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Fujifilm FinePix F470 Review
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Review Date: May
5, 2006 |
HANDLING & FEEL
The Fujifilm FinePix F470 is light and
ultra-compact, and very nicely finished in an
aluminum body. It can be easily carried in a jeans
pocket or fashion purse. It comes with 16MB of
Internal Memory and uses the xD-Picture Card.
A slightly raised battery compartment serves
as a grip [use of the wrist strap is highly recommended].
When retracted, the lens is flush with the body.
Startup is fast at less than 2 sec.. In bright
situations, shot to shot times are fast at less
than 1 sec. In low-light or with low contrast
subjects, AF is not particularly fast and will
hunt and can take as long as 1-2 sec. before the
shutter will fire. If you prefocus, there is no
practical shutter lag.
| STYLE |
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Colours: aluminum finish with chrome
accents |
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Looks: sleek, stylish |
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| FEEL |
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Comfortable to hold and operate but
feels "small" |
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Controls are on the tiny side |
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| DIMENSIONS &
WEIGHT |
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Ultra Compact: fits in a jeans pocket
or small fashion purse |
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Dimensions: 91.9W x 58.1H x 19.7D
mm /
3.6W x 2.3H x 0.8D in. |
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Weight: 122g / 4.3 oz. |
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Takes 1 rechargeable Li-ion battery
NP-40N 3.6V 730mAh |
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| SPEED OF OPERATION |
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Startup with lens extending about
1.8 cm (0.6 in.) and LCD turning on
in less than 2 sec. |
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Shot to shot time less than 1 sec.
in bright situations |
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AF takes 1-2 sec.; if you prefocus,
there is no practical shutter lag |
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Included in the box is a rechargeable Li-ion
battery that can take about 200 shots with LCD
on (CIPA standard) on a fresh charge and a Battery
Charger BC-40 that will recharge a new battery
in approx. 90 min. The Battery Charger comes with
a power cord.
The Terminal compartment is on the right side
of the camera (viewed from the back), which I
always find to be a somewhat inconvenient place.
The rubber Terminal Cover does not rotate out
of the way completely; it's a minor irritation
to plug-in the USB cable.
The flash is average and physically placed in
the middle, so your fingers do not get in the
way. You can set the flash to AUTO, Red-eye reduction,
Forced flash, Off, Slow Synchro, or Red-eye reduction
+ Slow Synchro.
Controls
The top of the camera has the Power ON/OFF button
and the shutter release button with the Mode switch
around it.
The Mode switch has AUTO, SP (Scene Position
- 10 scene modes + "Manual" mode), and
Movie. All other functions must be accessed through
the MENU button on the back of the camera.
You can record movies with monaural sound (until
the memory card is full) at either 640 x 480 or
320x240 pixels at 30fps. You can preset the zoom
before -- but cannot zoom during -- movie recording.
| Video Storage Capacity |
640x480 |
320x240 |
| Internal Memory (16MB) |
17s |
27s |
| 32MB |
34s |
55s |
| 64MB |
70s |
110s |
| 128MB |
140s |
221s |
| 256MB |
280s |
7.4m |
| 512MB |
9.3m
|
14.7m |
| 1GB |
18.7m |
29.6m |
| FUNCTIONS ACCESSIBLE
BY CONTROL BUTTONS (clockwise starting from
the Zoom Lever) |
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Zoom Lever: 2 sec. to go from wide-angle
to telephoto. I counted 5-6 steps. |
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Playback button; camera returns immediately
to Shooting mode when you half press
the shutter button |
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Photo mode (F) button:
Image Quality, ISO, Color effects |
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4 Way Arrows: LCD Bright, Flash (AUTO,
Red-eye reduction, Forced flash, Off,
Slow Synchro, or Red-eye reduction +
Slow Synchro), Self-timer (10 sec.,
2 sec.), Macro |
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MENU/OK |
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DISP/BACK (No info, Info, Framing
guideline) |
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| LCD BRIGHT |
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Press the UP ARROW key to brighten
the LCD
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Slightly useful in low-light (manual
"gain-up")
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| CONTINUOUS SHOOTING |
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In 6M F mode, the camera records 5
successive images at a max. of 1.9fps. |
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The drive mode resets to Single when
the camera is turned off and on again. |
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| MANUAL SCENE MODE |
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"Manual" is accessed thru
SP on the Mode switch |
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Recommend you default SP to Manual
so it is immediately available when
you rotate the Mode switch to SP |
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Exposure Compensation and WB are then
available |
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| EXPOSURE COMPENSATION |
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Exposure compensation is only available
in Manual mode |
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Once set, the Exposure Compensation
Indicator stays until it is reset to
"0"; the value is however
not displayed on screen, only a +/-
indicator. |
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Range: -2 EV to +2 EV (13 steps in
1/3 EV increments) |
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The screen brightness will [slightly]
increase or decrease to reflect the
value you use |
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Note: the exposure compensation value
selected is retained even when the camera
is turned off (so remember to reset
to "0" after using it or the
next time you turn the camera on, your
shots may be over- or under-exposed.) |
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At the bottom of the camera is the plastic tripod
mount, the Battery/Card Compartment which has
a latch to keep the battery from accidentally
falling. You won't be able to change battery or
card when the camera is on a tripod.
LCD & Menus
There is no optical viewfinder but an extra large
2.5 in. LCD monitor with an average 115,000 pixels
resolution. The LCD has a fast enough refresh
rate for a smooth display in good light and in
low light. The LCD monitor's brightness can be
adjusted in MENU/SETUP. The LCD gains up very
slightly in low-light but not in extreme low-light,
even with the use of LCD BRIGHT.
There is no AF-assist Illuminator and so in low-light,
auto focusing will hunt to lock focus.
The MENU button gives access to Continuous Shooting
and Setup in AUTO mode; in Manual scene mode,
you can in addition access Exposure Compensation
and WB.
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MENU (SP)
- Scene = Manual
- Exposure Compensation
- WB
- Continuous
- SETUP
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SCENE 1 of 2
- Portrait
- Landscape
- Sport
- Night
- Beach & Snow
- Sunset
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SCENE 1 of 2
- Museum
- Party
- Flower Close-Up
- Text
- Manual
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WB 1 of 2
- AUTO
- Fine
- Shade
- Flourescent Light 1
- Flourescent Light 2
- Flourescent Light 3
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WB 2 of 2
- Tungsten
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SETUP 1 of 3
- Image Display
- Shutter Volume
- Beep Volume
- Playback Volume
- Frame No. (Cont., Renew)
- LCD Brightness
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SETUP 2 of 3
- Digital Zoom
- Auto Power Off (5m, 2m, Off)
- LCD Power Save
- Format
- Date/Time
- Time Difference
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SETUP 3 of 3
- Language
- USB Mode
- Video System (NTSC, PAL)
- Reset
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LANGUAGE 1 of 2
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LANGUAGE 2 of 2
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PHOTO MODE: IMAGE QUALITY
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PHOTO MODE: ISO
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PHOTO MODE: COLOR EFFECTS
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AUTO MODE
- Battery Indicator, Flash OFF, Macro ON,
Self-timer 2 sec., Continuous ON, Image
Quality = 6M Fine, Space for 5 shots left,
ISO 64, Color Effect = Chrome, AF Warning,
Camera Shake Warning, LCD BRIGHT, Internal
Memory used
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MANUAL MODE
- Battery Indicator, Flash OFF, Continuous
ON, Macro ON, Self-timer 2 sec., Exposure
Compensation dialed in, WB = FL 3, Image
Quality = 6M Fine, Space for 5 shots left,
ISO 64, Color Effect = Chrome, AF Warning,
Camera Shake Warning, LCD BRIGHT, Internal
Memory used
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The Fujifilm FinePix F470 is ultra-compact,
easy to carry in your jeans pocket or even a shirt
pocket, looks stylishly elegant, with solid construction.
Controls are on the small side so those with large
hands and fingers should try it out before purchasing,
but they are intuitive to use and operate. It's
a great take-anywhere digital camera for the point-and-shoot
photographer in your family. For mostly sunny
and bright conditions; must use flash in low-light.
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