The Fujifilm FinePix S8000fd is an 8 Megapixel super-zoom camera with a massive 18x optical zoom lens and built-in sensor-shift image stabilisation. Announced in July 2007, it follows a popular line of SLR-styled super-zooms from Fujifilm, although this is the company’s longest zoom yet.

The S8000fd’s 18x zoom offers an equivalent coverage of 27-486mm, delivering everything from wide angle to decent telephoto opportunities. To combat camera shake the S8000fd employs both physical sensor-shift image stabilisation and high sensitivities up to 6400 ISO, although this and the 3200 ISO mode operate at a reduced resolution of 4 Megapixels.

The ‘fd’ in the title refers to built-in face detection, with the S8000fd able to track up to ten subjects simultaneously and automatically adjust the focus and exposure to match. Fujifilm’s Intelligent Flash is also on hand to deliver balanced, natural-looking images without blown highlights or dark backgrounds. Face detection can also be used to identify red-eye and digitally correct for it after taking the photo. The S8000fd also features Fujifilm’s Natural mode which takes a photo using natural light only, along with the Natural plus Flash mode which takes two photos, the second using a flash to make sure.

The S8000fd has an impressive specification and joins a fairly exclusive club of 18x super-zooms which include the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ18 and Olympus SP-550UZ / SP-560UZ. The big question of course is how it compares, so in our full review we’ll be pitching its image quality directly against the Panasonic FZ18 while examining the feature sets of all three models very closely.

So read-on to find out whether the Fujifilm S8000fd is a contender in the increasingly-hot super-zoom market, and as always for a demonstration of the camera’s highlights, check out our S8000fd video tour.

Testing notes

We tested a final production FinePix S8000fd, and to 8MF JPEG mode with Auto White Balance, Multi metering and the Standard F-Mode Colour mode. The anti-shake mode was enabled for all handheld shots, and disabled for tripod-based tests.