Fujifilm Finepix HS10 Samples

Below are sample crops from an indoor photograph at each of the Fuji Finepix HS10's ISO settings. A crop from the Fujifilm Finepix S100FS
Fujifilm Finepix S100FS at the same ISO setting is shown next to each crop from the Fuji HS10. Images below are all unmodified 100% crops from their respective cameras taken at the highest quality setting. ISO and white-balance were set on camera, everything else was left on automatic.

These crops help determine which ISO settings can be acceptably used on these cameras. As noise increases, most cameras compensate with noise reduction which introduces softness. The result is that, while you can partly reduce noise at the expense of details, the maximum acceptable print size gets smaller as ISO is increased. The point at which a print become unacceptably noisy is a matter of personal taste.

Fuji Finepix HS10	Fuji Finepix S100FS
ISO 100	ISO 100
ISO 200	ISO 200
ISO 400	ISO 400
ISO 800	ISO 800
ISO 1600	ISO 1600
ISO 3200	ISO 3200
ISO 6400	ISO 6400 (6 Megapixels)
While both cameras deliver very good results for their size, the S100FS is superior without a doubt up to its highest full-resolution ISO setting. From the start is is easy to see that the HS10 produces softer images, most likely due to noise-reduction but it may also be from the nature of the BSI CMOS sensor used too. Color and exposure is similar but again the S100FS performed better in terms of accuracy. Given the resolution of these cameras, ISO 100 to 400 are very usable for common print sizes but we would not go too big on the HS10 due to the softness issue. ISO 800 clearly is a step down, limiting to smaller print sizes and all goes downhill from there. It is worth noting that even ISO 3200 can give a fairly recognizable subject when printed small or for web-site.