Fujifilm FinePix F10 Zoom

Opinion: *Excellent resolution and details, natural colour, low noise.
*Superb ISO 400, usable ISO 800.
*Pics out of the camera a little soft; appropriate "post processing" is recommended.
*Low resolution LCD.
*Lack of manual controls.
*Excellent battery life.
*Display of exposure information - fantastic.
*"Framing guideline display" amazingly helpful in composing a shot.

Opinion: A fine little point-and-shoot. I like the all metal construction (accept for the plastic tripod mount and battery/xD lid) but with those acceptions, it has a good solid feel of quality. The unique feature of this camera is ISO's of 800 and 16000 which is unique in this class of camera. It can take very good indoor photos without a flash, but you may want to use a flash to 'highlight' objects or people you are photographing. Even with flash there seems to be no redeye problem, -if you are careful. I did notice that using flash too close can be a little 'hot'. It was best to take flash about 8 ft. from subject and zoom in, this will help solve the redeye problem. However, it's at it's best when avoiding flash all together. It has very fast action. Incredibly long battery life. Large 2 1/2" LCD screen but no viewfinder. Operation buttons are small but very well placed for ease of use. It can take good pictures at '6M-F' for this price of camera. No noticeable 'noise' at 800 ISO. In fact I found that at 1600 ISO there was no noticable noise on 4"X6" prints, -larger prints no doubt will have a different story. A neat little pocket p/s, but not a miracle worker.
When evaluating this camera on the star system, I have used my Leica CM p&s as my reference camera as I consider it the very best of all p&s cameras. and the stars I have given the F10 is simply my evaluation in comparison to the Leica CM. This also explains why I gave the F10 4.5 stars for 'value for money', because the Leica is much more expensive.

Opinion: The F10 is a pocketable, 6 megapixel point and shoot, pure and simple. There are really no advanced features, a return to early Fuji Super CCD cameras. Another thing that hasn’t changed are the beautiful Fuji colors – to my eyes, the best out there. White balance is also fairly accurate in a variety of lighting situations. The really big news about this camera is the low-light capabilities, long battery life and very large (2.5 inch) screen.

In terms of size, while not the smallest thing out there, it is definitely small and pocketable. In my opinion, some of the really small cameras out there are so small they are difficult to use unless you are the size of a three-year old. To me, Fuji has done a good balancing act between size and ergonomics. It feels good in the hands, with a slight bump in the front to assist with holding. As far as looks go, Fuji has taken the minimalist approach. It is quietly stylish, with metal accents and like-colored quality plastic. The build quality is very good, it does not feel cheap in the least.

The dominant feature on the F10 is the screen. At 2.5 inches, it is one of the largest ones currently available. That is the thing that everyone notices about the camera. There are other cameras with higher pixel counts, but it is surprisingly good for 110,000 pixels, and has a nice refresh rate providing fluid motion. The screen is bright and can easily be temporarily brightened with a touch at the top of the jog switch in back. The setup menu allows for more permanent brightness changes. It is viewable in sunlight, though I will admit I had some trouble seeing fine details. This would be true of any screen, though, to be fair. However, it is not a trivial point, as the F10 has no viewfinder. Of course, whether you can live without a viewfinder is a personal preference, but I suspect most people can live without one, and, in fact, do. Fuji knows that most people using point and shoots only use the screen for framing, so they cut to the chase and skipped the viewfinder (and let’s face it, that saves Fuji money and design space). All in all, the screen is ok – I do think they could have done a little better though in terms of making it higher resolution.

Everything is a trade off in life, and what you lose in terms of advanced functions and features, you gain in other places with the F10. Case in point – the battery. Hands down, this is one of the most powerful lithium ion rechargables on the market. At 1950 mAh, it packs a whollup and is rated at 500 pictures per charge. I did not do a formal test, but I can tell you it lasts a long, long, LONG time. You will not find a better point and shoot in that regard. There are also power saving features to further extend battery life. There is the ubiquitous auto shut down after 2 or 5 minutes of nonuse (it can be turned off), but there is also a mode where the screen will dim after about 10 seconds. The dimming is quite acceptable and the brightness comes back quickly when you go to use it. Again, this feature is optional and can be turned off.

Another area where the F10 excels is the green auto focus (AF) assist light. It has got to be one the strongest AF lights I have ever seen. It can focus in complete darkness (of course, it is not dark for long with THAT light!).

One area Fuji fell flat on is the convoluted connector for charging the battery and downloading pictures to your computer. Prior models used a cradle, which worked well. Maybe the concept of having one connector on the camera itself seemed like a nice idea at design time, but on the user end it leaves a lot to be desired. I recommend using a card reader instead, and using the connector system just to charge the battery. Which brings up another point. Fuji are you listening? Never, ever again put out a camera without a little thing that holds the battery in when the card/battery door is opened. As it is, the battery slips right out – annoying to say the least, especially when the convoluted connector practically forces you to use a card reader. The software that any Fuji comes with is very basic – I’d highly recommend Photoshop Elements 3 or similar (you might be happy with the free Picasa 2, now owned by Google. As with most point and shoots, the F10 tends to expose such that some highlights are blown in outdoor shots. This is easily fixed by putting it in “M” mode and changing exposure compensation to “-1/3” or “-2/3” (depending on your tastes). Unfortunately, also very common with point and shoots, there is also a tendency for some purple fringing in areas of strong contrast, like branches against the sky.

Ok, enough with the complaints. In the scheme of things, the ones mentioned are less important. All cameras have some negatives, and this one is no exception.

Now to the really important part – light sensitivity. Just about every point and shoot (and bigger prosumer models) I have seen have iso sensitivities of maybe 50 to 400. A few prosumer models have iso 800, but the pictures are typically so noisy as to be unusable. By and large, that range is fine for outdoor shots, but indoor shots require the use of flash. What if you don’t want to use flash (and there are lots of reasons not to – redeye, scare animals/kids away, harsh look, etc.)? Before now you had few choices, but the most popular was to buy a DSLR. But DSLR’s are not cheap (wait until you start buying lenses), and are big, bulky and complicated for a lot of people. Fuji has given many of their prior cameras up to iso 800 capability (and even a few iso 1600), but the higher iso’s were always at smaller than full size for technical reasons. Noise reduction has gotten to the point where Fuji felt it could provide full size iso 1600 images with the F10. Now don’t go thinking the iso 1600 shots will be the equivalent of a DSLR, but they are great for a point and shoot. Here is my personal take in the iso of the F10. ISO 80-400 is very nice (indeed, some of the biggest news won’t get a lot of play, and that is the quality of iso 400), iso 800 is useable, and iso 1600 is useable without further noise work in software up to maybe 5x7 inch prints. This is a BIG improvement in this corner of the digicam market.

What I liked:
Range of ISO settings (80-1600)
Size (small, but not too small)
Size of LCD Screen
Battery Life
AF Illuminator
Picture Quality
Movie Quality

What I didn’t like:
Lack of Manual Controls (this could actually be a plus for some)
Too Much Purple Fringing in High Contrast Situations (e.g., branches against the sky)
Flash Shots Biased Too Much Toward Higher ISO (indicative of underpowered flash)
Lack of Viewfinder

Overall: One of the best point and shoot models currently available.

Opinion: I agree with the earlier post that was quite lengthy and in the end he likes the camera. I sort of disagree with him that at ISO 1600 the images aren't up to the standard of dSLRs...in my testing I was able to print a very acceptable 8.5 x11 and held its own with one from the Nikon D70. Overall I highly recommend this camera to anyone. Just don't use the Auto mode. Use the M mode, set your own ISO and this thing gives fantastic prints! Macros are easy and again will hold its own to detail and focusing. Colors and saturation are great. Focusing is quick and accurate. If I have to come up with a negative... it would be the lack of full manual settings. All in all a great value for the money.