From Europe To USA (2010-2019): Looking back at a decade with a bridge camera.

In 2010 I purchased a bridge camera that still, to this day, is the camera that I owned for the longest amount of time. For a bridge camera, it was small, light and run on AA batteries, meaning that wherever I was in the world, I would never run out of power or need to worry about charging it. I travelled all of the USA and Europe with, it even captured my wedding and other family events.

The Camera

At 12.2 megapixels, a zoom of 24-720mm (full frame equivalent or 15x zoom), a tiny CCD sensor and a clunky but functional autofocus system, by today’s standards, the camera is a beast from another time. That said, I loved that camera, and today we will look at some of the photos that I took with it.

I know what you’re asking. What camera was it? Well, it was the Fujifilm FinePix S1600. A camera released in 2010. A camera I decided to buy for travel, leaving my DSLR Nikon’s at home. I remember choosing the camera because of the reasons I mention (size, weight, reach etc) and the thing never let me down. 

The Photographs

All my shared images here are new tweaks of the original jpegs (the camera does not shoot raw), I have mostly just cropped or straightened and adjusted shadows and highlights if needed. The images using ON1 Photo Raw 2026.1. I did not alter the colours in any way, and yes, the camera does sometimes over-sharpen the images, especially when they are at a longer zoom (as did a lot of cameras during that time).

Please click on them to view them full size.

General Overview

Looking through the thousands of images, one thing stood out, the image quality is much better than I remember that I thought it was! The images have charm and character, without being clinical.  With that tiny sensor, depth of field is huge, but that just adds to the look. 

The thing that surprises me is the lack of noise (although you will spot some!), with it’s ISO only being 100-1600. It’s aperture was not even that fast, with F/3.1-F/5.6 from widest to longest end of the zoom . I believe I used the camera mostly in the intelligent auto mode, or aperture priority modes most of the time. 

It has three colour modes, Standard, Fujifilm Chrome and Fujifilm Black And White, and for the majority of the time back then I used the Standard colour option.

The Fujifilm FinePix S1600 had both an electronic viewfinder and a 3″ back LCD screen (230k fixed), and I used both. The viewfinder was nowhere near as good as on the cameras you see today, but it did the job. 

One final thing, although the camera has both continuous and single-point autofocus and various AF modes, I almost always, without exception used single point as it was by far the most reliable option at the time.

Conclusion.

As I mentioned, the S1600 was the camera that I owned and used for the longest of any camera. For the most part, it got me the photos I wanted, when I wanted them. You will find the some images are slightly out of focus or have movement in them, but that was because many were taken while on the move (by foot or transport) as at the time everything was a rush, my life was a whirlwind!

As of writing this, I actually have a couple of Fujifilm S1600’s on my watch list on eBay. I am not sure if I will pull the plug and get one because I am not sure where it will fit in with my current photography mindset. That said, it is very tempting! I remember selling the camera and having second thoughts… Maybe it is best left as memories.

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My home page has some stunning images that you will only see on there and Instagram! Take a look!

*** The wildlife images are taken in the Natural History Museum New York.