Is F700 worth it at $359?

Tim Collins

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I am looking for a compact digital which is small, reasonably responsive and takes decent pictures. It seems many of the reviews of the F700 had a problem with the camera when it was priced at $600. Now that the camera is significantly cheaper do F700 owners recommend it more? Also does anyone have any sample people photos since there is a real lack of these on the usual sites, ie. Photosig.com. THanks everyone,

Tim
 
I am looking for a compact digital which is small, reasonably
responsive and takes decent pictures. It seems many of the reviews
of the F700 had a problem with the camera when it was priced at
$600. Now that the camera is significantly cheaper do F700 owners
recommend it more? Also does anyone have any sample people photos
since there is a real lack of these on the usual sites, ie.
Photosig.com. THanks everyone,
Absolutely yes at that price. Make sure if you are ordering online that the vendor has a good http://www.bizrate.com

It all depends what you are looking but what you say sounds like the F700 is made for you.
  • Raist
 
I am looking for a compact digital which is small, reasonably
responsive and takes decent pictures. It seems many of the reviews
of the F700 had a problem with the camera when it was priced at
$600. Now that the camera is significantly cheaper do F700 owners
recommend it more? Also does anyone have any sample people photos
since there is a real lack of these on the usual sites, ie.
Photosig.com. THanks everyone,
Absolutely yes at that price. Make sure if you are ordering online
that the vendor has a good http://www.bizrate.com

It all depends what you are looking but what you say sounds like
the F700 is made for you.
  • Raist
Some pics I have at:

http://raist3d.typepad.com

Look at the left lower end of the page where I have many galleries. Caveat: those picture are reduced to 640x480, some are post processed.
 
I am looking for a compact digital which is small, reasonably
responsive and takes decent pictures. It seems many of the reviews
of the F700 had a problem with the camera when it was priced at
$600. Now that the camera is significantly cheaper do F700 owners
recommend it more? Also does anyone have any sample people photos
since there is a real lack of these on the usual sites, ie.
Photosig.com. THanks everyone,

Tim
I love this camera. This is coming from someone who owns a 10d and about $5000 in lenses. At first I made the mistake of examining the pictures from this camera at 100% and comparing it to my 10D, as well as images from other cameras online. No competition. In most cases the f700 would look like a noisy mess. And this is after paying almost $600 for it. I was p@$%ed! However, there was no ignoring the uniqueness of this camera compared to its compact peers. First of all, its super fast. I bought a canon G3 and had to return it....after using my DSLR it was agonizingly SLOW. Secondly, 5 frames per second. Do you know how useful this can be? I took about 80 pics of my 13 month old in about 5 minutes today. Then went threw them all, deleted the blurry ones, out of focus ones, poorly composed ones, etc.....and now I have 7 or 8 great keepers. I'd also like to mention the vivid colors. Wonderful.

But, most importantly, the SuperCCD SR. I know, many people, myself included at first, expected this new sensor to be able to show the solar flares on the sun with all the extra dynamic range its supposed to have. Alright, it can't. But....in high contrast situations, it adds a magical quality to the pictures, almost like they are paintings. I've compared my 10D to my F700, and although the pictures from the 10D are technically perfect for a digital, the pics from the F700 have something the 10D's pics don't. Quite often I prefer the F700 pics. Even after jumping through hoops in photoshop with my 10D pics, I many times can't get them to match the pleasing look of the F700's pics.

Don't get me wrong...the F700 has its limitations; It's really not an indoor camera unless your house is very well lit, or you have good window light. I hate straight on flash pictures...bounced flash with my 10D has spoiled me. Also, it does suffer from overcompression, and the interpolation of the SuperCCD, along with the overcompression, obliterates fine detail...yes even in raw and shot in soft mode (I acually prefer normal or hard, as the F700 pics do not sharpen well with photoshop). Examples; hairs, eyelashes and such get melded together easily unless your doing quite a closeup; the fine lines in a cityscape picture can exhibit their noise when viewed at 8*10 size or above. You do have to learn how to utilize this camera to get the pics out of it you want..pleantiful light, enough to stop down the aperature a bit....I never use the zoom (alright, almost never) I actually shoot in macro for most picure types(seems to focus better)......

Alright, I'm rambling (4 hours of sleep last night)...is it worth $359? Well, I can say for myself it is. I would'nt hesitate to buy another should something happen to my current one.

Well I hope my rambling helped. Goodluck with whatever decision you make.
 
I am looking for a compact digital which is small, reasonably
responsive and takes decent pictures. It seems many of the reviews
of the F700 had a problem with the camera when it was priced at
$600. Now that the camera is significantly cheaper do F700 owners
recommend it more? Also does anyone have any sample people photos
since there is a real lack of these on the usual sites, ie.
Photosig.com. THanks everyone,
The F700 is an excellent choice,Tim.Good resolution,very fast(I used a Canon SD100 last night-big difference even when the AiAF was turned off)excellent ergonomics(especially compared with the F601 I used before)-One touch access to almost everything.

Great movie & burst modes plus the manual controls.Of course,in the end,there are two important factors to keep in mind:1.Do You like it's pics(download as many fullsized pics as you can) 2.Does it feel comfortable and fun to use(go to a store and see for yourself).

Unfortunately,I am not at home(and wont be for another 2 days) so I can't post any pics at my webshots page.Have a look at these: http://www.pbase.com/cameras/fujifilm/finepix_f700 .
Best of luck
--
-Gee,Brain.What do you wanna do tonight?
-The same thing we do every night,Pinky.Try to compare cameras!
 
I love this camera. This is coming from someone who owns a 10d and
about $5000 in lenses. At first I made the mistake of examining
the pictures from this camera at 100% and comparing it to my 10D,
as well as images from other cameras online. No competition. In
most cases the f700 would look like a noisy mess.
Did you resize to 4mp first?The F700 has about 4mp worth resolution so when viewed at 6mp the look noisier that they really are.The 6mp is basically for printing and should hold slightly more detail than the resized 4mp but the latter has a much better detail-to-image-size ratio.What other cameras did you compare it to?Sure the S400 & S50 are better but the difference is not that great IMO.Then again,given your extensive photography related backgroung you should be able to tell the difference much more easily.
--
-Gee,Brain.What do you wanna do tonight?
-The same thing we do every night,Pinky.Try to compare cameras!
 
I love this camera. This is coming from someone who owns a 10d and
about $5000 in lenses. At first I made the mistake of examining
the pictures from this camera at 100% and comparing it to my 10D,
as well as images from other cameras online. No competition. In
most cases the f700 would look like a noisy mess.
Did you resize to 4mp first?The F700 has about 4mp worth resolution
so when viewed at 6mp the look noisier that they really are.The 6mp
is basically for printing and should hold slightly more detail than
the resized 4mp but the latter has a much better
detail-to-image-size ratio.What other cameras did you compare it
to?Sure the S400 & S50 are better but the difference is not that
great IMO.Then again,given your extensive photography related
backgroung you should be able to tell the difference much more
easily.
--
-Actually, I don't have an extensive photography related background, I'm
just a guy who makes good money and loves toys....Anyways here's a sample pic for those interested------> straight out of the camera; RAW to Tiff and then resized and saved in Jpeg for the web....no processing whatsoever.
http://www.pbase.com/image/24778020/original

Something magical about it, or am I just nuts about my son ;-) ?
 
Do you ever use the raw convertor provided here on the forum(freeware) to convert the F700 images, and use it's 4x dynamic range advantage?

-Chris
I love this camera. This is coming from someone who owns a 10d and
about $5000 in lenses. At first I made the mistake of examining
the pictures from this camera at 100% and comparing it to my 10D,
as well as images from other cameras online. No competition. In
most cases the f700 would look like a noisy mess.
Did you resize to 4mp first?The F700 has about 4mp worth resolution
so when viewed at 6mp the look noisier that they really are.The 6mp
is basically for printing and should hold slightly more detail than
the resized 4mp but the latter has a much better
detail-to-image-size ratio.What other cameras did you compare it
to?Sure the S400 & S50 are better but the difference is not that
great IMO.Then again,given your extensive photography related
backgroung you should be able to tell the difference much more
easily.
--
-Actually, I don't have an extensive photography related background, I'm
just a guy who makes good money and loves toys....Anyways here's a
sample pic for those interested------> straight out of the camera;
RAW to Tiff and then resized and saved in Jpeg for the web....no
processing whatsoever.
http://www.pbase.com/image/24778020/original

Something magical about it, or am I just nuts about my son ;-) ?
 
Tim Collins wrote:
[stuff del]
Don't get me wrong...the F700 has its limitations; It's really not
an indoor camera unless your house is very well lit, or you have
good window light. I hate straight on flash pictures...bounced
Tim, give this a try for it has worked for me:

Shoot with flash but at ISO 800. This will capture far more of the background. Alternatively, use what the fill in flash mode (slow sync) is for and shoot at ISO 200 or ISO 400, with flash.

On average I would say shoot with flash @ ISO 800 if you want more correct white balanced colors, or with flash @ ISO 200/400 in slow sync to capture the "ambient" or "emotion" of the environmental light + the subject.
  • Raist
 
Size and speed.

Other things I would say are excellent movie quality (for a digital camera), ISO 800/1600 does open certain posibilities, manual controls.

There is virtually no other camera I can think of with full manual controls @ this size. This is like 1/2 the volume of a Canon S45/S50.

The resolution is decent... but the thing that strikes the most right away when using one the first time, is definitively the speed. Speed of startup/shutdown/picture taking is simply amazing on this camera.
  • Raist
I am looking for a compact digital which is small, reasonably
responsive and takes decent pictures. It seems many of the reviews
of the F700 had a problem with the camera when it was priced at
$600. Now that the camera is significantly cheaper do F700 owners
recommend it more? Also does anyone have any sample people photos
since there is a real lack of these on the usual sites, ie.
Photosig.com. THanks everyone,

Tim
 
-Actually, I don't have an extensive photography related background, I'm
just a guy who makes good money and loves toys....Anyways here's a
sample pic for those interested------> straight out of the camera;
RAW to Tiff and then resized and saved in Jpeg for the web....no
processing whatsoever.
http://www.pbase.com/image/24778020/original

Something magical about it, or am I just nuts about my son ;-) ?
Spendthrift, that is one of THE VERY BEST photos, quality wise, subject wise, theme wise I have seen from an F700. The photo quality is truly incredible. So you used RAW.. wow. The details are incredible.

I guess it's not a big deal in the sense that most cameras look detail wise great when resized, but the whole color/ambience is very well captured too.
  • Raist
 
Thanks everyone, especially Raist and Spendthrift. I stil would love to see more people pictures (I'm greedy). Spendthrift's shot of his son is quite impressive, especially if it didn't require significant post-processing. Thanks all,

Tim
Other things I would say are excellent movie quality (for a digital
camera), ISO 800/1600 does open certain posibilities, manual
controls.

There is virtually no other camera I can think of with full manual
controls @ this size. This is like 1/2 the volume of a Canon
S45/S50.

The resolution is decent... but the thing that strikes the most
right away when using one the first time, is definitively the
speed. Speed of startup/shutdown/picture taking is simply amazing
on this camera.
  • Raist
I am looking for a compact digital which is small, reasonably
responsive and takes decent pictures. It seems many of the reviews
of the F700 had a problem with the camera when it was priced at
$600. Now that the camera is significantly cheaper do F700 owners
recommend it more? Also does anyone have any sample people photos
since there is a real lack of these on the usual sites, ie.
Photosig.com. THanks everyone,

Tim
 
more shots at my gallery http://FinepixF700.instantlogic.com
Tim
Other things I would say are excellent movie quality (for a digital
camera), ISO 800/1600 does open certain posibilities, manual
controls.

There is virtually no other camera I can think of with full manual
controls @ this size. This is like 1/2 the volume of a Canon
S45/S50.

The resolution is decent... but the thing that strikes the most
right away when using one the first time, is definitively the
speed. Speed of startup/shutdown/picture taking is simply amazing
on this camera.
  • Raist
I am looking for a compact digital which is small, reasonably
responsive and takes decent pictures. It seems many of the reviews
of the F700 had a problem with the camera when it was priced at
$600. Now that the camera is significantly cheaper do F700 owners
recommend it more? Also does anyone have any sample people photos
since there is a real lack of these on the usual sites, ie.
Photosig.com. THanks everyone,

Tim
 

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