Customer Reviews

Fujifilm FinePix S2800HD 14 MP Digital Camera with 18x Wide Optical Zoom and 3.0-Inch LCD

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

This is an incredible camera for the money. Execlent photos in the day, and execlent photos with the flash. Zoom is incredible. Indoor photos are good to very good, The low light photos have some strange and interesting artifacts when taking photos in automatic mode, however you can fix much of that with the manual settings if you know what you are doing. However that being said even the low light photos are better then most inexpensive cameras i have used.

Battery life is good, not great but good. I like that it takes standard AA batteries, so you never have to deal with dead propitary rechargables, In a pinch you can just buy some bat's and you are good to go. Works great with litium AA rechargables too, get them at any target or here on amazon. So you can get teh best of both worlds.

The panorama feature is very slick, takes stunning shots.

The only real minus I see is that the auto-focus will sometimes, well, just not focus very well. That may be adjustable with settings, this thing has a billion settings and I have only had it about a month and am still figuring it all out.

I would recomend this camera hightly or it's youger brother the 12mp version. Same camera just slightly lower resolution. I have the 12mp at work and its a great camera too and significantly cheaper ! So if this is just a little pricy for you, get the 12mp one, its an awsome camera too.

WOW, I waited for this camera to become available and then when it did and went onsale, I swooped in and ordered one that day. It arrived basically the next day.

I bought this for the Zoom and view finder, the view finder is essential in sunny days. This replaced a Nikon L110 12.1 MP Digital Camera with 15x Optical

My Previous Cameras were a Konica Minolta 4 MB (Still takes great pics after all the abuse, I use it as a backup, my 5 year old uses it) and the Nikon L110 (Nikon zoom broke on me within a year and needed to be replaced)

The photos that this takes exceeded my Nikon L110 by alot. the zoom is great and the stabilization is fantastic. I am able to take the zoom shots and still crop a portion of the pic without losing any details


I have not fully used all the features, the Panaramic is really nice and the pics are high MP... the pictures tend to be about 3 MB

I have taken this to the Philly Zoo to fully test the shooting, Under all instances, bright, indoor, shady - camera preformed better than my previous camera
I also take soccer pics and it has preformed great... I have challenenged myself to take one great pic a day... So far I have taken a picture of the Lightning (with the multishot feature) the moon just before dark, clouds, rainbows... and namy others... I am excited about taking photos with this camera because it gets the details

I have recommended this to several people who have also bought it. You can't beat the features for the price.... A Pure winner

I ordered this camera before anyone reviewed it. Before it arrived, two reviews came in and they were not good. While waiting for camera to arrive,I started searching for another camera and was going to return the S2800HD. Camera arrived 2 days before we left on a Central America cruise. I decided to put in batteries and snap few pictures just to see how bad the camera was before sending it back. BOY I AM GLAD I DID THIS!!!!! WHAT A DEAL!!! I am a point and shoot photographer and this camera takes excellent pictures with just the snap of the shutter. Needless to say, I took this camera on cruise along with my old camera just in case for backup. Never pulled old camera out and got fantistic pictures day, night, sunrises and full moon shots over the ocean with the Fuji S2800HD. This is one of the best buys I have made in a long time.

This is one of the best purchases I have made in a long time. I LOVE this camera. Takes perfect pictures in all conditions. I have not used all the features on this camera just yet but I know over time I will. It has a great point and click system, So I never miss a shot! Great for scenery, active events such as sports, and great macro feature for those close ups! Worth every penny and what a great deal. The only disappointment was it came with 4 AA alkaline batteries.

I just have to say that we are very pleased with this camera!!! We have lost/broken 4 camera's over the last 5 years. We didn't want to spend a lot of money on a new one with our previous experiences. We knew might sacrifice some quality for going for less expensive camera. Not the case. We are loving the great pictures and easiness of it's use.
I definitely would recommend this camera. Also, for everyone who is bashing the camera because they can't take award winning photos, you sound like you need to pay around $1,000 for your next camera.

This is the 4th Fuji Finepix S series camera I've purchased. My S1000 only needed to be replaced due to a chipped lense. I spent a month looking at different cameras, DSLRs, and decided to wait out this new camera due to the success that i've had with the others. I'm a point and shoot amateur photographer, and this camera line has made me look like quite the pro. My camera goes everywhere with me, hiking, and packpacking, road trips... everywhere. Producing fantastic photos most of the time.

These are the issues i had with the S2800HD;
1) battery life is pathetic. With the S1000, i can get a couple if not few, hundred photos out of four basic dur/ever. batteries. After 90 photos in one short outting, the batteries died on me. (backpacking, every ounce counts, so i can't be packing in three times the amount of batteries.)

2) the 'scene recognition' was often 'off'. Taking photos of mountains, the camera would go into 'macro' mode.

3) Holding the camera horizontally and vertically, while focused on the exact same point, would produce DRASTICALLY different images. Horizontal would leave the photo washed out. Vert, provided rich wonderful color of the same object.

4) On three different occasions, photos came out with very pink hues where such color was not present. Specifically, in the clouds/sky over a waterfall on a rainy day, and worse, the 'stuff' in a stack of Oreos and the glass of milk as well. QUite sure milk is white, not pink.

5) I rec'd the camera two days before a very exciting, and incredibly scenic hike... The camera came with a basic instruction manual, and all of the added features had to be viewed on a disk. I prefer to have a manual in the field. Am i expected to carry my laptop with me to reference the best options for the shot, while hanging over a cliff? Fuji let me down this time.

After the excitement of purchasing this camera, I think i'm just going to go back to another S1000. My entire family, and many of my friends have the S line of cameras all because they loved my very first. I'm so disappointed that this new model didn't, from the very beginning, live up to basic point and shoot standards.

I just paid $176.00 for this Fujifilm camera. It's replacing a 3 year old $350.00 camera. No comparison. It's just so much better. I was able to pick it up and use it. The only negative is that the camera didn't come with an owners manual. I had to download it. The camera does so much... there's no way to figure it out without a manual. Anyway, This camera is great. And buying it on Amazon.com is the only way to go.

This is a great camera and unless you're a professional you dont need anything better. It does a ton of cool things and the pics are great. My only issue with this is that I wish it came with a charger & could be charged up. I definately recommend getting some rechargeable batteries for this or plan to carry 24 pack of AA's for a day out shooting.

I have had this camera for about two weeks now, and I use it every chance I get. I received it as a gift, and I am happy with it. I do have some minor gripes, but I ill leave that for the Cons... so without further delay

Pros:
The camera has a setting for all needs. take the time to pick the correct one... then you are golden.
I like the fact that it uses plain old AA's for power. I love the fact that I don't need a special cable of charging pack
It seems to be sturdy enough for even me to use. I hit everything...lol
Picture quality is very good.. even when you zoom.
The flash is good, and first camera I have owned that take great nigh ttime photos
The HD video, is great in a pinch. Now I do it all with one device.
I am also pleased with the fact that can switch from LCD to view finder.. more useful then I thought it would be!

Cons:
This is not a point and click camera! Yes it has that option, but you will not always get the desired effect... you need to play with buttons and RTDM!
The microphone picks up everything. I mean everything.. ZOOM.. the video picks it up.. Breathe too deep.. the camera picks it up. Flaw from design.
Using the dial to select the settings can get confusing at times.. if you are in a hurry.. you may miss something.
Focus Focus Focus... sometimes when you think your pictures is in focus, and you review them later.... not so happy. (Could be my eyes though)
Sometimes... even with hight speed card.. it takes longer then expected to save info to disk.
Zoom.. Not as good as I had hoped. I have some cams that zoom better, but this more of a high end point and shoot (meaning you cant exchange the lenses) so please take care and get closer if you can.


Overall:

I have had about five other camera, and this one has only been beat by one ( No I wont say what is it because this review is about this camera, but if you mail and ask I will tell you... if its that important to you) I plan to use it often, and I have not reached the limit of what I can do with this one. I think my next level would be expensive so let me use this for all it's worth. The price they want for it... yes it is worth it. Just be sure to read all the reviews. Most of what you see it true.

I already had a Fujifilm Finepix S1500, but the longer zoom range and higher resolution of the S2800HD seemed to make it a better choice for some specific tasks we had in mind; chief among them was taking pictures of small items for posting on the website. Sadly, that's the one place where this camera requires the most fiddling to get good results. When used in the Macro and Super-Macro (close-up and extreme close-up) modes, the autofocus is often useless in the SR-AUTO mode; it will indicate that the shot is ready to take when the focus is not sharp at all, and it often takes several half-presses of the shutter button to get it to produce a non-fuzzy image in the viewfinder. If put into the other "auto" mode (denoted by a cryptic small red camera icon on the mode selector knob) the macro focusing becomes far more reliable, but still less than perfect. If you leave it in SR-AUTO mode by mistake, it's possible to cope to an extent by backing off away from the subject a bit so that the autofocus has a better chance to resolve the image. The autofocus does much better with light-colored, high-contract subjects than with dark things that have little detail, more so than a lot of other autofocus cameras I've used. And the time required for the autofocus to home in on the right point (which it often misses, in fact) is still too long to expect quick responsiveness when shooting a moving subject. The bottom line is that this isn't exactly point-and-shoot in that area, and since it has no manual focus capability at all, this is a real disadvantage. Coupled with the fact that the super-macro (extreme close-up) is very limited, I have to downrate this model pretty strongly in its focusing. Particularly annoying is the fact that its closest physical approach in super-macro is allowed only in ultra-wide zoom, which isn't very useful at all.

Another place that it doesn't shine is in taking long telephoto images without bright light. The amount of visual "noise" in the image is considerable when the shot is taken in this manner. If you set it to use the flash to increase the fill-in light in the shadows, that can sometimes be reduced or eliminated, assuming that the subject is close enough for the flash to matter - but possibly at the expense of having the lighting as you would have wanted it.

In general outdoor daylight shooting, though, its ability to correctly identify scene characteristics is usually pretty darned good - though overall, I find it produces better results in general if the SR-AUTO mode is simply avoided. For indoor usage when taking shots of people, it's pretty good at automatically suppressing the redeye problem.

While it may not have been the absolute best choice for what I needed, it does enough things well that I won't say it's best avoided, but there are clearly a lot of better choices available. Most people would probably find it entirely acceptable for casual snapshot work, particularly for things like vacation scenery.

Followup: The camera had to go back for repair under warranty twice, the second time because the zoom didn't work after the first repair. Overall, my opinion of Fuji has not been left in the same condition as it was before I bought this unit. I'll be reading the reviews on their products very carefully before I buy another one.