Fujifilm FinePix S2980 Digital Camera (14MP, 18x Optical Zoom) 3 inch LCD Screen

I did the easy step from a point and shoot to this bridge camera as I could not afford an SLR but I wanted to try and get the hang of using settings on a camera instead of automatic.I have now had this for a few months now and, once i stuck in a decent SD card, (32GB), and a bunch of AA batteries, (rechargeable as this needs four at a time), and away I went, snapping happily away in the manual setting of the camera.It has a lot of settings, many options, some I have tried, others I have not.The view finder is nice and easy to get my eye near, although it could have been better with a little bit of a rubber surround so that my face wasn't constantly pressing on the screen. It's not a problem but the thoughts there.It can even do videos, which many can these days, although the video setting are pretty basic but you do get a cracking bit of footage from video and brilliant photos from the stills setting.It gives out some brilliant colours, even giving you the options of black and white and other options, with each one giving as good a result as many other cameras out there.The zoom is fantastic, being able to zoom in so close that you can see the hairs in the birds nostrils as it flies high over head.So, if you're after the a good price camera that is a step up to the SLR world then this is worth thinking about.

Being an owner of 4 previous similar Fuji Digital Cameras, this range offers excellent performance for the money. I travel all over the world and the first thing you realise, when in very bright sun, is that a camera having only a back screen is useless (as was my first Fuji.). Having an electronic eyepiece viewfinder, as this and the other 3 do, overcomes this problem and you can see all the information in the eyepiece in any light. Even some top range Digital SLR makes are now abandoning the internal 'flip mirror' and following the Fuji lead an bringing out their cameras with a similar but very high resolution digital eyepiece viewfinder screen thus dispensing with the mechanicals and becoming virtually solid state. These cost 2 to 3 times the price of the Fuji. Having said this this the advance with the S2980 over the previous is the very much larger back screen

What can I say? DON'T BUY THIS CAMERAThis product [well the one Amazon sent ME] is RUBBISHBR0KeN NeW out of the BoXPut the supplied batteries in, turned the camera on, to find the LCD display on the back tells me to switch the camera OFF and ON again.Try this repeatedly a number of times, ALL with the same result, a brand NEW camera that does NOT work.So a quick GooGLe search laterApparently this problem is well known!Dirt or grit or dust or basically some foreign body is jamming the lens.How can this be with a brand new camera?NOT impressed, particularly as it was bought as a birthday gift for my wife to be used at a festi gig we are off to today. So rather than using this new camera I am currently re-packaging it to send this useless piece of rubbish back!We shall instead be using the FujiFilm FinePix S5700 we already have, that this 'item' was bought to replace.All I can say is if the later model S2980 is so fragile that it can become broken from new [out of the box] then it is a far inferior product to the the older S5700 that we have that has been robust enough to last the knocks, dings, rain and DUST it has come across in a number of years in our ownership.Dear FujiFilm FinePix,We will not now be 'upgrading' as it is clear that your newer products are built to a lower specification.Looking at both cameras with a direct side by side comparison the 'new' one looks to be made of cheaper plastics and in the hand something about it makes it feel less robust and this is what I thought BEFORE I switched it on and found it was DuFF!I have now lost all confidence in your 'BRAND' and so will avoid new FujiFilm FinePix products like the plague.Plus as the Marketing Guru's know I'll be telling at least TEN mates that your products are TOTALLY RUBBISHDear Amazon,I wonder if you will give me ALL my money back?Including the delivery charge that was levied to send this BROKEN item to me 'next day'

After being let down by another supplier I ordered from amazon. With no fuss or bother it turned up and worked straight out of the box. It has loads of functions which i am getting to grips with, but even the basic ones work a treat. Leave it on auto and it takes pictures, detects faces, knows when someone blinks and all that jazz. How does it know? I dont know i am not the how guy, but from taking snaps before I am now zooming and composing and getting great results. I managed to get myself in a panoramic picture three times, what a hoot. I did look at pricier cameras, and could have paid a lot more for this in a shop, so a real result. Top stuff.