Fujifilm FinePix S4000 14 MP Digital Camera with Fujinon 30x Super Wide Angle Optical Zoom Lens and 3-Inch LCD

I purchased this camera for my wife as a Christmas gift. She always wants to take nature shots while we are camping but could never get close enough to really get a good picture. Although we have not had the camera but for a few days and too cold to go camping, we did take a trip through the woods and got some great shots of some geese on a pond several hundred feet away. The 30X zoom is great. I always shake too much to get good shots but the image stabilization seems to work very well at full zoom. We also used this camera for the family pictures during Christmas and the timer function is pretty cool. It actually shows the 10 second count down in the view finder. This leads me to another plus. The view finder is great when you're outside. It is often so hard to see the image on the screen because it is too bright outside and this view finder takes that problem away! One other option I found to be of interest is the option of changing the image size. You can take the normal picture at 4:3 aspect ratio or switch it to a 16:9 aspect ratio as I did when we took the family pictures at Christmas. I was able to get over 20 people in the picture and the image quality looks great! There are still a lot of different settings on the camera that we have not even touched yet. I have read other post's about the lens cap. Well it's true, if you don't remove it before you turn on the camera, it will tell you about it. It happened to me, but not much of a problem. Just turn the camera off and remove the cap. This camera is everything I (My Wife) was looking for and I would recommend it to anyone!

The features of this model are improved over my older model, and a few online videos showing the ways to select the various choices were excellent and easy to master. It was a great price, had a good camera, and offered fast service.

I have been around Photography about 45yrs. and have had allot of excelent equipment(Nikon)so I feel qualifyed to make these comments. I say that honestly not arrogantly. I was looking for a camera that had the capability to do what I require of it without allot of weight to carry around. I resarched this camera for two months bofore I ordered it in Dec. of last year. Whan it came I had already read the online manual from Fujifilm Global (and I highly suggest you do the same)so I knew about what to expect. So I thought! I have long been impressed with Fuji Lenses, but this camera absolutly floored me. First of all I was impressed with all the controls. This camera is loaded with all the great features I was looking for and a bunch more. This camera is as simple as you want it to be, or it can be as sophisicated as your mind can think. If you are a biginner or a pro, you will love this camera. I really like the light weight and size. It will fit in a coat pocket easily and when it is around your neck it's not a problem. I have put this camera to many tests that most people would never care about, but that's me. It passed all I put it through with streight A's. The lens on this camera will take your breath away. I tested it from the super macro through it's max telephoto and when I viewed the results I really could not believe my eyes. It was really that good. And yes, I am critical!!! When I got used to the camera (which is user friendly) and became fimilure with the controls, I was amazed at all that this race horse can do. I was really impressed with the three focus modes. They are HARD, SOFT, and STANDAD. They are refered to in the menue on the camera as "Sharpness". The "HARD", is mostly for taking shots of buildings and archecture. The "STANDARD" is for general shots that you take every day (excelent by the way) and "SOFT", which is mostly for taking portraits or shots where you might like to add a little "MOOD" to your shot. The "INSTANT FOCUS" features in this camera are really easy to use and will add to your many pleasures I assure you this camera will give you. I really, really, urge you to learn this as one of the first things you master, you will see why on your own! I have done some macro work with this camera as close as one inch from the lens while hand held, and the shots were super. (normally if you don't use a tripod these are hard to do)I would say the same for the telephoto end of this lens. Fuji outdid themselves with their "Dual Image Stabilization" system!! This camera has two fully atomatic modes where the camera dose all the thinking for you. The "Fully Automatic Mode" speaks for its self, and the results do also. The "Scene Recognition" (SR) mode will produce outstanding shots in all kinds of tough lighting shots. I use this allot if I am not sure of a scene. The "MANUAL MODE" is as good as any I have used. There are many many more features that I will not go into for times sake, but let me tell you this: "This is all the camera you need." So why not 5 STARS? I only have a few remarks, not complaints! First, I wish it had a "B" Mode, but I can do without. Also, I don't know why there is no cable release, but the self timer will work just fine. The threaded hole for the tripod is plastic. I am used to metal so I get the feeling this is a weak link. But I could be wrong, since the body is plastic, and if you research this they (Fuji) claim to have used a "High Impact" plastic. I did not test this, nor do I plan to. I'll take their word and try not to drop it. In conclusion: For the money this is much more camera than I expected. Great optics, great features, great feel, great looks, and "FABULOUS PICTURES". One last thing: Go online and search "Fujifilm Global", look for the X4000 and then download the instruction manual. The book they send you is a typical hand book. The online manual is good and is worth your time to download specially if you are new to cameras. I have shot many frames through the years, but this little camera excites me to no end!!! Happy Shooting.

It would be simply unfair NOT to give this product a five-star rating. And its not only taking into account the incredibly low price. With such a price you just cant complain about the (very good) plastic case and perhaps the a-bit-less-than-ergonomic design, for example, or even the slow response of the machine in certain indoor situations. Perhaps the greatest con is that you cant fix a UV filter (to protect the lens). But all these are, at least for me, minor problems. The pros, including the price of course, exceed by far the cons. I must say that i consider myself a decent semipro photographer. I have owned fancy Nikon and Canon pro equipment, but I wanted to have a very good, not expensive, single lens camera to avoid the hassle. I tried Olympus and Lumix cameras and was quite happy with them, but for some reason wanted to try Fuji products. The price and features of this one were too good to be true, and I decided to give it a try. I am not disappointed at all. The quality of the pics themselves (both colour and focus) is better than that of any of the previous equivalent cameras. The 30x zoom is amazing and the panorama feature is very cool, as is the powerful close-up one. You can go from totally automatic to totally manual, which is very important to me. The HD video with zoom capabilities is also a plus. The AA Batteries (in my case Sony rechargeable) last a lot too. In a word, try it! Even if you really dont like it (which i really doubt), the almost ridiculously small amount of money spent will not make you angry.

5 star product at a great price. Easy to operate

The camera is in great shape. I cannot wait to try it. Thanks