Fujifilm FinePix F20 Zoom

Opinion: Replaced my stolen Canon Powershot A570IS with this baby and indeed, it works great on low light. ISO 1600 is like using ISO 400 on the canon.

Battery life is good for me. The rechargeable AA batts on my canon does not get me anywhere within 100 shots with flash.

Pocketable

Opinion: This is my third digital camera and the one I like most. The focus and exposure is very accurate, though -1/3 exposure setting sometimes helps to get more details in the sky. I do not think the exposure curve is so steep as some users write about - I used the camera in june in Thunisia and I got many shades of bright, white walls of the buildings there in the sun and deetails in dark shades at the same time. I used Sony W17 - 7.2 Mp camera before and I think Fuji F20 is better. Macro mode works like a microscope - you cen see details you can't see normally with your eyes (e.g.ice micro crystals formed on a leaf from dew). Very reliable, accurate camera - I compared it with a 4 year old Nikon 6.3 Mp SLR camera and the results were very alike. it is a pity the camera goes out from production line.

Opinion: Great bang-for-the-buck. Takes better indoor pictures than other P&S cameras because it defaults at ISO 800, allowing more ambient light. The sensor is larger than other cameras in its class, leading to much better low-light performance.

*Only* image quality issue is some excessive purple fringing in high-contrast scenes.

Opinion: Overall a great little camera for that "I'm lazy!" state when you just want Point 'n Shoot. Excellent flash performance with very fast recharge per shot, and construction is solid for a little cam like this. Lighting is very even and well-metered. Colours lively and attractive. Very nice fast AF, even in low light. Good non-flash performance if you need it.

Opinion: I've owned this camera for about 2 weeks. I purchased it on the basis of the reported low light capability. At this point I am pleased with it's ability comparing it with other more expensive cameras I have owned in the past. I'll provide a link with some sample shots taken just before dark this afternoon.

http://picasaweb.google.com/wptitus/FinepixF20PhotoSamples

Opinion: + Great high ISO performance. 2 steps cleaner than average compacts.

+ Superb IQ and resolution for a 6M camera.

+ Excellent detail at ISO 100. Same or better than my 8M Panasonic Fz18 and way better than Canon Powershot A710 with 7M.

+ Excellent low light movies. Can record movies in very dark environments. Though see issues below.

+ Small and lightweighted. Fits jeans pocket easily.

+ Stylish and great build quality-

- No image stabilasation. I´d say 50% of shots <1/60s have at least signs of mild blur. I don´t have shaky hands but be warned a lot of photos less than 1/100s might show motion blur. Meanwhile let me add I have been able to get acceptable shots at less than 1/10s but the hit ratio once you go below 1/100s decreases gradually.
If you shoot a lot of social shots, this camera due to its high ISO performance is way preferable to Canon´s with IS. But for stills of landscaped and non moving objects you will be better off using a Canon with image stabilasation.

-No manual controls in any of the scene modes. This means this camera is not great for night photography as you canno´t change EV in night mode. You canno´t change EV in anti blur (ISO 2000) mode either so often you will find yourself to stick with ISO 1600. I also highly miss EV in movie mode. While this is not an issue most of the time, at concerts and other diffucult lighting situations, you may end up with wrongly exposed movies, and no long zoom either means this camera is good for social situation movies in low light but not for concerts.

-POOR low light focusing!!!

-Exposures often inaccurate. Have underexposed many shots of people against a lighter background. Images are darker on computer than on the LCD. For accurate LCD, turn down brightness to -2.
Shots in Flouroscent lighting require on average +1/3 or +2/3 EV correction. Nightshots are underexposed by on average the same.

I leave other issues aside.
Would I recommend this camera? Yes definitely, especially if you shoot a lot of social snapshots and like to take secret shots with no flash. Fuji Fd31 with it´s ISO 3200 and some more manual controls is better camera but in terms of IQ they are similar, in terms of features, Fd31 has the edge.

Opinion: Previous cameras: Olympus c310, and various film SLR's.

I got this for its good reviews in high iso /low light situations after being quite annoyed with my old olympus digital for stuffing up a few lowish light once in a lifetime shots!

Anyway, compared to that, I have found the Fuji quite quick to use in most situations, and pretty good in low light. It feels solid and is small enough to carry around easily. It's excellent value for money.

The movie mode seems to work pretty well, but you can't zoom.

The battery life is really good, especially compared to my old camera, and seems to get 200+shots, comapred to maybe 20ish on the old one before it became painfully slow!

The menu system can be a bit fiddly, I think there are too many buttons to press to get to a particular menu, but it does go back to the last used menu which is good. And is easily enough learned. Some of the menu names are a bit strange to me, I still can never remember what photometry means, and some of the symbols don't seem intuitive.

The exposure often seems to be a bit bright outside when using pattern metering if there is something a bit bright in the picture, it can become a bright blob if you are not careful, so it needs an eye kept on the exposure compensation. I guess this is Fuji's way of making sure portraits of people or other objects will come out well in brighter backgrounds such as sky. The average metering mode seems to work better outside in many situations. My advice is just to be careful with exposure outside if you notice these things like I do.

I now realise that control over the iso is very handy, and it's a good thing the fuji has it easily reached via the F button. I've learned that to some extent it kind of replaces the need for control over shutter speed or aperture that was required in film cameras. The more control the better, but iso is probably the most important control on a digital, as it directly affects noise and detail, and indirectly affects the required shutter speed/aperture required as well. It's good the fuji has relatively easy iso access.

The fuji has a handy auto iso 400 feature, which I use almost all the time to stop it going over iso 400, the auto 1600 is good too, but I use it less, as I can virtually always keep still enough get a better shot at low iso without needing to go to the high iso anyway. As others have mentioned it is probably too keen to up the iso for my liking.

My first impressions of the high iso settings were very good, I had to check I had actually used iso 800 and 1600, I thought the detail and lack of noise was too good for those settings!

Another good feature is the slow syncro flash, I have taken some interesting shots with it, and find it quite good at night. The redeye flash has a small flash followed by a big one, which I think is more confusing that the rapid pre flash on other cameras because people look away after the first one!
I also like the continuous shooting mode, it can take 3 pictures quickly which is much better than anything I have had before.

Overall a nice little camera that takes great shots, I really like it, everything works as well as I think it should, but has a few little quirks with exposure in brighter light, which I expect many people wouldn't even notice. I don't think I could have asked for anything better for the size or the price. I'll use it mostly as a camera for carrying around, hiking and going to social events with. I'll stick to the Film SLR where possible for outdoor unmissable scenery and holiday shots.

Opinion: Hello,

I own the F20 now for 3 month and did about two thousands pictures and many dozen videos.
If you have enough light the autofocus of the cam works very well and you get nice to perfect pictuers. BUT the lowlight capabilities of this realy superb CCD sensor are completly razed by the very bad lowlight focusing abilities of the F20. So nearly every second low light picture is totaly unsharp even if you foucus carefully.
Interestingly lowlight focousing seems not to be a problem if you us the videomode.
So the cam does realy good in bright scenes an has very good video capabilities especially in lowlight scenes.
But do not try to use it as a P&S in lowlight scenes.

Opinion: i use the f20 set to manual mode with -1/3 ev, multi exposure and center af focus with excellent results in
bright light. low light however, is where this camera
truly excels. i can now get low light pictures without using
flash. real nice to have that option.