Is F300 going to be Fuji's best ever P&S camera to date?

It has the 15x range of the S100/S200.

It has almost the same pixel density as the S100 in DR mode (though much lower resolution).
It has the on chip phase detection focusing which is unique.
It has the superior DR of EXR technology.

On paper it looks pretty good, its shrunk the S200 feature set into a tiny package.

I find this a more interesting Fuji than the HS10 because of the EXR sensor, huge zoom range and tiny size.

Wellington100 said:

It has the 15x range of the S100/S200.

It has almost the same pixel density as the S100 in DR mode (though much lower resolution).
It has the on chip phase detection focusing which is unique.
It has the superior DR of EXR technology.

On paper it looks pretty good, its shrunk the S200 feature set into a tiny package.

I find this a more interesting Fuji than the HS10 because of the EXR sensor, huge zoom range and tiny size.

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Yes, it may very well be the best, at least when all features are accounted for.

But there will always be proponents for cams such as:

F10 through F31fd for their extremely detailed 100% pixel views.
F6500 for it equivalent detail and long zoom range.
HS10 for 720mm and color.
S100fs for all round controls and excellent image quality.
F200EXR for its somewhat better clarity than the other EXR cams.

But the top four groups or cams cannot touch an EXR cam in bright sunlight without heroic capture and processing. And only the top line can fit in a pocket and reliably get into concert venues ...

So the F300EXR has a lot of promise. And I look forward to shooting it against the F80EXR.

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Nobody knows as we have not seen enough from it.

Personally I think companies are going a bit OTT on this superzoom thing. And however much zoom the shove in somebody else will do more. 15x sounds great wait till 20x or a 20mm UWA start off zoom wise.

Too many high zoom models for my tastes the market is flooded with them.

What we need it to get flooded with is a nice big sensor compact try a 1" sensor for starters..no image full manual controls, EXR and raw. Instant hit..I'll gladly take less zoom for more quality.

Member said:

Instant hit..I'll gladly take less zoom for more quality.

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Would you like to try the F30 out again now?

Dr Gradus said:

Would you like to try the F30 out again now?

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The F30 is good but I'm talking about "bigger sensors" that is the direction I think we should head in. 1/1.7" isn't a 1" sensor..the later being quite a bit larger.

http://www.dpreview.com/learn/?/Glossary/Camera_System/sensor_sizes_01.htm

I love the pocketability and I love the radical dual AF detection and I love the 15X zoom with amazing stabilizer. But when I saw these.....

http://www.fujifilm.com/products/digital_cameras/f/finepix_f300exr/sample_images/

I'm not so sure anymore.

bimmerman said:

I love the pocketability and I love the radical dual AF detection and I love the 15X zoom with amazing stabilizer. But when I saw these.....

http://www.fujifilm.com/products/digital_cameras/f/finepix_f300exr/sample_images/

I'm not so sure anymore.

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Thay have a great job with the lighting in the portrait however you can put lipstick on a small sensor, but it is still a small sensor and looks like a pig at 100% viewing.
--
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bimmerman said:

I love the pocketability and I love the radical dual AF detection and I love the 15X zoom with amazing stabilizer. But when I saw these.....

http://www.fujifilm.com/products/digital_cameras/f/finepix_f300exr/sample_images/

I'm not so sure anymore.

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Sheesh ... Fuji has done a lot of damage with their incompetent samples ....

So here is what the F300EXR will be able to do at a minimum ... Hugo says it is better than the F80 ... these are 100% crops straight from the cam ...

2 at ISO 100





1 at 1600 ISO !!



Shot properly, the F80EXR is pretty darned good ...

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Pehaps I'll back with Fuji again. I need a (big) zoom and a small camera.

For IQ, F300 seems not to be at the level of another P&S (Leica X1, Pana LX3, Canon G11 or S90, ...).

zenfr2009 said:

For IQ, F300 seems not to be at the level of another P&S (Leica X1, Pana LX3, Canon G11 or S90, ...).

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but that level of p&s doesn't have the zoom also

Me personally? I'd give up some zoom to get better IQ than presented in those images. Too soft, too smeared (at high ISO) for my tastes. Zoom is not the end all for my photography. I place more interest in better IQ.

rattymouse said:

Me personally? I'd give up some zoom to get better IQ than presented in those images. Too soft, too smeared (at high ISO) for my tastes. Zoom is not the end all for my photography. I place more interest in better IQ.

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Agree less range more quality please.

The F80exr has overly aggressive noise reduction even lower ISO levels. I wish I could set the F70 NR to lower myself but the F80 does even more. As one review said too much pixel smoothing going on. It's surprising how much difference 2mp makes on the sensor you'd expect a bit worse but not as much as we get.

I'm not expecting a huge improvement on the F300exr but I'd want to see more samples including real low light ones.

Even a 1/1.7"-2/3" size sensor with a 5-7x high quality zoom lens would be preferable to me. I would also like to have better IQ and fine detail in my next P&S, even if they had to increase the size and weight. The specs look very interesting on this camera, but the quality of the pictures are what is most important to me, not specs. I look forward to the reviews on this camera.

There are definitely 2 possible tracks for compacts, one is smaller sensor with ever increasing zoom and the other is bigger sensor and far better overall IQ but less zoom. So far the only the first track is being explored in detail.

I don't think there are technical reasons why big sensor compacts can't be produced, after all a Sony Nex with a fixed lens would be precisely that and Thom Hogan recently said that the camera companies are petrified to do so because they don't want to cannibalise the sales of their system cameras.

Surely this is an opportunity for Fuji who don't have a system camera to protect but do have great technology, lenses, sensors and a wealth of experience building cutting edge compact cameras.

because in the words "best camera" Image quality should be an important factor. The F300 has a tiny sensor with too many pixels, a relatively slowish super- Zoom (F5,6 at tele for long focal length means higher ISO than 100 in most cases necessary) and, what matters most - a sensor smaller than my F30 and F100.

The sample images on FUji.com are a testament of failure. Make the same sensor 4 or 5MP, the lens 5 to 8x zoom but 2,8-4, then it could be more interesting.

I am tired with low quality compacts. My f100 is not bad, but even at ISO100 I don't like the quality much, smeared pictures and burned highlights (lack of DR) all over the place.

As long as FUji will not bring another (full frame) DSLR or at least a µ4/3, the company is no longer relevant for me.

bernie

Bernie Ess said:

because in the words "best camera" Image quality should be an important factor. The F300 has a tiny sensor with too many pixels, a relatively slowish super- Zoom (F5,6 at tele for long focal length means higher ISO than 100 in most cases necessary) and, what matters most - a sensor smaller than my F30 and F100.

The sample images on FUji.com are a testament of failure. Make the same sensor 4 or 5MP, the lens 5 to 8x zoom but 2,8-4, then it could be more interesting.

I am tired with low quality compacts. My f100 is not bad, but even at ISO100 I don't like the quality much, smeared pictures and burned highlights (lack of DR) all over the place.

As long as FUji will not bring another (full frame) DSLR or at least a µ4/3, the company is no longer relevant for me.

bernie

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Well said Bernie! I hope Fuji is listening!

I'd be happy with less zoom too. Around 10X starting from 24 to 240 would be just about fine. Better IQ matters more to me.

rattymouse said:

Me personally? I'd give up some zoom to get better IQ than presented in those images. Too soft, too smeared (at high ISO) for my tastes. Zoom is not the end all for my photography. I place more interest in better IQ.

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And there are brands that have made the choice to satisfy users such as you. Fuji's IQ is perfectly fine for me, as I am never going to use a pocketable cam for a job that my D700 should be doing ...

--
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bimmerman said:

I'd be happy with less zoom too. Around 10X starting from 24 to 240 would be just about fine. Better IQ matters more to me.

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You actually think that Fuji can somehow jack up the size of the sensor on a 10x zoom?

There is a reason that the bigger sensor cams are still stuck at 5x ... and that's not enough reach to make it worth carrying the cam in the first place (for me) ...

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Bernie Ess said:

because in the words "best camera" Image quality should be an important factor. The F300 has a tiny sensor with too many pixels, a relatively slowish super- Zoom (F5,6 at tele for long focal length means higher ISO than 100 in most cases necessary) and, what matters most - a sensor smaller than my F30 and F100.

The sample images on FUji.com are a testament of failure. Make the same sensor 4 or 5MP, the lens 5 to 8x zoom but 2,8-4, then it could be more interesting.

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This is a bit hypocritical .... the sensor was shot at 12mp, its worst mode by far. Shame on Fuji for that.

But the sensor can be shot at 6mp and is very clean at that resolution (howls from the rabid pixel peepers on this forum notwithstanding.)

For the umpteenth time: Note the left side, where despite having 2 more mp the F80 actually seems to retain more detail than the F70. But the right side (where Fuji chose to shoot the samples) shows that 2 extra mp is too many.



Dropping to 5mp would help as it did with the F70, but I have shot many thousand images with both and the F80 makes fine images when pixel peeping isn't the goal.

As for the zoom ... everyone likes to focus on it, but not one single issue has been seen so far that can be pinned on the zoom. Hugo's shots are universally acclaimed and they were shot with that zoom.

Bernie Ess said:

I am tired with low quality compacts. My f100 is not bad, but even at ISO100 I don't like the quality much, smeared pictures and burned highlights (lack of DR) all over the place.

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These EXR cams do not have the F100's DR issue ... by definition. And the F100 is the sharpest and clearest of this bunch, but these cams can be shot at half the pixel density and there is very little smearing going on (again, howls form the rabid pixel peepers notwithstanding.)

Bernie Ess said:

As long as FUji will not bring another (full frame) DSLR or at least a µ4/3, the company is no longer relevant for me.

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As you wish ... there are plenty of brands. But only one makes cams that handle harsh light with aplomb (when shot correctly of course.)

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