Score: 9/10 (Fantastic)
Pros:Captures beautiful still images, strong build quality, unbeatable price tag. | Cons:Short battery life, hardly any image filters. |
The Fujifilm FinePix S4200 is a digital camera that originally came out back in January. The FinePix S4200 is an extremely solid point-and-shoot camera that is well worth it's very small price tag.
Design/Build Quality
The S4200 is technically a point-and-shoot camera but it has the body of a DSLR. It has a very nice rubber grip which feels very sturdy in the hand. On the front of the camera we have got our light sensor and 24mm wide zoom lens with a
24x optical zoom. On the top, we can find our zoom adjuster, face detection and continuous picture buttons, power switch, image quality button, shooting settings wheel, and our LED flash. Going to the back of the device we find our 3-inch LCD screen and to the right of that we have a ton of different setting and menu controls from flash, macro, shutter speed aperture, timer settings and more. One thing that I really liked on the S4200 was its Electronic View Finder which can be found just about the LCD screen. At first, I didn't really see a need for the EVF but, after taking numerous pictures outdoors, I found the EVF to be very useful for being able to get a clear image of what your camera lens is seeing even if the sun is out. The LCD is fine but it gets very hard to see outdoors with the glare of the sun. I actually found myself to use the EVF even when I was indoors simply because I just felt that I could get a better idea of what my pictures would look like through the EVF. On the left we have got our one and only set of speakers which sound pretty weak and on the right we have got both miniHDMI and MicroUSB ports. On the bottom we have our battery slot and microSD card slot.
Overall, the S4200 feels like a very sturdy device. Most of the buttons feel very responsive but the menu directional pad does not give a whole lot of touch feedback and feels a little flimsy at times. My only other gripe with the build quality of the S4200 is that it can be a bit tricky to close the door the batteries and microSD card slot. You have to put a good amount of pressure on the hatch and pull the little switch at the same time to close it. The first time I tried doing this, it took be about 2 whole minutes before I successfully closed it. Even after a little less than a month of owning the camera, I still have trouble with this from time to time.
24x optical zoom. On the top, we can find our zoom adjuster, face detection and continuous picture buttons, power switch, image quality button, shooting settings wheel, and our LED flash. Going to the back of the device we find our 3-inch LCD screen and to the right of that we have a ton of different setting and menu controls from flash, macro, shutter speed aperture, timer settings and more. One thing that I really liked on the S4200 was its Electronic View Finder which can be found just about the LCD screen. At first, I didn't really see a need for the EVF but, after taking numerous pictures outdoors, I found the EVF to be very useful for being able to get a clear image of what your camera lens is seeing even if the sun is out. The LCD is fine but it gets very hard to see outdoors with the glare of the sun. I actually found myself to use the EVF even when I was indoors simply because I just felt that I could get a better idea of what my pictures would look like through the EVF. On the left we have got our one and only set of speakers which sound pretty weak and on the right we have got both miniHDMI and MicroUSB ports. On the bottom we have our battery slot and microSD card slot.
Overall, the S4200 feels like a very sturdy device. Most of the buttons feel very responsive but the menu directional pad does not give a whole lot of touch feedback and feels a little flimsy at times. My only other gripe with the build quality of the S4200 is that it can be a bit tricky to close the door the batteries and microSD card slot. You have to put a good amount of pressure on the hatch and pull the little switch at the same time to close it. The first time I tried doing this, it took be about 2 whole minutes before I successfully closed it. Even after a little less than a month of owning the camera, I still have trouble with this from time to time.
Hardware
The S4200, while it may not be the fastest point-and-shoot on the market, it certainly isn't the slowest of the pack either. It takes only 1.8 seconds to turn on the camera and take a picture and that doesn't suck at all. It took me 10.24 seconds to take 5 pictures simultaneously which roughly translates to a total time of 2 seconds to take one picture. With these stats in mind, the S4200 is considerably fast but may not be for you if you need a camera to take a lot of pictures in a very short amount of time. For the average consumer though, the speed performance of this camera should be just fine for you.
The FinePix S4200 has an optical sensor resolution of 14MP and can capture images at up to 4288 x 3216 pixels. Translation: This thing can take freaking gorgeous pictures.
Along with the 14MP image quality, the S4200 can also record video in up to 720p HD. Videos looked good when outdoors and with an ample amount of sunlight, but looked quite grainy when indoors.
The FinePix S4200 has an optical sensor resolution of 14MP and can capture images at up to 4288 x 3216 pixels. Translation: This thing can take freaking gorgeous pictures.
Along with the 14MP image quality, the S4200 can also record video in up to 720p HD. Videos looked good when outdoors and with an ample amount of sunlight, but looked quite grainy when indoors.
Software
If you are a huge fan of having tons of filters to add to your pictures on your camera than you really should look elsewhere. The only filters you will find on the S4200 are black and white and retro. Strangely enough though, I found no difference whatsoever when using the retro filter versus not having any filter on so you really just have the option of normal and black and white. The S4200 does make up for its lack of filters in customization of shooting settings. The S4200 offers face detection, date stamp, red eye removal, blink detection, custom background color of the menus, and more. One of my favorite features is the blink detection. With this turned on, after you take a picture of one or more people, the camera will alert you if someone in the picture blinked and will ask you if you would like to take a retake. I really applaud Fujifilm for including this feature because it will help out a whole lot when trying to take a family photo or any other picture with a large group of people. It is also very easy to navigate through the menus on the camera. They are not pretty and don't have any cute graphics or anything of the sort but, instead they are listed out in a very simple and easy to understand structure
Final Verdict
The FujiFilm FinePix S4200 is a wonderful camera. It takes beautiful pictures, good outdoor video, has a great design, and offers tons of custom settings while still being very simple to use. Cons such as the sub-par video and not perfect build quality to detract from the camera bu overall, for only $157, you would be crazy not to pick this one up.
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