Michel Cojan
Leading Member
I just got this camera a couple of days ago, after testing
many other compacts, 7 & 8 Mpixels and reading and
comparing all the reviews here at dpreview.com (thanks
guys!) ; Canon S-70, Fuji E550 & 810, even the Olympus
C-8080 and the zoom-7000 (great image quality indeed but
double in price). Well, I was almost convinced the S-70
would be the one for me, but then again, Fuji came back
with the F-10. All I can say after using it for one week now is
that the camera is simply excellent, even without all those
manual controls or aperture/speed priorities (which I
otherwise would’ve appreciate). After all, what matters (to
me) is the quality of the prints and in this regard, this is the
first compact digital that gives a ’’photographic’’ feeling &
look vs. the more ’’video-like’’ look of most other compacts.
A major plus is the ability of this camera to go up to 1600
ASA and still have perfectly printable shots (cropped 8’’x10’’)
with very acceptable noise levels, comparable with the film
grain at same ASA value. At 800 ASA, no flash, in low light,
the noise levels were comarable to 100-200 ASA on any
other 7Mpix I tried. Great job Fuji!!! They should ’’update’’ the
F-810 with the same combination of sensor / lens /
processor. That would be a very close to perfect compact
camera and at very decent price (compared to many other
cameras in the same category)...
Problems:
Besides the lack of manual controls, none... Actually not
really a problem since the camera does a fantastic job by
itself, and one can use a combination of different ASA
values and +/-EV to play with the exposure (and control a bit
the aperture at the same time).
many other compacts, 7 & 8 Mpixels and reading and
comparing all the reviews here at dpreview.com (thanks
guys!) ; Canon S-70, Fuji E550 & 810, even the Olympus
C-8080 and the zoom-7000 (great image quality indeed but
double in price). Well, I was almost convinced the S-70
would be the one for me, but then again, Fuji came back
with the F-10. All I can say after using it for one week now is
that the camera is simply excellent, even without all those
manual controls or aperture/speed priorities (which I
otherwise would’ve appreciate). After all, what matters (to
me) is the quality of the prints and in this regard, this is the
first compact digital that gives a ’’photographic’’ feeling &
look vs. the more ’’video-like’’ look of most other compacts.
A major plus is the ability of this camera to go up to 1600
ASA and still have perfectly printable shots (cropped 8’’x10’’)
with very acceptable noise levels, comparable with the film
grain at same ASA value. At 800 ASA, no flash, in low light,
the noise levels were comarable to 100-200 ASA on any
other 7Mpix I tried. Great job Fuji!!! They should ’’update’’ the
F-810 with the same combination of sensor / lens /
processor. That would be a very close to perfect compact
camera and at very decent price (compared to many other
cameras in the same category)...
Problems:
Besides the lack of manual controls, none... Actually not
really a problem since the camera does a fantastic job by
itself, and one can use a combination of different ASA
values and +/-EV to play with the exposure (and control a bit
the aperture at the same time).