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Fujifilm FinePix F30 Review
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Review
Date: Jul 24, 2006 |
Category: Beginner
Amateur
  
IMAGE QUALITY
Editor's note: We bring you a
condensed version of our review because we did
not have time to take all of our regular sample
images for this section before we had to return
the camera [read, we were having too much fun
taking pictures with it at Disney.]. Instead,
we make it up by bringing you lots of real-life
examples in our Photo Gallery and include a 320x240
and a 640x480 video here.
The Fujifilm FinePix F30 is a digital
camera targeted to point-and-shoot and beginner
amateur photographers. It has 6.3 megapixel resolution
on a 1/1.7 in. Super CCD HR image sensor, and
a 36-128mm (35 mm equivalent) 3x optical zoom
lens, with an aperture range of F2.8–F8.0.
We find the overall image quality of the Fujifilm
FinePix F30 to be excellent, with low noise from
ISO 100 up to ISO 400, and images retaining most
of the details.
The Fujifilm F30 provides 3x optical zoom, from
36mm to 108mm (35mm equivalent).
Besides Auto mode and easy-to-use Scene Modes,
the Fujifilm F30 also has "Manual" (really,
Programmed Auto) mode. There is no Program Shift
available in Manual mode.
The camera also provides exposure compensation
(no Auto Bracketing) and Custom (Manual) White
Balance. No Histogram is available. Shutter speed
ranges from 3-1/2,000 sec. Slow shutter speeds
from 1 to 15 sec. can be manually selected
The Fujifilm F30 lens allows you to focus as
close as 2 in. at wide-angle. AF locks precisely
and fast, even in low-light thanks to an effective
AF Focusing Assist Lamp. There is AF Area mode
where you can manually move the AF Frame around
on the screen to where you want it to focus.
Light metering mode is TTL 256-zones metering.
Custom (manual) White Balance is available and
guarantees true colour reproduction under artificial
light. Outdoors, under natural light, the AWB
works extremely well.
ISO Discussion
Again, we were so busy taking pictures we forgot
to take samples for comparison purposes. However,
we have enough image samples in the Photo Gallery
taken at different ISOs to give you a good idea.
You can set the ISO on the Fujifilm F30 from
100 to 3200. Images at ISO 100 to 400 are clean
and virtually noise-free. Noise starts to be noticeable
at ISO 800. ISO 1600 can sometimes still be usable
especially in regular-sized 4x6 ini. prints. At
ISO 3200, the presence of noise takes the form
of coloured splotches.
ISO 3200 is usually available only on digital
SLRs, so its availability here on a compact digital
camera merit some comments. Using a high ISO allows
the camera to use a fast shutter speed -- hopefully
fast enough -- to reduce or eliminate blurring
caused by camera shake and/or subject motion.
To that effect, a new shooting mode called "Anti-Blur"
or "Picture Stabilization" is introduced
on the Mode Dial. Note that this "stabilization"
does not involve stabilizing the lens or image
sensor (the best type of image stabilization)
but is a scene mode that favours a fast shutter
speed and high ISO.
As our image samples show, image quality at ISO
1600 and 3200 is not bad at all if you restrict
yourself to web display or regular sized 4x6 in.
prints. And, that would satisfy most point-and-shoot
photographers, and a lot of more advanced ones,
too, who use a P&S camera for casual family
shots. As expected, the noise reduction removes
details at these high ISOs. There is no extra
wait time for the noise reduction to work.
ISO 100 [we lose the ISO 80 of the FinePix 10]
to 400 are so clean that I can safely advise setting
the camera's sensitivity to the "Auto 400"
setting for outdoors shooting, and to the "Auto
1600" setting for indoors shooting.
A new flash system, called i-Flash, can be used
even in tandem with the high ISO settings. Instead
of resulting in washed-out images (too much flash,
too high ISO), i-Flash compensates with lower
flash intensity when using high ISOs.
| Chromatic
Aberrations |
 |
CA is minimal in everyday shots. In the high
contrast shot above, the area delimited by the
red square at top left, and reproduced at 100%
crop at bottom right, shows very slight purple
fringing.
The Fujifilm F30 allows the use of a long shutter
speed of up to 15 sec. but only in Night scene
mode (and when Long Exposure has been set ON in
SETUP). This allows us to take some very nice
night shots.
I don't usually shoot videos but thought it would
be interesting to test the low-light video capability
of the F30. Here is a short extract from the Festival
of Lights Parade at The Magic Kingdom. The clip
is filmed at 320x240 @ 30fps and is approx. 10
sec. in length (warning: file size is huge at
6.5MB).
Here is another movie from the Disney Polynesian
Luau.The clip is filmed at 640x480 @ 30fps and
is approx. 10 sec. in length (warning: file size
is huge at 11.4MB).
Overall, excellent image quality for a 6.3MP
digital camera: sharp pictures, very good image
detail, vibrant colours, well-exposed -- now with
even better low-light capability.
The pictures in the Fujifilm FinePix F30 Photo
Gallery page provide a good sample of what
the camera is capable of. I have provided samples
at 800x600 pixels (compressed to Quality 60/100
in Photoshop Elements) as well as the original
2848×2136 pixels version.
You can safely assume that most macro shots
and slow shutter speed shots required the use
of a tripod. Any image that is adjusted for levels
in Photoshop has "_adjusted" appended
to the file name.
I have defaulted the image size to 800x600 pixels.
For those who have their monitor resolution set
to 1024x728 pixels, everything should snugly fit
and you should not have to scroll to see the whole
image. If your monitor is set to 800x600 pixels
resolution, start the slide show and then scroll
to the right to position the image within your
screen width. Then, press F11 (if you are using
Internet Explorer) to switch to full screen mode,
and the image should fill your screen nicely.
Press F11 again at any time to switch your monitor
display back to normal mode.
To return to this page from the Photo Gallery,
click on the animated graphics of the camera.
Please open and download the original size version
only if you need to and only once
to your hard drive -- and save me some precious
bandwidth. Thanks!
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