To get the most out of it you need to know photography
Written: Jul 20 '06
Product Rating:
Ease of Use:
Durability:
Battery Life:
Photo Quality:
Shutter Lag
Pros: Sharp optics corner to corner, quick operation, compact, low noise, high ISO, good screen
Cons: No user selectable image parameters, crippled modes, no true manual mode, purple fringing
The Bottom Line: You need to understand photography to get the most of this camera. Best suited for low light situations. Fuji made inexcusable design choices that cripple an otherwise promising camera
kocho's Full Review: FUJIFILM FinePix F30 Digital Camera
I am not going to repeat the list of features - get them off the Fuji site :)
This is a successor in the US market of the F10 FinePix that Fuji released some time ago. There was a non-US model, the F11 as well. One might say that the F30 is the successor of the F11 since Fuji just released a stripped-down version, the F20 which is probably more appropriately to view as the F10 replacement.
The key feature of the F-series of Fuji FinePix cameras is their use of the Fuji CCD sensor that is characteristically less noisy than ANY other compact camera on the market. The same still holds true for the F30. Go to dpreview.com for a comparison of many cameras. They may come-up with a comprehensive review of the F30 soon as well.
What the use of a Fuji CCD means to us is that images taken at low ISO (100 and 200) are virtually free of noise. Images at higher ISO ratings such as 400 and 800 are quite usable as well with the option to shoot at full resolution at ISO1600 and 3200, though there is noise and too many processing artifacts there to make these usable only for small prints.
There is NO true manual mode on this camera. The "manual" mode is in fact an automatic mode with the ability to change ISO and a few other minor settings. Aperture and Shutter priority get you closer to manual mode but they are limited.
Fuji chose to provide a mix of good and poor choices (much like with the F10 and F11) and once again did not deliver a "perfect" camera, intentionally. Read on to find out why. I will summarize the findings at the end.
Fuji, Why???? Windows PCs do not see the F30 as a TRUE hard drive. While under XP (and with drivers under Win 200/98 I think) it is possible to drag and drop files off the camera without the Fuji-supplied software, this is not a full-featured mode as it was with the predecessor F10 and many other devices. What this means is that software such as undelete or other utilities may not work with the F30 tethered.
Fuji, Why???? No histogram at all. If you know what a histogram is, then you know why it is very useful :)
Fuji, Why???? No separate exposure and focus lock. This lack makes it difficult to focus in one place and then reframe then take a shot and still get a correct exposure - need to play with exposure compensation which is slow.
Fuji, Why???? Crippled automatic modes lack selectable ISO settings
Fuji, Why???? No adjustable sharpness, contrast, noise reduction, saturation control. The default settings are not the best for all situations and certainly less than optimal (too strong) for the best results when post processing. They are OK for prints out of camera in most cases.
Fuji, Why???? A lot of purple fringing, especially on blown highlights and bright scenes. Not much of an issue in dark or low contrast scenes.
Fuji, Why???? Matrix metering tends to preserve the dark areas and blow highlights in brightly lit scenes (e.g. white clouds on a sunny day). Lifting shadows in post processing is relatively easy. Recovering blown highlights - almost impossible.
Fuji, Why???? No easy way to use the full range of exposure times from 15s to 1/2000s. There are several modes but none has the full range. Download the manual and see the hoops one needs to go thru to set the right exposure for night photography
Fuji, Why???? No manual focus or at least default to infinity when autofocus fails to lock?
After all these "Fuji, Why????" (and I'm sure I missed some) why bother with this camera? Simply because it has the best low light capabilities of any point and shoot camera on the market. Has one of the sharpest lenses too. And it is OK otherwise, Image Quality-wise, once one learns to work around its limitations.
With the recently ended $50 rebate, the final price in the US was below $300 delivered so at this price point it is a serious contender for the top of your list in compact P&S. At the suggested $399, I'd think twice... Features like optical or electronic image stabilization that actively compensates for camera shake (which this camera lacks, despite the Fuji marketing terms used) are important. The way the F30 so called image stabilization works is by simply raising the ISO thus allowing for faster shutter speeds. While this does stabilize the image, it is very limited in that it does not help with noise or your creative expression the way a true image stabilization does.
Positives:
- Relatively fast operation (except see in the "negatives" section)
- Good flash
- Excellent optics in terms of distortion and sharpness (see "negatives" too)
- Good battery life
- Compact
- Aperture and Shutter priority modes, convenient "manual" mode
- Ability to limit the top value of ISO choice (see negatives)
- Noise-free low ISO capability; relatively superior high ISO capabilities (compared to other P&S, not to dSLR)
- Decent image quality in movie mode (see negatives)
- God LCD screen though with limited visibility at an angle
Negatives:
- Uses xD cards (expensive, small at only 1 GB, possibly 2 in the near future, relatively slow compared to other formats)
- Slow to delete images
- Undeniably visible purple fringing and bloom
- Focus hunting in dark environments at the long end of the zoom (probably not worse than others, but certainly worse than at the wide angle)
- No manual/default infinity focus: makes it hard to impossible to take a shot if the camera can't focus automatically
- No true image stabilization
- Auto ISO only limited to 400 OR 1600. 400 is too low, 1600 is too high. 200, 400, 800 would have been more useful.
- No user selectable ISO in almost all modes except the semi-automatic modes (aperture, shutter, M)
- No fully automatic ISO in A and S modes
- No flash exposure compensation
- No histogram (neither "live" nor "dead")
- No user selectable sharpening, contrast, saturation, noise reduction - like it or not whatever the camera gives you, that's what you get
- Focusing in Macro mode in dimly lit scenes is slow
- Clicking noise recorded in movie mode due to the sound from the diaphragm adjusting continuously. Hiss is present too
- No focusing during movie mode
- No zooming during movie mode
- No separate exposure and focus lock: prevents you from taking quick photographs in difficult lightning conditions
- Windows PCs do not see the F30 as a TRUE hard drive.
- Overexposure of bright highlights in sunny scenes
- Slight blue cast in sunny scenes in Auto white balance
- No RAW capture capability
- Relatively small zoom range, what's worse lack of truly wide angle (36mm is often not wide enough)
- No optical viewfinder
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 290 This Camera is a Good Choice if You Want Something... Flexible Enough for Enthusiasts
Digital camera features full resolution ISO equivalency speeds as high as 3200 for great low-light and motion shots Features a 3.0x optical zoom Fujin...More at Amazon Marketplace
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