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My eternal quest for the 'perfect' second smaller point and shoot camera to compliment my DSLR continued in the last few weeks with an examination of the Fujifilm Finepix F30.
My requirements for a back up point and shoot are fairly simple (although my standards are pretty high). Here's my wish list:
At a first glance the Fujifilm Finepix F30 seems to have all of these bases covered (at least on a specifications level) but how did it perform?
I've been a user of the award winning Finepix F10 for the past year - so was keen to try the F30 out for myself.
The Finepix F30 is definitely similar to the F10 (and F11) in terms of design. It's received a few design tweaks (it's now has a two tone titanium and aluminium casing and a more rounded design) but largely it's very similar to the F10 at a first glance. The F30 is nice to look at but definitely not in the league of some of Canon's IXUS range in terms of sleekness. I don't hate it, but I'm not expecting anyone to stop me in the street and ask me where I got such a cool looking camera.
The camera is definitely small enough to slip into a pocket, feels solid enough and fits comfortably into the hand - next to my DSLR it's tiny.
The LCD screen (2.5 inches) is bright and easy to see. It has a function that alters it's brightness in different lighting conditions which is handy. You'll want this of course because the F30 doesn't have a viewfinder and you'll need the LCD for framing your shots.
Turning the camera on reveals that the F30 has a new menu system to the F10 (something it needed as I found the previous menu system was not overly intuitive and quite clunky to get around). Start up was reasonably quick and setting the camera up was a breeze.
Shooting Modes - The F30 has even more shooting modes than the F10 (the normal ones plus Snow, Beach, Underwater, Museum and Party) and a good range of flash modes including a handy 'Natural + Flash' mode which takes two shots at a time with one using the flash and the other using available light (no flash). I found this mode to be very handy in those in between times when you're not sure whether a flash is right or not (and when you don't want to make your subject pose twice).
Manual Control - My desire for a full manual mode isn't met with the F30, however there is Shutter and Aperture Priority modes (something not on he F10) which is definately a step in the right direction. Add to that three metering options (multi, average and spot) and eight white balance modes it's actually a camera which puts some real creative control in the hands of the photographer (although I'd say that the menu mode still takes a while to get used to and that some of the modes are not exactly at the finger tips of the photographer).
Battery life is promoted as lasting for 580 shots per charge (I'm up over this now and still haven't had to recharge).
Connectivity - Gone is the annoying adaptor for charging and transferring images to a computer that was in the F10. Instead the F30 has fairly standard connectivity via USB 2.0, video out and DC port for charging.
Shutter lag is not an issue on the F30 (as with most modern digital cameras).
Movie mode is quite good also with continuous recording of video and sound at 640 x 380 at 30 frames per second.
Flash - The in built flash is powerful yet when it needs to be it's quite subtle - I'd even go so far as to call it smart.
Continuous Shooting Mode - there are 3 continuous shooting modes on the F30 (top 3 (which takes 3 shots as you hold the shutter), final 3 (which lets you hold the shutter as long as you like and then records the last three shots taken) and 'long period' (which takes longer brackets of shots). Final 3 and Top 3 shoot at 2.3 frames per second but long period mode only shoots at 0.5 frames per second (too slow to be much use).
Outdoors in brighter conditions the F30 is not quite as impressive as it is in low light, but in comparison to others in it's class it's still very very good. Images were crisp, colours were accurate in most cases (I thought reds were sometimes a little too red) and the contrast in shots was quite good. I do find myself touching up the outdoor shots that I take a little in Photoshop as the images come out a touch lifeless but I've done this with most point and shoot cameras previously.
I have recommended the Fujifilm Finepix F30 many to numerous friends and family since getting my hands on one and after a few weeks with it ended up getting one for myself as my secondary camera - it's the best compact point and shoot digital camera that I've come across.
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Posted by Darren in our Reviews category on October 10, 2006
I'm disappointed with the Fuji F30. Everyone bills it as the "best low light camera" but its not.
We do lots of shots of nightclubs and bands. We need maximum light into the shot in minimum time. You'd think the Fuji sensor would do it, but the lens is too small.
I've had two Olympus cameras previously and they left the Fuji F30 for dead. The Olympus C-2040 was the best low-light camera I have ever used. The Olympus C-4000 was okay too. I haven't found a digital SLR or compact which can match them. The F30 tries hard, and isn't terrible, but isn't as good as the Olympus.
The F-30 blurs too much (even on the manual settings), can be grainy, and the red-eye reduction doesn't cut the red-eye much.