Fujifilm FinePix SL1000 review

A bigger problem was that telephoto shots were often badly lacking in detail. It was obvious just from looking at them on the 3in screen, let alone when we uploaded them to a PC. There seems to be a number of causes. The 16-megapixel sensor is fairly noisy, so even well-lit shots at ISO 100 exhibited heavy noise reduction that smeared fine details. This became much worse as the ISO speed increased, which was often necessary for telephoto shots, where fast shutter (and thus, ISO) speeds are used to avoid camera shake. Focus from the lens also deteriorated badly at the full zoom extension, and blooming and chromatic aberrations were visible too.

This is one of the best bird photos we managed to capture. There’s a distinct lack of subtle texture, though, and focus is pretty hazy

In fact, shooting the same scene at a more modest 580mm focal length makes our subject smaller but not significantly less detailed

This photo is more representative of the bulk of our telephoto test shots

The camera has pushed the ISO speed up to 320 here – syrupy noise reduction is worse, and there are some colour banding issues too towards the edge of the frame

Details were a little vague at medium and wide-angle focal lengths too, with noise reduction suppressing subtler textures to give photos a processed appearance. This was only visible on close inspection, and Fujifilm’s flattering colour processing ensured great results after resizing photos to fit a 1080p monitor. Rival cameras stand up better to scrutiny, though. Low-light shots suffered a similar fate to telephoto shots, with noise reduction taking a heavy toll on details

High-contrast details are pixel-sharp here, but there’s not much texture on the tree trunk, and the thin branches look to us like they’ve been subjected to heavy digital sharpening

Low-light shots are OK for online sharing, but it’s a disappointing result from a £300 camera

We were much more impressed with the video mode, where the 2-megapixel resolution of 1080p video was much more forgiving to the lens’ limited sharpness. The optical stabilisation managed to keep clips reasonably steady at the long end of the zoom, and there was no sign of the blocky aliasing artefacts that we’ve seen on other Fujifilm cameras’ video modes recently. Autofocus was smooth and silent, but whirs from the zoom motor were picked up by the microphone. The 60fps frame rate gave smooth motion but it requires a fast PC for smooth playback. It’s odd that there’s no 30fps or 25fps 1080p option too.

The SL1000 has a lot going for it, but it’s frustrating that image quality falls apart at the long end of the zoom. The Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ200 is our favourite ultra-zoom camera, but it commands prices of around £430 inc VAT. However, the Canon PowerShot SX50 HS is closer to the Fujifilm at around £360 inc VAT. The Fujifilm has a better viewfinder, but we’d gladly swap it for the Canon’s superior image quality.