Although Fujifilm is a company
that became noted for creating elegant cameras with unusual
shapes — vertical and square — its new FinePix
F10 has a much more conventional design.
The lines of the F10 are very
clean, and the design has few external controls:
The Power Switch is on the top and recessed into the
surface so as to avoid any chance that the camera is accidentally
turned on.
To the right of the Power Switch, the 2-stageShutter Release sits atop the Mode Switch.
The Mode Switch has four positions, each stencilled in black
on the camera's top:
Is the first position when
starting from the top, and is the access to the F10's
5 Scene Programs, the choice of which is made
using the menu, leaving the last used mode as the active
mode when the dial is set to this position:
Natural Light:
allows capturing images without flash, even when
the ambient light is low. The camera uses its
AF assistance light to focus, and the camera's
sensitivity can increase up to 1600 ISO if necessary.
Portrait:
softens sharpness, and optimizes skin tones.
Landscape:
increases sharpness, and turns off the flash.
Sport: prioritizes
a high shutter speed so as to freeze action. Flash
and sensitivity are automatically adjusted.
Night: allows
the camera to capture exposures up to 3 seconds
long. The flash remains useable (Slow Synch with
Red-eye Reduction) making it possible to photograph
someone standing in front of night scenery.
Long
Exposure: activated in the Setup
menu, this mode makes it possible to
set a shutter speed from 3 to 15 seconds.
Auto: allows the F10
to set most parameters with the exception of the image
quality, Sensitivity, and Colour.
With the Manual mode,
the F10 also sets the aperture and shutter speed, but
the user has control over exposure compensation, metering
mode, white balance, and focus mode.
Movie serves to
capture video clips with sound at either 640 x 480
or 320 x 240 pixels and at 30 frames per second,
and limited only by the capacity of the memory card
in use. The zoom position is set and locked at the first
frame, but the exposure and white balance are adjusted
continuously as the recording progresses.
The FinePix F10 does not have
an optical viewfinder. Instead, the camera is equipped with
a large 2.5 inch (measured diagonally) LCD monitor with 115,000
pixels that occupies most of the camera's back, leaving only
a narrow section for the remaining external controls.
Starting at the top, the Zoom Control is positioned
at the top of a dimpled area, intended as a thumb rest. In
addition to controlling the zoom, the control allows zooming
in and out of a photo in playback, providing a maximum magnification
of 4.5X (4.7X with 3:2 format images).
At the 7 O'clock position of the
dimpled area, a small LED is used to indicate power (green),
or recording and flash charging (orange).
Just below the LED, two elongated
silver buttons are each identified by a coloured icon:
Serves to start the Playback
mode. In addition, pressing and holding this button more
than 1 second when the camera is turned off starts the
FinePix F10 directly in Playback mode, which avoids having
the lens deploy.
With the still image capture
modes this button displays the Photo Mode
menu, which contains options to set the image size and
quality, the CCD sensitivity, and set the image colour.
With the Movie mode this button only serves to
adjust frame size. (See the Characteristics
section of the review for more information on the Photo
mode menu).
The FinePix F10 is compatible with PictBridge
and DPOF and when connected directly to a similarly
compatible printer, the Photo Mode button displays a
menu to select photos for printing and set DPOF tags.
Next comes the 4-direction button with the MENU/OK
button at its centre. The four direction button serves to
navigate the menus, and progress through captured images in
Playback. The MENU/OK button serves to call up the
menu and register selections.
Each of the four directions
also has a function while the camera is in the capture modes,
and one also has a function in the Playback mode:
The UP arrow allows
changing the brightness of the monitor momentarily when
the ambient light makes the screen difficult to decipher;
the monitor returning to its normal brightness after
the shot is captured.
In addition, while the
camera is in Playback, the button can be used to
delete images when they are on the screen.
The RIGHT arrow serves
to cycle through the Flash Modes: Auto, Auto with
Red-eye Reduction, Forced On (fill-in), Suppressed Flash,
Slow Synchro and Slow Synchro with Red-eye Reduction.
The DOWN arrow controls
the Self-timer which has 2 possible delays: 10
seconds when pressed once, and 2 seconds when pressed
twice. When the Self-timer is active, a red LED located
below the flash blinks while the camera counts down the
delay.
Finally, the LEFT arrow
is for Macro Mode which allows the camera to focus
on a subject that is between 7.5 and 80 cm (3 inches to
2.6 feet) from the front element of the lens at the wide
angle position, and from 30 to 80 cm (1 to 2.6 ft.) at
the full telephoto setting.
The last button is at the lower
right of the monitor and controls the data superimposed on
the monitor:
By default, in the capture
modes camera settings are superimposed on the periphery
of the monitor's image: shooting mode, flash mode, metering
mode, image quality setting, the number of shots remaining,
ISO setting, battery state, while the AF brackets are
superimposed at the centre of the frame.
When one of the settings
is modified — macro mode, self-timer, exposure
compensation, white balance, continuous mode, or colour
mode — the change is also indicated with an icon
on the monitor.
In addition, when the shutter release is pressed halfway,
shutter speed and aperture are also shown on the lower
part of the monitor.
Pressing the DISP button once removes all data but the AF brackets superimposed
on the monitor. A second press of the button returns
all the basic information and adds a composition grid
to the display. A third press of the button changes
the display once again, this time to a presentation
that is called "Post Shot Assist Window"
which presents the live view in a window on the right
of the screen and the last 3 shots captured as thumbnails
on the left.
With the camera in Playback
mode, the default display shows the file name, the
battery state, the image size/quality, the ISO setting,
the exposure compensation setting if any, the white
balance setting and the time and date, superimposed
on the image.
As with the capture modes, pressing the DISP button once clears all
superimposed information from the image. Pressing it
a second time switches the display to the Multi-frame
view, showing 9 thumbnails per screen, with the currently
selected image appearing slightly enlarged. Finally,
a third press of the button sorts the images by date,
presenting 11 thumbnails per screen, while the capture
dates are displayed on the left side of the monitor.
Finally, in addition to controlling
how information is displayed on the monitor in both
capture and playback modes, the button also serves to
BACK out of a menu, or out of an operation in
progress.
The Fujifilm FinePix F10 is
a camera that is very pleasant to use. Its external controls
are few, and their function easily remembered, while their
placement prevents errors. Moreover, just as is the camera
itself, the controls are quick to respond.
Similarly, the large LCD monitor with its fast refresh rate
and instant brightness adjustment make it comfortable to use,
effectively minimizing any need for an optical viewfinder.
Compare Prices for Fuji FinePix F10Zoom Digital Camera Battery (B-9617)
Introduction
