Fujifilm FinePix F10

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CNET editors' rating: 3.5 stars Very good
Detailed editors' rating

Average user rating: 4.0 stars out of 42 reviews
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Product summary

The good: Usable ISO 800 and ISO 1,600 sensitivities; formidable battery life; versatile 2.5-inch LCD.

The bad The bad: Limited manual controls; sparse scene-preset options; fringing problems in photos.

The bottom line: This compact camera's versatile 2.5-inch LCD, usable high-ISO photos, and shoot-all-day battery are offset by a few image-quality issues.

Specifications: Digital camera type: Compact; Resolution: 6.3 megapixels; Optical zoom: 3 x; See full specs

CNET editors' review

Reviewed by: David D. Busch
Edited by: Lori Grunin
Reviewed on: 05/10/2005
Released on: 04/15/2005

Usable high-ISO sensitivities, good photo quality, and a brawny battery highlight the appeal of the 6-megapixel Fujifilm FinePix F10. It's a compact point-and-shoot package that includes a 3X optical zoom and a 2.5-inch LCD that's usable under a variety of difficult lighting conditions. Photo enthusiasts might be disappointed by the lack of manual controls for exposure and focus and by the image quality, which is long on latitude but suffers from fringing that pulls it up short. Snapshooters who like lots of scene modes will find only five to choose from, but fans of this camera's special features will find its shortcomings merely minor annoyances.

LCDs aren't just for review anymore. The Fujifilm FinePix F10's huge 2.5-inch display will make you wonder why you ever put up with peering through your last point-and-shoot's tiny optical porthole. You can easily compose shots on the full LCD, whether you're holding this compact's 7.1-ounce, 3.6-by-2.3-by-1.1-inch aluminum body a few inches away or at arm's length. The LCD's 60fps refresh rate resists ghost images, is readable under direct illumination, gains up under dim light for enhanced viewing of murky scenes, and gets a temporary brightness boost when you press up on the four-way cursor pad. Or you can opt to compose using a 1.5-inch (diagonal) view, with thumbnails of your last three shots running down the left side of the live display.

A two-handed grip is your best bet if you want to keep one finger poised over the shutter release mounted on top of the camera while thumbing the sensitive zoom rocker on the back panel. On top, this camera's minimalist controls include a (nonilluminated) power button and a shutter button concentric with a dial that selects Auto, Manual, or Motion Picture mode or one of a handful of scene modes.

The equally clean back panel is dominated by the LCD, which is flanked by a zoom rocker, a display/info button, picture-review and function keys, and a four-way cursor pad with a central Menu/OK button. You press up on the pad to access the LCD brightness control or to delete the currently displayed photo. Press left to enter Macro mode, right to set flash options, or down to activate the self-timer.

All other functions, including exposure-compensation settings (plus or minus 2EV in 1/3EV increments), are available from the screens that pop up when the function or menu buttons are pressed. These include white-balance settings; your choice of 64-segment multipoint evaluative, spot, or average metering; and continuous autofocus or center or multipoint single autofocus.

Like a scoop of vanilla ice cream with M&Ms swirled in, this Fujifilm FinePix F10 is an odd mixture of humdrum features and quirky fun. The mundane includes the 3X optical zoom and a middle-of-the-road 36mm-to-108mm lens (35mm equivalent), which focuses down to 3.1 inches in macro mode, with no manual-focus option. While exposures can be set automatically to shutter speeds between 3 seconds and 1/2,000 second (up to 15 seconds in long-exposure mode) and apertures between f/2.8 and f/8, there aren't any manual, shutter-priority, or aperture-priority modes to let you choose among them. Scene modes are limited to Natural Light, Sports, Night Scene, Portrait, and Landscape. Nevertheless, you can specify ISO settings from ISO 80 up to ISO 1,600 for photos with better detail and higher-ISO shots with less noise than you'd expect from such a small sensor.

Other cool features include a variety of continuous-shooting modes. You can snap off 3 shots in a row in about a second and a half, shoot 40 full-resolution images in about a minute, or snap off those same 40 shots but retain only the last 3 captured before you released the shutter button. The last feature, also found on some competing cameras, such as recent Nikon point-and-shoots, is great when you don't know exactly when the action is going to peak.

Minimovie fans will like this camera's ability to shoot decent flicks at 640x480-pixel resolution, 30fps with sound for almost 15 minutes using a 1GB xD-Picture Card. The video clips can be played back, fast-forwarded, reversed, or viewed single-frame, but no in-camera trimming is available.

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User reviews

Average user rating: 4.0 stars out of 42 reviews
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Showing 3 of 42 user reviewsSee all 42 user reviews
5.0 stars

40 out of 41 people found this review helpful

"Better than Cannon SD500"

by wmanipol on May 23, 2005

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4.0 stars

31 out of 31 people found this review helpful

"A Nice Point and Shoot"

by iplawking on May 3, 2005

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5.0 stars

22 out of 23 people found this review helpful

"Near perfect low light and shake free photos. A pocket camera with the advantages of a DSLR"

by firstpick20005 on May 15, 2005

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Reviews from around the Web

dpreview.com

Summary: It may not look it, but the FinePix F10 is something of a revolution, and is probably the first time a compact camera has really shown the potential offered by Super CCD for high resolution, high sensitivity and low noise.

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macformat.co.uk

Editors' rating: 80

Summary: Lacks controls for customising exposure modes, but the sensitivity and low level of digital noise makes it a good but slightly expensive bet.

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techradar.com

Editors' rating: 80

Summary: The lack of control would be fine if the camera were aimed and priced at the beginner's end of the market. However, most people forking out £300 or so on a digital camera would probably expect shutter and aperture priority controls as well as full manual

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pcworld.com

Editors' rating: 78

Summary: A single charge of the F10's lithium ion battery exceeded the maximum 500 shots in our battery test (at which point we stop to preserve our technician's sanity); the only other point-and-shoot to reach our limit was Casio's Exilim EX-Z57. A single port ke

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photographypress.co.uk

Editors' rating: 90

Summary: The Fuji FinePix F10 is a little cracker that provides a simple to use and it's a good price too.

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