Fujifilm FinePix F810 Zoom

Opinion: I always have demised the Fuji camera's because of their use of the xD/Smartmedia
memory cards, but when I had the chance to buy the F801
(including two xD cards) for only €59,- I didn't hesitate one minute, and bought it.
I now have it for almost half a year and I have it always
with me...

What can I say? The Image Quality is simply excellent and I have trouble to tell the
F810 photo's apart from those made with my ist D and S5
Pro. I think that is saying something. There is some minor Chromatic Aberration
(easily corrected) and the barrel distortion on WA is a little
more than what I would have wanted, but apart from that, the images are sharp
corner to corner. Noise is very low too, even at ISO 200 (I
wouldn't advice on abusing ISO 400 too much, though.)

It is also blinking fast, and I have yet to come across a compact digital camera that
is as fast as this one (and I have had the opportunity to use
a lot of them.) AF is very accurate too.

In short:

Positive:
- very good and very useable 32,5-130 equivalent Fujinon lens
- impressive Image Quality even ad higher ISO
- RAW is very convenient and useable
- very fast
- good construction
- very easy to use
- excellent battery life (500+ shots possible ad one charge)
- optical viewfinder
- very good LCD (a little small by today's standards, but high resolution and very
viewable even with stray light)
- you can project a rule of thirds grid on the LCD display

Negative:
- purple fringing at wide angle (but easily corrected)
- dynamic range (logically) lower than on a DSLR
- function dial turns very easy, sometimes leaving the camera in a mode you don't
want (I use scotch tape to keep it in the position I want ;-) )
- slowest shutter speed only 3s (no bulb) and only accessible in Tv and M
- xD memory cards (but memory is cheap nowadays)

Makes the blues:
- make the same with ISO 800 and with a weatherproof design (like Olympus SW
and Pentax W series) and I'm one happy camper.

Meanwhile, I can safely highly recommend this camera to anyone looking for a
convenient camera with good image quality. Also look out for
the E550 (essentially the same) or the E900...

Opinion: I now purchased a new F810 in a old shop for my collection, and I was pleased by image quality! This is a model of 2004, but his quality is still competitive.
Only purple fringing is a fusspot problem.

Opinion: I have had this camera for 1 year now and am 100% satisfied with it. I bought it used for $300 and it's been a valuable addition to my collection. I use it mostly as a walk-around camera, when I don't want to lug a dSLR around, or for relaxed after-work, walk-around shooting.
Being all-metal the body construction is quite solid, and feels high in quality. It's also small enough to fit in my pocket, or into a small bag.
Picture quality surprised me for a point-and-shoot, and noise levels on high ISO shots were pleasantly low.
All in all I'm quite happy, and this will not be my last FujiFilm camera.

Opinion: I have had this camera since Oct04 and have taken 1000s of pics and I haven't been able to fault it. I gives the user a full range of control in still mode and also produces great video. I have been using it in the surf with the FX710 underwater housing and it returned fantastic action shots and video(with audio). The FX710 housing also allows the user to access all the controls on the camera. This is a great robust camera that I am never without.

Opinion: My real estate agency has used three of these cameras for a year now, replacing earlier generation olympus 3.5Mp cameras. We have not had a single problem, and no complaints from my team. one of them even bought one for personal use!

Each has taken thousands of shots, and has been handled by complety untechnical novices.

Exceptionally useful since wider angle lens than all other pocketables, and a very even flash across the image, very useful for working in apartments under indifferent lighting.
Fast to turn on, comfortable battery charge duration, fast recharge, ease of use even for first time users. Good definition, even in low light conditions produces PS-able "brightness/contrast" results.

Top class product.

This is the first digital camera I have used with pleasure. until now (for personal use) I have used an Olympus OM1 which is the completely mechanical antithesis of the Fuji, made in the mid 70s, and a wonderful instrument.

Opinion: I use it for almost a year now. Such a fine optical instrument. I think the image quality could not be better.
Before I swiched to digital I had film SLR cameras (Olympus) for over 20 years. Call me stupid, but I find F810 producing better results! I just love it. Notwithstanding I consider adding S9500 to my arsenal.

Opinion: After a lot of consideration which camera to take, I decided to go for speed. After my Oly 5060 was stolen, I decided this was a good camera, but soooo slooooowww.
Major point of annoyance. This is really the fastest camera on start-up, shutter-lag. Even faster then the Sony's to date. Great image quality and fits nicely in pocket. Also very good with UW-housing (Fuji). Flash is very strong for good UW-pictures.

Opinion: This camera is solid, battery lasts forever and image quality is all I could ask for as a family man. Sometimes I think images are slightly (v slightly) dark but still betters anything else I have used for exposure, colour, contrast (eg Espio, DX6440, mju410, F410). This camera even survived being submerged in a handbag in which a 500cl bottle of water burst. Despite being totally soaked inside 24 hrs on the radiator did the trick! Starts up instantly with no discernible shutter lag. Flash recharge gets increasingly slower if taking several flash photos in succession but recharge time is not increasing over time (ie battery performance is not degrading after hundreds of recharges). 512Mb card essential if taking long video clips which, by the way, is perfectly acceptable but has slight lag when switching top/from low light/high light. If anyone wants to see some real life amateur samples just ask me.

Opinion: The image quality is good in auto mode making it an ideal point and click. You will find over a few months the usb cable connection deterioates very quickly to a point where the only method of getting the images out is via the card.