FujiFilm FinePix F30 Preview

The Fujifilm FinePix F30 6.3MP Digital Camera is unique in point-and-shoot digital cameras in offering  ISO speeds as high as 3200, a speed normally found only on Digital SLRs. High ISO speeds and physically small pixels normally result in unacceptable noise levels. Fuji claim that their sensor technology allows such high speeds even with small pixels, and earlier models (such as the Fujifilm F10), have certainly showed lower than expected noise levels at ISO speeds as high as 1600.

• Download Rebate Form (.pdf file)
[Note that there is also a $50 on the FinePix V10]

The FinePix F30 may well appeal to the "serious" photographer as a small [3.6" x 2.2" x 1.1"] , light, controllable camera with low light capability. It has aperture priority and shutter priority modes (as well as auto), which give the user some control, and the ISO can be set from 100 to an amazing 3200.

Now the laws of physics won't let you get something for nothing, so a digicam with small pixels and an effective ISO setting of 3200 is not going to produce perfect noise free images. Even the DLSRs that offer ISO 3200 won't do that! However by clever sensor design and a good deal of in-camera digital noise reduction, Fuji seem to have done significantly better than most small digicam manufacturers.

Top view: Power on/off, mode selection dial and shutter release

Based on my review of some published images from the F30 it looks like Fuji have succeeded in bettering the results obtained by the previous FinePix F10, which itself was praised for the quality of its high ISO images (at least up to ISO 800). If I can believe what I've seen, the F30 seems to be about a stop better in terms of image quality, so at ISO 800 the images are similar to ISO 400 images on the F10 - and much better than ISO 800 images form any other small digicam. ISO 1600 is pretty usable, but ISO 3200 images do suffer from artifacts due to the amount of processing required to keep the noise low. They'd probably be OK for small prints and you have to remember that no other small digicam offers ISO 3200 - in fact not all DSLRs do!

Bottom View: Tripod socket, speaker and battery compartment

While the F30 does have shuter speeds from 15s to 1/2000s, aperture priority, shutter priority, exposure compensation and ISO settings from 100-3200, not all combinations are available in all exposure modes. Digicam makers seem to love to automate everything and make their cameras as "idiot proof" as possible, which tends to be frustrating for more advanced shooters. Getting the settings you want (especially for low light work) may take a bit of button pushing and mode switching (and refering to the manual...), but you'll eventually usually be able to get the settings you want - which is more than can be said for most digicams. Just don't expect it to work like a DSLR.

2.5-inch (230,000 pixel) LCD monitor

The F30 has a large, 2.5-inch (230,000 pixel). The LCD has an auto brightness feature and an anti-glare, low reflection CV (Clear View) screen. This is good because the F30 doesn't have an optical viewfinder so the LCD must be used for framing the shot as well as reviewing it.

The FinePix F30 has a reasonably fast (by consumer digicam standards) start-up time of 1.4 seconds, a shooting interval of 1.5 seconds, and a shutter release time lag of 0.01 seconds. Fuji have incorporated the second generation of their "Real Photo Technology" which is a combination of Fujifilm's 6th generation Super CCD sensor, its proprietary RP Processor II, and a high quality Fujinon lens (6 elements in 5 groups with 2 aspherical elements).

Front view: Lens extended

The camera's 3.0x optical zoom lens has a focal range of 8-24mm (equivalent to 36-108mm on a 35mm camera), with an aperture of f2.8 at the short end and f5.0 at the long end of the range. This can be combined with a 6.2x digital zoom, giving a 18.6x total zoom range (though "digital zoom" is really just cropping the image!).

Fujifilm have added a "Picture Stabilization" mode dial setting to the F30. However this is not an optical image stabilization system. It's a mode which tries to adjust the ISO setting (from ISO 100 to ISO 3200) to give a shutter speed fast enough to eliminate blur due to camera shake.

The F30 has Fujifilm's i-Flash technology. The flash's intensity is based on a variety of factors, such as subject position in the frame, subject size, ambient light, and backlight intensity.

Besides the xD card, the F30 has 10 MB of built-in storage. It's not a lot (3 images at the highest resolution and image quality) but can be useful for shooting in lower resolution modes (78 images at 640x480 or 16 images at 1600x1200)

Additional features

• 30 fps movie recording (640x480) with mono sound
• One-touch access to frequently used settings (image size, ISO sensitivity, and FinePix color mode)
• Continuous shooting mode (2.2 frames/sec., up to 3 frames or 0.7 frames/sec until memory card fills)
• USB interface for PC connectivity
• Video output  (NTSC/PAL)
• FinePix Viewer software
• PictBridge compatibility
• xD-Picture card compatible slot.

The FinePix F30 is powered by an included NP-95 rechargeable battery and can take approximately 500 pictures on a single battery charge.

Included with the FujiFilm FinePix F30 are the following items:

• NP-95 rechargeable battery
• AC-5VW power adapter
• hand strap
• USB cable
• A/V cable
• FinePix Viewer CD-ROM.

Fujifilm FinePix F30 Specifications

• Fuji FinePix F30 - $299.95 (after Rebate)

• Download Rebate Form (.pdf file)
[Note that there is also a $50 on the FinePix V10]

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