Trio of new superzoom bridge cameras continue powerful S-series tradition

Fujifilm has today announced a trio of new superzoom bridge cameras in the shape of the S8600, S9200 and the S9400W.

The S9200 and S9400W – which are identical save for the S9400W’s built-in Wi-fi – boast 50x optical zoom lenses, while the S8600 comes with a 36x optical zoom lens.

The S9400W and S9200’s newly developed Fujinon lens has a focal range of 24-1200mm and a maximum aperture of f/2.9-6.5. Its already impressive zoom range can actually be boosted further thanks to Fujifilm’s Intelligent Digital Zoom, to a whopping 100x.

The S8600 offers a focal range of 25-900m equivalent, with a three-step collapsible lens that fully retracts when not in use. Digital Zoom can also be used on the S8600, taking it’s focal range to 72x (1800mm equivalent).

The S9400W and S9200’s 1/2.3-inch 16.2MP CMOS sensor is back-side illuminated for the best results at high ISOs (maximum 12,800). The cameras can autofocus in 0.3 seconds and burst shoot at 10fps. The cameras capture Full HD video and use Fujifilm’s 5-axis Stabilisation system to keep video recording smooth. A number of creative filters are available, and the S9400W’s Wi-fi allows for instant image sharing.

The S8600 shares a fair few features with its stablemates, including the 16MP CMOS sensor and Optical Image Stabilisation. It can also capture HD movies, though at a lesser frame rate of 30fps (compared to 60fps on its bigger brothers). The tentative autofocus time of the S8600 is down as 0.4sec, and it’s capable of starting up in just 1.7 seconds, incrementally slower than the 1-second startup time offered by the S9400W and S9200.

The Fujifilm Finepix S9400W and S9200 will be on sale from January, priced at £269.99 and £249.99 respectively. The Fujifilm FinePix S8600 will be available from February, priced at £149.99.