A Whim Away - With The Fuji X-S1

Those of you out in the readership who are contemplating trips to Africa or Alaska to see the animals may wish to consider Kruger National Park and the Inside Passage. Those who merely want to see the natives can motor over to Mirrabooka...


But wherever you go, you will want to be able to capture the action without coming too close to it. thus many of you will come in looking for long lenses for your DSLR cameras - and we can sell you some very nice ones from Nikon, Canon, and Sigma - or you may come looking for screw-on telephoto adapters for simpler cameras.

I can tell you now that these latter devices, if they are still being made, are going to disappoint. They might increase your focal length a little but they will do so at the expense of the resolution - big time. May I propose to you an altogether different solution.

Move round to the Fuji cabinet and look for the Fujifilm X-s1 digital camera. It is the one that looks like a medium-sized DSLR with a rather impressive lens on the front, and a very good rubberized body covering. The ring grip on the lens is a distinctive striped pattern for a deep grip.

The lens stays put - it is not interchangeable - but at the fabulous focal range it does not need to. 26 X optical zoom. The equivalent of 24mm to 624mm in the old 35mm speak. That is more than enough to capture the antics of the bears and the lions. And the joy of this Fuji is that it has a very good image quality allied to all the fun fruit - the special programs that do motion panoramas and movies and special low-light shooting. It will macro into 7cm from the subject too. It is really a do-it-all camera in the traditional form but without having to change every second part.

You can get a real ever-ready case to protect it and spare batteries to drive it and score memorable photos when the next chap on the cruise liner is diving into his camera bag or backpack to try to get the perfect lens mounted. You'll capture the Grizzly bear eating the Mountie. By the time he gets it all together and pointed in the right direction the bear will be spitting out the hat and you'll have the picture.