FinePix F30 Digital Camera

Pros: Small, Well Designed, High ISO 3200 capable, Fast Autofocus and Start Up Time.

Cons: No RAW and or Synchro function.

Summary: As a pro Fashion/Advertising and Beauty photographer for over twenty years, I have had the opportunity to work with some of the most advanced photographic materials available. I wanted a small camera that I could carry in my pocket that could be used whenever I would take walks in Paris or perhaps for vacations. I use Canon products professionally and was sponsored by Canon France last year. I purchased the new Casio FZ600 after playing with it at the store. It was so compact and visually pleasing. Unfortunately after using it for one day, I returned it. The noise levels were just to high compared to what I was accustomed to using Canons Digital SLR's. I decided to purchase the Fuji Finepix F30. Although not nearly as good as digital large sensor camera's, the Fuji F30 is the first compact digital camera I have ever used with acceptable noise levels at 800 ISO. There are artefacts but nothing compared to other compacts competing in this very crowded field. Shooting at 100 ISO is incredible with only very slight noise showing if applying unsharpen mask in PS. You have to be very discerning in this area as sharpening has already been applied and you must use sparingly. I find that 0.3 to 0.4 pixels at around 100 percent is as strong as one can go. The auto focus is very fast compared to many compacts I have tried and especially appreciate the continuous focus mode. The screen is very bright and clear and can be boosted with just one press of a button. I also appreciate the fact that there is an aperture and shutter priority option. I tend to stay in that mode at all times. I would only wish that they provided a synchro flash input on the camera as well as the possibility of recording images in RAW. If that were the case I might be inclined to give the F30 a perfect score. One more point. The macro mode is marvellous. I was amazed at the quality and resolution that came off of this fine little camera.