Support this site by shopping via these links

To compare noise levels under real-life conditions we shot this scene with the Fujifilm FinePix S8000fd and Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ18 the within a few moments of each other using each of their ISO settings in Program mode. The lenses on each camera were adjusted to deliver the same field of view. In this set of crops, the FZ18's Noise Reduction was at the default 0 setting. The image left was taken with the Fujifilm FinePix S8000fd at 7mm f4 and with a sensitivity of 64 ISO; the original JPEG measured 2.86MB. The crops are taken from an area just below and to the left of the centre and presented here at 100%.

Like most non-DSLRs these days, the Fujifilm FinePix S8000fd suffers from noise artefacts throughout its entire sensitivity range. The best results are of course at the lowest 64 ISO setting, but pixel-peepers will find some smearing even here, along with a more electronic look to the images compared to, say, the Panasonic Lumix FZ18 - although whether this is a good or bad thing this is down to personal preference.

At 100 ISO there's more smearing of fine detail, and at 200 ISO a noticeable increase in noise. From 400 ISO upwards, the quality falls quite dramatically.

Of course, the S8000fd isn't alone in having noise artefacts, but we'd say from the results below, the Panasonic Lumix FZ18 has preferable results at both 100 ISO and 800 ISO. To see more real-life examples with the Fujifilm, check out our S8000fd sample images page.

Fujifilm FinePix S8000fd		Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ18
64 ISO		64 ISO not available
100 ISO		100 ISO
200 ISO		200 ISO
400 ISO		400 ISO
800 ISO		800 ISO
1250 ISO not available		1250 ISO
1600 ISO		1600 ISO
3200 ISO (4 Megapixels, scaled-up here)		High Sensitivity Preset (1600 ISO at 3 Mpixels, scaled-up here)
6400 ISO (4 Megapixels, scaled-up here)		3200 and 6400 ISO not selected by High Sensitivity preset