Any thoughts on the upcoming Fuji s1000 fd vs. The Fuji s700?

First off....I'm a newbie, but these are my impressions.

A friend of mine has the s700. He let me borrow it and I thought it was phenomenal. I don't know anything about photography but I needed a nice camera to take pictures and video for a website. The pictures were crisp and clear with the s700 and the video and sound was amazing. It could zoom during video filming and it had picture stablization which worked well for me because I have shakey hands.

So, I decided to go to Wal-Mart and buy one. When I got to Wal-Mart the only thing there was the S1000fd...the next generation of this camera. Thinking it would be better I bought it since it was the same price. I also buy a SDHC 4gb for it.

I get it home and read the manual. When I got it home I discovered that the 2 things I really liked about the S700 the S1000fd did NOT have. It didnt have picture stablilization and it would NOT zoom will in movie mode. I use this for my website and these were the high selling points for me. What good is a million megawhatevers if every picture I take is blurry?

I also found the interface too difficult to navigate.

The S700 on the other hand was easy to use. It has easy to understand menus...the lcd screen, while smaller by .2 in, was brighter and seemed clearer and crisper. Another big plus on the S700 I found was that it's just big enough to fit my had comfortably. With the S1000 I had a hard time taking pics with it because there wasn't a place to put your hands and fingers without accidentaly hitting a button. The handle on the right side is crammed too close to the lense. I know it's marketed as the "smallest digital zoom...." or whatever but dang..it felt like some sort of ninja chinese fingerbox game trying to get comfy taking pics.

The s700 left plenty of room for my fingers and I wasnt worried about accidently hitting a button when I don't want to.

I actually took the S700 to my friend, who IS a camera freak, and asked him if he wanted to "trade up". He took the deal and now we both have cameras we are happy with.

By the way, my s700 works fine with my 4gb SDHC card. Now if I can only figure out how to get it to tall me how much memory is left on it I'll be good.

I hope this helps you. You can go ahead and upgrade to the S1000fd if you want but for me, the cramped size, the lack of zoom in movie mode and the lack of picture stablization was a deal breaker for me.

I'm sticking with the S700 and I am very happy with it. In my personal opinion this camera is actually better than the S1000fd

Lance

Lance, I'm so happy you posted that info! My husband thought I was nuts when I just told him almost the same thing about the 2 cameras.

I purchased the S700 in February 2008. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE that camera. I intentionally purchased a non-pocket camera so I could wear it around my neck and shoot with one hand (while wrangling a toddler). It has taken hundreds of wonderful pics for me. It's very easy to use, as you say, and to navigate with one hand. The zoom is wonderful. The short videos I take are always great. I've found it to be very good on batteries.

My great camera was stolen on a Disney trip recently. So sad! So I set out to replace it and came across the S1000fd. Thought, great, better zoom, face detection. Must be even better than my s700.

NOPE. Just got it last week and I'm not loving it. The handhold isn't as good, I keep moving the lens whenever I try to take a pic, it seems much slower than the S700. The lens cap is a different style, doesn't lock on, and I keep bumping it off accidentally. The flash doesn't automatically pop up, even in auto mode. You have to manually pop it up and THEN it will auto flash if needed. I will play with it a little more tonight for Halloween pics but I'm pretty certain I'm going to return it and rebuy an S700.

Coleen. I don´t really know if in US it´s available, but here, in Argentina, both US and Euro versions are available (S700 and S5700 respectively). There´s another newer camera : the S5800. It offers 12x zoom, 8,1 Mpix resolution, and both thing I appreciate: a better aperture (f 2.8 against the f 3.5 S700 has) and the use of the famous Fuji´s Super CCD sensor.

my camera freezes up everytime i try to view my pics its sooooo annoying and when i go to delete it will take up to 15 mins to delete 1 pic.

Im thinking about buying one of these 2 cameras, but I cant decide which one. Lance you said the new s1000fd doesnt have picture stabilization, but I just looked up their page and there was written it has picture stabilization, so I just want to know if you found it. Also if anybody else has something I should know, please tell me.

Thanks

I can't comment on the S700 but I have now owned an S1000 for about six months and I love it. Selecting image stabilization on the S1000 sets a higher shutter speed when using a long lens, which then freezes the effects of any shake. However, it's effectivity is limited by the lighting conditions. This is my first digital camera. Having only recently switched from 35mm film SLR cameras I don't miss what image stabilization provides. I just make sure to hold my camera steady or use a tripod.

I had the s700 and loved it, bt somehow lost it, so i got the s1000. My opinion is that it is just as good, with added features that i can take advantage of. I use it extensively for my photography course i am doing at the moment and havn had a problem with it at all! I highly recommend it to anyone considering it =]