Fujifilm FinePix S100 FS digital camera

There are loads of scene modes, such as night, beach and sport; an option to store customised settings; and something called FSB, which we thought was the successor to the KGB. In fact, it stands for Film Simulation Bracketing. This is designed to produce images that mimic the effects produced when shooting with Fujifilm’s Provia, Velvia and Soft films. What next: a CD player that mimics the sound your grandad got from his old 78s?

The S100 FS still offers a number of shooting menus - despite all the buttons - and here you can change parameters such as image quality, colour, tone and sharpness. We were disappointed that the Raw setting was buried in a sub-menu rather than having a dedicated button.

A substantial shooter, weighing in at almost 1kg

The angled viewfinder is a nice touch, but the EVF did show some colour smearing when panning. It takes a bit of practice, but it's possible to shoot without moving your eye away from the EVF and at the same time, change the ISO speed or exposure compensation level by using both the dedicated button and control dial with your right hand.

You can also adjust the drive mode by using both thumbs, and activate the image stabiliser with just your left thumb, but these are trickier manoeuvres. Switch on is fast - around two seconds - and shutter response swift. As we say, the many buttons make it easy to make changes quickly.

That said, you’ll really have to do your homework when using the S100 FS, because there are so many settings to learn. In terms of performance, colour and sharpness are close to DSLR quality, and the high speed continuous mode - which shoots up to 50 shots at 7f/s - is one of the best we’ve used.