HS20 Argos Offer (1 Viewer)

I received an email from Argos today with special offers on several cameras. One was for the HS20 at £218 plus a £10 voucher against a next purchase.

I reserved one at my local Argos and went to pick it up this afternoon. The sales assistant at the store warned me, before paying, that as it was a special offer Argos reserved the right to substitute a different camera instead of the HS20; I assumed this was if I returned it as faulty. He also added the camera was not covered by Argos's no quibble 30 day return policy. On paying I received the £10 voucher. While waiting for the HS20 to be delivered to the sales counter I used it as part purchase on an 8 GB Sandisk Extreme SDHC card. Having picked up the HS20, sealed in a very plain, buff coloured, cardboard box, I started to have a look at what I'd purchased.

Inside the plain box was a very nice, completely mint, printed box containing a Finepix HS28EXR. I explained to the staff that this was not what I ordered. Luckily I had not opened the inner box so was able to negotiate the possibility of returning (provided the seal the assistant placed over the box opening was not broken) if I was not satisfied with it after checking the internet to see what the HS28EXR actually is.

Apparently it is an HS20 body fitted with the latest HS30 sensor and some other improvements over the original HS20. On the Fuji website it is described alongside the HS25EXR.

So I decided to keep it, broke the seal and proved to myself it actually works.

I'm quite pleased; I've managed to buy an "almost" HS30 for what is effectively £218 minus £10 voucher, £208! I only hope there are no major drawbacks.

I understand the Argos "offer" is valid until 6th June if anyone wants to risk it.

Cheers, TKRob

I think that one difference from the HS20 is that there is no RAW option.

One thing I have found out about the HS20 is that Adobe Camera Raw doesn't support it. So you have to convert to DNG files then import into Photoshop. Strange that the HS10 and the HS30 are supported.

hs20 should come with its own RAW file converter (powered by Silkypix).

confirm that the hs25/28 only has JPEG (no RAW, actually the files are tagged RAF, which is probably why the Adobe software does not recognise this format)

I actually only use JPGs on my HS20, I find it quite adequate for those times when I'm too lazy to carry my DSLR.

Another difference, compared to the HS30, is that four AA batteries are used rather than a Lithium battery pack. This is no problem for me as I use "Eneloop" AAs in my sound recorders. Similarly I don't need a "raw" capability. So, still very pleased with my purchase.

Reading through the detailed owner's manual, on the CD, I have not as yet found any reference to differences between the HS28 and HS25

I prefer AA batteries because they are cheap and readily available, the only thing is to use a quality brand, even have a spare tray for my Canon 550d grip which takes 6 AA's. The HS30 and variants do seem to be the last Fuji cameras (are there any out there from other maunufacturers) which use AA's as the XS1 uses a lithium.

One thing missing on the software I use for the S2pro & HS20 is the ability to double click on a .raf file and have it open - Windows cannot find a program to open this kind of file. so I have to open the program first and tell it which pic to open (any way round this), also until I started using a card reader the camera was not recognised by windows, or rather it "no pictures in camera"

kennethwfd said:

One thing missing on the software I use for the S2pro & HS20 is the ability to double click on a .raf file and have it open - Windows cannot find a program to open this kind of file. so I have to open the program first and tell it which pic to open (any way round this), also until I started using a card reader the camera was not recognised by windows, or rather it "no pictures in camera"

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When Windows don't find the program you should have an option of finding the program manually from a list of programs. One part of that option is a tick box through which you can make that program the default program for opening this type of file.

Niels

I get an error message asking me to instal software capable of opening this type of file despite installing the software which came with the camera

Went into Argos today to take a look for the HS20 as it's great for video and wanted to see what we could get for the office to do some videos with, the HS20 has some great video capabilities.
The price listed was around £240 but the stock checking machine said it was only £209, which puts it clearly below many others as the manual zoom bridge camera of choice.

Keith Dickinson said:

One thing I have found out about the HS20 is that Adobe Camera Raw doesn't support it. So you have to convert to DNG files then import into Photoshop. Strange that the HS10 and the HS30 are supported.

Click to expand...

Camera Raw 7 does support the HS20, so long as you are using PS 6 or later

Keith Dickinson said:

Camera Raw 7 does support the HS20, so long as you are using PS 6 or later

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apple's iphoto and aperture don't support HS20 RAW files.

Chris