HS20EXR ... Love it or Hate it?

I have been following and in some cases participating in the discussions at Dpreview's FujiFilm Talk forums, specifically in regard to the HS20. While small numbers of people are reporting some degree of success and performance with this camera it seems there is a reasonably large ground swell of opinion the feels that the HS20 is not the camera it should be.
I remind readers that this was also true of the HS10 when it was first on the market. But the HS20 seems to be suffering from a different sort of critque. If we are to believe the Fuji marketing hype, we should see people raving about how much better the HS20 is in comparison to the HS10 as well as other superzoom cameras, and the truth is we arent seeing this at all.


As I mentioned in this previous article http://akiwiretrospective.blogspot.com/2011/04/fuji-hs10-vs-hs20exr.html?utm_source=BP_recent the HS20 has been inflicted for whatever reason, be it poor quality control or poor design with a number of flaws straight out of the box. You wouldn't buy a car, or a TV for that matter if there are some serious flaws reported in the equipment. I was looking forward to replacing my HS10 with a "much improved" HS20. At this point in time that seems unlikely. Add to this the fact the the vast majority of images I have seen from the HS20 on several differing forums (we monitor all the major Fuji user forums) seem only slightly better than what a competent photographer with a HS10 in hand is capable of. 
Of course we shouldnt be too hard on the camera at this point as it will take some time for user to really come to grips with it, but for HS10 users who have upgraded, many have reported faults and have sent the cameras back. Some have accepted replacement while others have returned a faulty unit and gone for another brand.


This is not going to reflect well on coming offerings from Fuji, just as they are about to announce a new range of compact cameras. Loyal Fuji users may well (myself) included find themselves in the position of looking seriously at what the competition has to offer.
Fuji need to step up to the plate and take some lead on this as customers are getting more irritated by the lack of response from Fuji. So come on Fuji, take a leaf out of Pentax's book and admit the product has some issues and confirm that you are indeed working on solutions to these issues.