250 | Review FinePix F100fd Fujifilm

Fujifilm FinePix F100fd

180 We put the new Fujifilm FinePix F series through its paces

expect to pay

megapixels

Batteries

The NP-50 Li-ion battery clips tidily in the base of the camera and with well over 150 shots taken (with and without flash) it remained still on a full bar

memory card

The card slot is located tidily next to the battery under the slide release on the bottom of the camera, and will take SD, SDHC and XD cards
ujifilms new compact offering combines the companys eighth-generation sensor and 5x wide-angle Fujinon lens with some of the most advanced technologies available in a compact camera. Fujifilms predecessor, the F50fd, was a fantastic camera with some great features, but does the F100fd live up to it? Out of the box, this camera is very easy to set up, the visual difference from the F50fd is already clear, with no option wheel on the back. The camera is nicely designed, with a sleek, metallic, solid-weighted feel; even the side plates are metallic, down to the fine detail of the wrist strap and connection covers. The screen is a great size and, with no viewfinder, this is an important piece of the camera, whether it be creating compositions, tweaking all the capture settings or even retouching photos. The function buttons have been placed on the right-hand side of the screen, so as you hold the camera to take shots, your fingers have space to sit clear of the buttons. The wide-angle lens has a superb field of view, it is perfect in nearly all situations, be it trying to fit all your friends into a picture or getting a beautiful, wide landscape shot. The cameras setup is almost a bit clunky; Fujifilm seem to have made some very simple control flaws here. Once you start to use the camera and discover its huge array of functions, though, you have already adapted to its unique control system. Its hard to fault the actual functions on the camera, as they are very advanced and create very impressive results. The automatic settings are vast and specific, but also very quick to change if needed. Dont make the mistake of buying this camera without buying an additional memory card. The card starts setup on the 12 megapixel option, giving you a mere 11 photos at this setting. Switching down the pixel capture allows more images to play with, and still give you great quality shots at a reasonable size.

test shot

Wide landscape shots are a perfect excuse to show off the F100fds superb image quality.
If you shoot up to capacity on the 57MB internal memory, then insert a memory card to continue, the previous images will no longer be displayed in the image gallery. This proved annoying, so shooting either entirely on the internal memory or on a card is a must if you want to review them all on the move. There is a huge range of automatic settings for all kinds of situations from snow to sunsets. The wheel dial on the back of the camera acts as a D-pad and a toggle wheel for images and settings, which is a really nice touch. Having the wheel on the back enables the camera to have two clicks and a turn to reach any setting on the camera. The anti-shake function works very well and is especially good when using the camera over a crowd, full-stretch, looking through the LCD screen. The stabilisation of images taken in windy conditions were very impressive too. The newly developed Face Detection 3.0 is simply incredible for picking out multiple faces; it seems to pick out faces at any angle almost instantly. Once it

Menu screens

Zoom LCD Screen

Mode Screen

Playback Menu

Playback button

Image Viewer Menu Set-Up Menu
navigating your on-screen options
The menu system is pretty straightforward, with helpful prompts if you do find yourself pressing the wrong buttons. The wheel on the back is perfect for controlling the menu systems

50 Digital Camera Buyer

Camera specs
SRP: 250 | Expect to pay: 180 Website: www.fujifilm.co.uk
Megapixels 12 Max resolution 4,000 x 3,000 Lens data f3.3-5.1 wide (28-140mm) Zoom 5x opt, 8.2x dig Focus/Macro 45cm inf/5-80cm Shutter speeds 8-1/1,500sec ISO sensitivity A, 400, 800, 1600, 3200 Exposure modes Auto, M, 17 Scene etering options TTL 256-zone metering M Flash modes FF, SF, SS A, Connectivity USB, AV, IR Weight 170g (excl. memory card and batteries) Dimensions 98 x 59 x 23mm Batteries Lithium-ion Storage 57MB int, SDHC, SD, XD LCD 2.7 inches

build design

The build design is solid, sleek and weighty, so it feels like a professional piece of kit, and everything is wellproportioned in terms of the size of the camera

Connections

Behind the metal panel on the right side of the camera is a USB port for both A/V and PC connectivity. IR connectivity is also available within the cameras playback menu
The Fujinon 5x optical zoom wideangle lens offers a focal length of 28-140mm, perfect for getting everything into your landscape photography shots

D-pad control

The D-pad works as both button pad and scroll wheel, with a select button in the centre. The D-pad buttons operate the flash, macro, self-timer and anti-shake capture shortcuts

What we like

The portrait enhancer is worth shouting about, with its beautiful skin tones
has picked them out, the camera will accessible with the navigation wheel. apply optimum focus and exposure The images can be more personally for each face, creating truly noticeable viewed, and the camera provides controls l ujifilm F results. The portrait enhancer is also to remove red-eye post-shot and crop Finepix F100FD worth shouting about, with its beautiful images. One function on the camera that l Video out cable smooth skin tones thanks to the cameras l USB cable did appeal to us was the voice memo l Software-CD-ROM ultra-high sensitivity of ISO 12800. feature that allows you to add a 30-second l Instructions The zoom toggle is neat and easy to audio clip onto each image. This can be a use quickly while shooting, noise can great feature if you are out taking shots build up in full zoom, but the camera can still take and need to know what they are to reference them a great image at full zoom. Poor lighting can cause later, as the last thing you want slowing you down issues, as the flash isnt as effective as youd hope. while taking photos is having to stop and write things This camera has an amazing ability to pick up down all the time. text incredibly clearly, even without the specific text This camera is a fine example of style and power function activated. Shots can be incredibly detailed combining to create something extraordinary. The from this camera shooting on the maximum output, F100fd is not a huge step away from its predecessor, and when you change in the macro setting, things but has a taken a clear step forward in terms of just get better. The macro shots this camera can pick technology and build. The camera, for me, was up in good light are phenomenal. unfortunately let down by some small button The image viewer has a lovely connection with the features, but its hard to fault this camera for sheer zoom, allowing up to 100 images with magnification quality of images. In short, Fujifilms F100fd is a great on rollover on the screen. All images are very quickly offering for the compact camera market.

uge variety of H automatic modes Nice size LCD screen Creates beautiful vivid colours Great image stabilisation

What we dont like

in the box
uttons can be clunky and B difficult to manipulate lash can be disappointing F

Overall score

Digital Camera Buyer 51

Verdict hhhhh

features ease of use hhhhh quality of results hhhhh value for money hhhhh
Combining all the style and ease of use you expect in a compact, with features that really are truly exceptional