Fujifilm FinePix S1800 12.2 MP Digital Camera with 18x Wide Angle Optical Dual Image Stabilized Zoom and 3-Inch LCD Review

I purchased this camera back in December of 2009 from a local camera store, after a couple of months of using it I have three words... PIECE-OF-CRAP!!! Honestly I don't really know where to begin...

Picture Quality (or lack a there of)

For a 10 Megapixel camera, I found the picture quality to be pretty lousy. My 5 Megapixel Kodak point-and-shoot which I purchased a few years ago takes way sharper images. Overall I found a lot of the pictures that I took with this camera to be lackluster (dull, grainy) You would think that for a 10 Megapixel camera with 12 times optical zoom, the pictures should be unbelievably crisp and clear. Clearly not the case with this camera.

Battery Life (again, or a lack there of)

This thing goes thought batteries like mad, when using this camera it is a good idea to invest in some rechargeable batteries. The camera is also very picky about the batteries that you put in, if even one battery you put in becomes slightly weak, it will have a problem. There is no battery level indicator anywhere on this camera, the only thing that even comes close it a big red flashing battery icon in the middle of the screen, right before your camera stops working.

Video Quality (once again, or a lack there of)

The video on this camera is absolutely terrible, even in supposed "High Res" mode, it still looks pretty grainy. My 10 year old VHS video camera has better video quality. The audio is pretty bad as well; basically all you can hear is the sound of the lens loudly grinding in and out of focus, because for some reason the engineers at Fuji thought it would be cute for the video to have an "Auto-focus". For a 10 Megapixel camera, one would expect much better video quality.

Bells and Whistles

Don't be fooled by all the bells and whistles that the seller mentions in the description of this product, let's face it, honestly only a couple you are really going to ever use.
The manual that came with the camera was pretty lousy, all it said basically was how to hold the camera and where the button was to take a picture, and that's about it! Your are pretty much left to figure out everything on your own, and basically for the first couple of weeks all you pictures will be nothing but trial and error.
Another thing that really bugs me about this camera is that even when the camera is in "Manual", I found that many times that camera will actually "fight" with you when you are trying to set a certain shutter speed and aperture setting. For example you change the shutter speed, and for some reason the camera (even thought it is in "Manual"), will change the aperture on you, messing up the built in light meter. Which can be really frustrating, especially when you need a specific shutter speed or aperture setting.
The "Auto-Focus" on this thing is really, really, really annoying, sometimes you will be taking a picture of something, and have the camera all set up and in focus, then right when you take a picture, for some reason that's when the "Auto-Focus" kicks in and brings everything out of focus.
The "Auto mode" is pretty ridiculous, I found the especially near sun-rise or sun-set the pictures for some reason come out over-exposed.

Conclusion

My only advice is "DONT BUY THIS CAMERA!!!", you are much, much, much better off spending $100 or $200 more on something that you can actually take half decent pictures with. Personally I think Fuji should actually think for once what I photographer would want in a camera, instead of just what some group of engineers want in a camera. In short, I would not recommend this camera to anyone!!!Get more detail about Fujifilm FinePix S1800 12.2 MP Digital Camera with 18x Wide Angle Optical Dual Image Stabilized Zoom and 3-Inch LCD.