You'd be forgiven for thinking that the Fujifilm FinePix SL1000 was a DSLR, as it's certainly styled to look a lot like one.

The SL1000 superzoom packs in a 50x optical zoom lens that delivers a huge 24-1200mm equivalent focal range. The lens barrel looks as though it can be twisted by hand to extend the zoom, but this is a design facade. Instead the SL1000 is controlled via two methods: either the zoom toggle around the shutter button on top of the camera, or via the side-mounted zoom to the side of the lens.

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The SL1000 offers the longest zoom of any Fujifilm camera on the market, even more than the higher-spec HS50EXR model.

READ: Fujifilm FinePix HS50EXR pictures and hands-on

However using any camera at 1200mm is difficult, and that's no exception with the SL1000. Optical image stabilisation does go some way to help steady up shots when composing, but subtle hand movements equate to much bigger equivalents when shooting at the full extent of the zoom.

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The SL1000 has a lot of good points going for it. The built-in electronic viewfinder is large to the eye, far more so than the usual tiny ones that come with more budget cameras. The rear LCD screen also hosts a 920k-dot resolution for detailed preview and playback, which is about as good as it gets at this level. There tilt-angle bracket means vertical movement is possible for low or high shooting angles.

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Whether point-and-shoot or full manual controls are more your thing, the SL1000 has them all on offer. Changing between shooting modes is made all the easier thanks to the mode dial on top of the camera, again, much like that of a DSLR.

Overall the Fuji SL1000 is quite the beast. If a long zoom is what you're after than they don't come zoomier than this.