Some time ago, I had posted concerning my search for a digital camera. To recap, budget concerns were a very high priority then (as they are still), and full DSLR’s were out of reach, but I wanted a camera with a full manual mode, as I had taken a photography class years and years ago where we used Pentax K-1000 cameras, which is a manual-only SLR, and I knew how to use and liked the amount of control that the manual mode provides over your shots.
At the time, I had would up getting a Canon A540, and was pleased with it. Unfortunately, apparently someone else was too, as we lost it to a burglar, so I resumed my search for an affordable but full-featured camera.
After several weeks of research, reading reviews, and looking at sample photos, I purchased a 10 megapixel Fujifilm Finepix S1500.
I’m very pleased with this camera, image quality is quite good, and unlike the A540, where ISO 800 was it’s maximum sensitivity and was so noisy as to be unusable, ISO 800 is quite good on this camera, which tops out at ISO 1600 in 10 megapixel mode, and ISO 6400 in 3 megapixel mode. (However, ISO 1600 and up are very noisy and not really of much use.)
It has a 12X zoom lens, onscreen light metering, and a bunch of scene recognition modes, but so far I’ve been living mainly in the manual mode, and loving it. Also does 640 X 480 AVI movies with sound (which is the same movie capability that the A540 had).
It’s a nice little piece of equipment. I bought mine for $164 from Newegg. If you’re looking for a nice camera but don’t have a lot of free cash to throw into it, you could do worse.
–James