Fuji FinePix F30 Review - "One Fine Point n' Shoot"

So I shoot 99% of my work with pro SLR cameras. If I need a picture of it, I want nothing less that flawless quality - naturally reaching for the only proper tool for the job. But a MkII with a 24-70L tends to frighten people and quickly draws attention from private security. It's just not always practical.

Until recently I'd limped along with an old 2MP Nikon 2100 digital. It did the job. Well, sort of. Not really. I've really never been happy with a point and shoot anything. I guess I'm just picky.

Recently, a small compact point and shoot has become a necessity - my wife and I are expecting our first child in the next few weeks. I was met with that "don't even think about it" look as I pondered how much gear I'd lug into the delivery room. We'd like to grab the fun shots of baby and life as it happens. This just isn't possible when you must unload 10 lbs of camera gear to snap one quick "awwwe, how cuuute" moment.

Every now and then I'll dig around dpreview.com just to see what's out there. I'm asked by people all the time if the latest model XYZ chimp n' shoot is any good, and from what I've seen over the past few years, none of them are any good. But maybe I'm just pickey. That's where I'm coming from anyway...

I'd set my mind on the Fuji FinePix F10. DPR has a great full review on it - I really liked the example images and figured it would fit the bill. I'd waited until near the baby's due date to order. Just as it came up, I suddenly discovered I could no longer find one. It's like every store in the country just stopped selling them. There was an F11 for a short while, but even it didn't last long.

As I searched B&H Photo, Adorama, and the like - I discovered a new listing - the FinePix F30 with a note "Expected in Stock - May 2006". Digging the net turned up exactly nothing - except wonderful talk that it's got the newest advancement in digital camera sensor technology - the "Super CCD" (Where DO they come up with these names? What ever will they name the next big advancement? "The Even More SuperEr CCD"?). It also boasted the first digital point and shoot sporting an ISO 3200 setting. Useable? Who knows, but it was certainly advertised.

So I ordered it. B&H was out of stock (shame on them!), so I had to order from Adorama, my close second choice. Everyone else had it priced between $399 and $449. But Adorama - bless them - had it for $329 plus a $50 mail in rebate. (Don't even get me started on the "mail in" rebate scam - that's another post for another day).

ENTER: The FujiFilm FinePix F30



The short answer:
This camera rocks. It's no MkII. The files look awful compared to an EOS 10D or a Digital Rebel - but for a camera not much larger than a cell phone, sporting a lens the size of a pencil eraser - it blew my socks off. Finally, a digital point and shoot I can live with.



The slightly longer answer:
The camera is small. I suppose that's about standard these days, but it really is "pocket size". Very smooth around the sides. The buttons and build quality seem very good. Some of these cheap-o digicams look like they fell out of a gumball machine, but this thing seems solid built. The LCD is very high res, and shows wonderful image detail - it'll do for chimping any day.

I'll skip the geek specs here. If you've just got to know how many multi zones metered by the TTL system, here is the Fuji website. Enjoy. Suffice to say it's 6.3 MegaPixels which is more than you'll ever need printing 4x6's of fluffy the cat or Aunt Martha's 83rd birthday.
http://www.fujifilm.com/products/digital/lineup/f30/index.html

The actual operation is what counts. About anything these days can put out a wonderful 5x7 image - it's just a question of how much hassle it will involve. The F30 is very low on the hassle factor.



- Settings are remembered between power on/off and between shooting modes. The modes are intuitive and well grouped. The navigation seemed very straight forward, with nothing buried any more than 2 levels from the initial push button menu.

- Shutter delay, generally the number one deal breaker on these sort of cameras is extremely short on the F30. I'd say very near instant. Give the shutter a half press to grab focus and the shutter is in effect instant beyond that.

- If "fast" is required - they've got a mode for that. "High Speed Shooting" - drives the focus system faster than normal at the expense of faster battery drain, but I find the focus darn quick even in the normal mode.

- Speaking of battery - finally - a P&S battery that can hang long enough to shoot about anything. They brag 500 shots. In my testing, from full charge shooting flash, testing movie mode, going through all the menus, etc (a lot of time with LCD on without actually shooting) - I'd guess you'll get pretty close to that. A firm 300 images "real world" including flash and review is probably perfectly reasonable.

- The down side - the industry just refuses to settle on a standard battery charging system for anything. You've got to plug the charger and it's dual cords into the actual camera to charge it. It's worse than a cell phone and a horrible design. It does get the job done, the plugs are smooth operating, but there still must be a better way. Designer note: Just charge me an extra $10 and include a stand-alone charger where I can just plug in the battery.

- Flash: Normally I'm shooting dual off-camera flashes in my pro work and these little micro flashes mounted a half inch from the camera lens create about the worst light pattern possible - but with something this small, options are limited. That said, the actual metering of the flash I found *very* accurate. Shooting close ups of faces in dark rooms were not blown out, and still tried to drag the shutter just enough to leave some background lighting. The flash is about the best as could be expected. I don't know the guide number, but it's powerful enough for standard P&S in an average size room.



- "Auto Mode" works well. My wife will love it. Without it, she'd never actually use the camera. Auto shooters will be quite happy.

- "Manual Mode" - this is where we get into "must have" features for me and likely other pro photographers. We like to set things ourselves. This thing has it all. Well, almost. You cannot set true manual and use a light meter. It is Av or Tv only, but that's close enough. No histogram from what I could find. (Fuji: WHY???) It does have lots of white balance settings, a spot meter, which is more than can be said for the Canon 20D, custom W/B, defined ISO and so on. My largest complaint however: When shooting in Av mode, for some reason, it won't let you drop the shutter speed lower than 1/4 second. You instead have to go into "Night Scene" mode which is basically full auto - there it'll drop to 3 seconds, but with no manual control. I dunno. It'll bug me though.

- There is no "peep hole", it's compose ala' chimp style only. Suppose that's standard these days. (Have I been living in a cave for the past 3 years?). It works. Display is large and bright. Should be fine in sunlight. Non reflective coating works.

- ISO 3200. Yep. It's got it. And for what it's worth, I'm really impressed with it. It'll still produce a nice 4x6. I think I'd prefer it's 3200 and natural light then to blast the subject with flash at 400, at least when running smaller size prints.

- Video mode. This really surprised me. I almost skipped the feature all together. My wife actually discovered it and began filming me. I'm like "Dear, it's a point and shoot camera, not a camcorder - the video is a gimmik - you may as well just skip that mode". Okay, that wasn't the first time I've been wrong, nor will it be the last. The video on this camera AMAZED me. The video may not pan quite as smooth as it isn't interlaced - rather 30 fps progressive. But the quality is awesome.

Video is 30 fps 640x480. A bit smaller than NTSC TV standard, but usable. I imported a test clip into Adobe Premiere Pro 1.5 and ran it on my editing monitor - I was very much impressed. In a pinch, this video rocks. If you need to film short clips for the web, it just doesn't get any easier. Sound is mono, but super clean. And maybe "short" isn't the right word. There is no limit to run time except the size of your memory card. My 512MB xD card clean formatted gives me a hair under 7.5 minutes of video. Given the quality, that is awesome. I'd have paid the extra $20 to order the 1GB xD card had I known the video quality so I could have had an even 15 minutes of record capacity. (Anyone wanting to purchase a 512MB xD card - email me). ;-)



- xD Card: Speaking of xD cards - those things are super small! I thought CF was small, then SD came out - these xD cards are small than a quarter! See for yourself. Small and light, but don't drop one in the grass or Aunt Martha's 83rd birthday pictures will be lost forever.

Overall:
I'd highly recommend this camera to anyone needing a P&S. There are certainly higher quality images from higher quality cameras, but you'll not find anything this small sliding in sub $300 for some time.

See For Yourself:
What's a review without demo images? Okay. You got it. This is a quick scene I set up. It's lit with a room tungsten light, plus another spot lamp with a tungsten bulb. White balance was set to.... you guessed it. Tungsten. (Auto W/B is pretty darn accurate too, btw). Camera was shot from a tripod. The Care Bear was a gift for baby-to-be, it's not mine. I have no fascination with Care Bears. I'm perfectly normal. (The duck and bubbles belong to the kid also).

Here's a thumb size of the scene. Click the links below to open the actual full size images from the camera.



Full res images:

ISO 100
ISO 400
ISO 800
ISO 1600
ISO 3200


Video. You've gotta check this video. It's a 40 second clip, straight from camera, 44mb download. The narration is just me talking while holding and pointing the camera speaking in normal voice.

40sec, 44mb, AVI Video Download


NOTE: Anyone interesting in reproducing this article - I'd prefer to post a link direct to this blog post, but if portions of this review are reproduced on the web, please do me a favor and post a link direct back to "www.kevinkingphoto.com". And if you could just drop me an email about it, I'd really appreciate it. Cool? Thanks!