mm focal length. The built-in flash worked well indoors, with no red-eye and adequate overall exposure, although there is noticeable vignetting at 24mm. The anti-shake system works very well when hand-holding the camera in low-light conditions or when using the telephoto end of the zoom range. The maximum shutter speed of 30 seconds allows the cameras to capture enough light for most after-dark situations.

The Pro Low-Light scene mode produces better image clarity at high ISO levels at the expense of a loss of fine detail, while the Pro Focus mode effectively throws the background out of focus for portraits. The Sweep Panorama mode works largely as advertised, making it simple to take hand-held low-light and wide-vista shots, although there is a clear ghosting effect around any moving subjects. The EXR modes offer a choice between shooting at full 16 megapixel resolution in High Resolution (HR) mode, or an 8 megapixel image in the Low Noise (SN) mode for shooting without flash in low light conditions, or the Dynamic Range (DR) mode to achieve an optimal balance between shadows and highlights.

Noise

There are 8 ISO settings available on the Fujifilm FinePix HS30EXR. Here are some 100% crops which show the noise levels for each ISO setting:

JPEG	RAW
ISO 100 (100% Crop)	ISO 100 (100% Crop)


ISO 200 (100% Crop)	ISO 200 (100% Crop)


ISO 400 (100% Crop)	ISO 400 (100% Crop)


ISO 800 (100% Crop)	ISO 800 (100% Crop)


ISO 1600 (100% Crop)	ISO 1600 (100% Crop)


ISO 3200 (100% Crop)	ISO 3200 (100% Crop)


ISO 6400 (100% Crop)


ISO 12800 (100% Crop)

Focal Range

The Fujifilm FinePix HS30EXR's 30x zoom lens provides a focal length of 24-720mm in 35mm terms, as demonstrated below.

24mm	720mm

Sharpening

Here are two 100% crops which have been Saved as Web - Quality 50 in Photoshop. The right-hand image has had some sharpening applied in Photoshop. The out-of-the camera images are a little bit soft at the default sharpening setting, and benefit from some further sharpening in a program like Adobe Photoshop.

Original (100% Crop)	Sharpened (100% Crop)

File Quality

The Fujifilm FinePix HS30EXR has 2 different image quality settings available, with Fine being the highest quality option. Here are some 100% crops which show the quality of the various options, with the file size shown in brackets.

16M Fine (5.30Mb) (100% Crop)	16M Normal (3.81Mb) (100% Crop)


16M RAW (24.2Mb) (100% Crop)

Chromatic Aberrations

The Fujifilm FinePix HS30EXR handled chromatic aberrations very well during the review. Just a little purple fringing was present around the edges of objects in high-contrast situations, as shown in the example below.

Macro

The Fujifilm FinePix HS30EXR offers a Super Macro setting that allows you to focus on a subject that is 1cm away from the camera. The first image shows how close you can get to the subject in Macro mode (in this case a compact flash card). The second image is a 100% crop.

Macro Shot	100% Crop

Flash

The flash settings on the Fujifilm FinePix HS30EXR are Auto, Forced Flash, Suppressed Flash, Slow Synchro, and any of those modes combined with Red-eye Reduction. These shots of a white coloured wall were taken at a distance of 1.5m.

Flash Off - Wide Angle (24mm)	Flash On - Wide Angle (24mm)


Flash Off - Telephoto (720mm)	Flash On - Telephoto (720mm)

And here are some portrait shots. Neither the Auto or Red-eye reduction mode caused any amount of red-eye.

Flash On	Flash On (100% Crop)


Red Eye Reduction	Red Eye Reduction (100% Crop)

Night

The Fujifilm FinePix HS30EXR's maximum shutter speed is 30 seconds, which is great news if you're seriously interested in night photography. The shot below was taken using a shutter speed of 15 seconds at ISO 100. I've included a 100% crop of the image to show what the quality is like.

Night Shot	Night Shot (100% Crop)

Anti Shake

The Fujifilm FinePix HS30EXR has an anti-shake mechanism, which allows you to take sharp photos at slower shutter speeds than other digital cameras. To test this, I took 2 handheld shots of the same subject with the same settings. The first shot was taken with anti shake turned off, the second with it turned on. Here are some 100% crops of the images to show the results. As you can see, with anti shake turned on, the images are much sharper than with anti shake turned off. This feature really does seem to make a difference and could mean capturing a successful, sharp shot or missing the opportunity altogether.

Shutter Speed / Focal Length	Anti Shake Off (100% Crop)	Anti Shake On (100% Crop)
1/12th / 24mm

1/7th / 720mm

Intelligent Digital Zoom

The new Intelligent Digital Zoom function can digitally boost the optical 30x zoom up to 60x, the equivalent of a 1440mm focal length.

30x	30x (100% Crop)


42x	42x (100% Crop)


60x	60x (100% Crop)

EXR Modes

Fujifilm's EXR sensor can be utilized in one of three ways by the photographer. There's a choice between shooting at full 16 megapixel resolution in High Resolution (HR) mode, or an 8 megapixel image in the Low Noise (SN) mode for shooting without flash in low light conditions, or the Dynamic Range (DR) mode to achieve an optimal balance between shadows and highlights. The latter offers five strengths ranging from 100-1600%. If you can't decide which is best for a chosen scene or subject, then just leave the camera on the scene-detecting EXR Automatic Mode and let it choose for itself.

Resolution Priority	Resolution Priority (100% Crop)


High ISO & Low Noise	High ISO & Low Noise (100% Crop)


D-Range Priority - 100%	D-Range Priority - 200%


D-Range Priority - 400%	D-Range Priority - 800%


D-Range Priority - 1600%

Pro Focus

The Fujifilm FinePix HS30EXR's Pro Focus mode makes it easier to achieve a blurred background, perfect for portraits where compact digicams traditionally struggle, with three strengths of blurring on offer.

Pro Focus 1	Pro Focus 1 (100% Crop)


Pro Focus 2	Pro Focus 2 (100% Crop)


Pro Focus 3	Pro Focus 3 (100% Crop)

Pro Low-Light

The Fujifilm FinePix HS30EXR's Pro Low-Light scene mode produces better image clarity at high ISO levels, with the camera automatically taking a series of four high sensitivity/low-noise shots in quick succession which are then combined together using in-camera processing into an image with less noise than the single exposures. The main drawback is a noticeable softening of fine detail.

Pro Low-Light Off	Pro Low-Light On

Multiple Exposure

In the Multiple Exposure advanced mode the Fujifilm FinePix HS30EXR can combine two seperate images into one, as shown in the example below.

Film Simulation Modes

The Fujifilm Finepix HS30EXR offers 5 different film simulation modes to help replicate the look of your favourite film stock from the past.

Provia / Standard	Velvia / Vivid


Astia / Soft	Black & White


Sepia

Panorama Mode

The Fujifilm FinePix HS30EXR allows you to take panoramic images very easily by 'sweeping' with the camera while keeping the shutter release depressed. The camera does all the processing and stitching, and there are three views available. The main problems are that the resulting image is of fairly low resolution - 1080 pixels high and 5760 pixels wide for the 360 degree image - moving objects are recorded as "ghost" images, and different lighting sources cause obvious vertical streaks to appear.

120 Degrees

Full-size Image

180 Degrees

Full-size Image

360 Degrees

Full-size Image

Sample Images

This is a selection of sample images from the Fujifilm FinePix HS30EXR camera, which were all taken using the 16 megapixel Fine JPEG setting. The thumbnails below link to the full-sized versions, which have not been altered in any way.

Ratings (out of 5)
Design	4.5
Features	5
Ease-of-use	4.5
Image quality	4
Value for money	4

Model name	FinePix HS30EXR / HS33EXR
Number of effective pixels ^*1	16.0 million pixels
Image sensor	1/2-inch EXR CMOS with primary color filter
Storage media	Internal memory (Approx. 25MB) SD / SDHC / SDXC(UHS-I) memory card^*2
File format	still image JPEG (Exif Ver 2.3)^*3, RAW (RAF format), RAW+JPEG (Design rule for Camera File system compliant / DPOF-compatible) movie H.264 (MOV)
Number of recorded pixels	still image L : (4:3) 4608 x 3456 / (3:2) 4608 x 3072 / (16:9) 4608 x 2592 M : (4:3) 3264 x 2448 / (3:2) 3264 x 2176 / (16:9) 3264 x 1840 S : (4:3) 2304 x 1728 / (3:2) 2304 x 1536 / (16:9) 1920 x 1080 <Motion Panorama> 360° Vertical 11520 x 1624 Horizontal 11520 x 1080 180° Vertical 5760 x 1624 Horizontal 5760 x 1080 120° Vertical 3840 x 1624 Horizontal 3840 x 1080
Lens	name Fujinon 30x optical zoom lens focal length f=4.2 - 126mm, equivalent to 24-720mm on a 35mm camera full-aperture F2.8 (Wide) - F5.6 (Telephoto) constitution 11 groups 15 lenses
Digital zoom	Intelligent digital zoom approx. 2.0x (up to approx. 60x, with 30x optical zoom)
Aperture	F2.8-F11 (Wide) F5.6-F11(Telephoto) 1/3EV step
Focus distance (from lens surface)	Normal Wide : Approx. 45cm to infinity / 1.4ft. to infinity Telephoto : Approx. 3.0m to infinity / 9.8ft. to infinity Macro Wide : Approx. 7cm - 3.0m / 2.7in. - 9.8ft. Telephoto : Approx. 2.0m - 5.0m / 6.5ft. - 16.4ft. Super Macro Approx. 1.0cm - 1.0m / 0.4in. - 3.2ft.
Sensitivity	Auto, Equivalent to ISO 100 / 200 / 400 / 800 / 1600 / 3200 / 6400* / 12800* (Standard Output Sensitivity) * ISO6400 : image size M or lower, ISO12800 : image size S
Exposure control	TTL 256-zones metering, Multi / Spot / Average
Exposure mode	Programmed AE, Aperture Priority AE, Shutter Priority AE, Manual
Shooting modes	SP Natural Light, Natural Light & with Flash, Portrait, Portrait Enhancer, Dog, Cat, Landscape, Sport, Night, Night (Tripod), Fireworks, Sunset, Snow, Beach, Party, Flower, Text MODE DIAL EXR, AUTO, P, S, A, M, C, PANORAMA, SP1, SP2, Adv
Image stabilizer	CMOS shift type
Face detection	Yes
Exposure compensation	-2.0EV - +2.0EV 1/3EV step
Shutter speed	(Auto mode) 1/4sec. to 1/4000sec., (All other modes) 30sec. to 1/4000sec. (combined mechanical and electronic shutter)
Continuous shooting	TOP Super High : approx. 11fps (Size M,S) High : approx. 8fps (Size L,M,S) Middle : approx. 5fps (Size L,M,S) Low : approx. 3fps (Size L,M,S) * SD memory card with a write speed (4 MB/sec.) or better is recommended. * The frame rate varies depending on the shooting conditions or numbers of frames in continuous shooting. Best Frame capture Super High : approx. 11fps 8/16 frames (Size M,S) High : approx. 8fps 8frames (Size L,M,S)/16 frames (Size M,S) Middle : approx. 5fps 8frames (Size L,M,S)/16 frames (Size M,S) Low : approx. 3fps 8frames (Size L,M,S)/16 frames (Size ,M,S)
Auto bracketing	AE Bracketing : ±1/3EV, ±2/3EV, ±1EV Film Simulation Bracketing : PROVIA / STD, Velvia / VIVID, ASTIA / SOFT Dynamic Rang Bracketing : 100% / 200% / 400%
Focus	mode Single AF / Continuous AF (EXR AUTO, Movie) / Manual AF (One-push AF mode included) type TTL contrast AF, AF assist illuminator available AF frame selection Center, Multi, Area, Tracking
White balance	Automatic scene recognition Preset Fine, Shade, Fluorescent light (Daylight), Fluorescent light (Warm White), Fluorescent light (Cool White), Incandescent light, Custom
Self-timer	Approx. 10 sec. / 2 sec. delay / Auto release / Auto shutter (Dog, Cat)
Flash	Auto flash (super i-flash) Effective range : (ISO AUTO) Normal Wide : Approx. 30cm - 7.1m / 1ft. - 23.2ft. Telephoto : Approx. 2.0m - 3.8m / 6.5ft. - 12.4ft.
Flash modes	Red-eye removal OFF Auto, Forced Flash, Suppressed Flash, Slow Synchro. Red-eye removal ON Red-eye Reduction Auto, Red-eye Reduction & Forced Flash, Suppressed Flash, Red-eye Reduction & Slow Synchro.
Hot shoe	YES
Electronic Viewfinder	0.26-inch., approx. 920,000 dots, color LCD viewfinder approx. 100% coverage
LCD monitor	3.0-inch, approx. 460,000 dots, TFT color LCD monitor, approx. 100% coverage
Movie recording	1920 x 1080 pixels / 1280 x 720 pixels / 640 x 480 pixels (30 frames/sec.) with stereo sound * Optical zoom function (manual) can be used.
Photography functions	EXR mode, High Speed Movie (80 / 160 / 320 frames/sec), Face Detection, Auto red-eye removal, Face recognition, Advanced mode (Pro focus, Pro low light, Multiple exposure, Individual shutter 3D), Motion Panorama360, Film simulation, Electronic level, Histogram display, Framing guideline, Frame No. memory, Best frame capture, Advanced Anti Blur, Date stamp
Playback functions	Face Detection, Auto red-eye removal, Multi-frame playback (with micro thumbnail), Protect, Crop, Resize, Slide show, Image rotate, voice memo, histogram display, exposure warning, Photobook assist, image search, Favorites, Mark for upload, Panorama, Erase selected frames
Other functions	PictBridge, Exif Print, 35 Languages, Time difference, Silent mode
Terminal	Video output NTSC / PAL selectable with monaural sound Digital interface USB 2.0 High-Speed HDMI output HDMI Mini connector
Power supply	Li-ion battery NP-W126 (included)
Dimensions	130.6(W) x 96.6(H) x 126.0(D) mm / 5.1(W) x 3.8(H) x 4.9(D) in.
Weight	Approx. 687g / 24.2oz. (including battery and memory card) Approx. 637g / 22.4oz. (excluding battery and memory card)
Operating Temperature	0°C - 40°C
Operating Humidity	10% - 80% (no condensation)
Guide to the number of available frames for battery operation	Approx. 600 frames (AUTO mode)
Accessories included	Li-ion battery NP-W126 Battery charger BC-W126 Shoulder strap USB cable A/V cable^4 Lens cap and Lens cap cord CD-ROM Owner's manual Lens hood^5
Optional accessories	Lens hood LH-HS10 Remote release RR80 Shoe Mount Flash EF-42 / EF-20 Protector Filter PRF-58

Fujifilm FinePix HS30EXR Review

Latest Reviews

Image Quality

Noise

Focal Range

Sharpening

File Quality

Chromatic Aberrations

Macro

Flash

Night

Anti Shake

Intelligent Digital Zoom

EXR Modes

Pro Focus

Pro Low-Light

Multiple Exposure

Film Simulation Modes

Panorama Mode

Sample Images

Sample RAW Images

Sample Movie & Video

Product Images

Conclusion

Review Roundup

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