Fujifilm FinePix F30

Reviewed July 2006

Interface & Software

Interface

The interface of the F30 is simple and very legible, helped in no small measure by the high definition 2.5-inch monitor. For one, by default, the current camera settings are indicated constantly, the aperture and shutter speed changing as the light changes, a useful feature. For another, a relatively large font is used for the menus, in uppercase exclusively, making it easy to read. Within the menus, options names are shown on the left, and their current setting on the right, making it possible to see everything at a glance.

While the capture and playback menus of the FinePix F30 are quite short, the Setup menu is longer, and unlike the other top menus which always return to the last modified setting, the Setup menu always opens at the first option:

• Image Disp.: specifies whether or not a just captured image is displayed on the screen for a brief period after it is captured (3, 1.5 seconds or Zoom which displays the image enlarged so sharpness can be ascertained).
• Frame No. provides two possible settings: Cont. which numbers each new image sequentially, or Renew which restarts numbering frames from 1 after the memory card has been formatted, or a new card has been inserted in the camera.

• AF Illuminator: controls whether or not the AF Assist light comes on when the ambient light is too low for the contrast detection AF system to operate reliably.
• Digital Zoom: turns ON or OFF the digital zoom.
• LCD Power Save: On or Off. When On, the monitor is automatically turned off if the camera is unused for 10 seconds.
• Long Exposure: activates the manual control over exposure time — from 1 to 15 seconds while the camera is set to Night Mode.

• Date/Time: serves to set the F30's internal clock and calendar.
• Beep Volume: serves to adjust the operation sound (Off, 1, 2 or 3).
• Shutter Volume: serves to adjust the shutter sound (Off, 1, 2 or 3).
• Playback Volume: serves to adjust the playback volume for movies and voice annotation (10 steps).
• LCD Brightness: sets the brightness of the LCD monitor over ± 5 increments.
• Format: serves to format the memory card.

• Lang. sets the interface language: Japanese, English, French, German, Spanish, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese. Korean, Russian, Portuguese, Dutch, Turkish.
• Auto Power Off: to decide the delay until the camera shuts down automatically when there is no activity (5, or 2 minutes or Off).
• Time Difference: to set the time difference between a "Home Time" and a "Local Time" — a travel destination — useful when travelling.
• Background Colour: selects the colour that will appear as the background to the menus.

• Video System: selects the AV out signal, either NTSC or PAL.
• Reset: returns the camera to its factory defaults, with the exception of the date and time, time difference, background colour, interface language, and the video out signal.

Fujifilm includes a printed Owner's Manual with the FinePix F30, The manual does a good job of explaining all the camera's functions, albeit in an occasionally stilted English. Still, all aspects of the camera are covered and the explanations are sufficient to understand the F30's operations.

Software

In North America, the FinePix F30 is bundled with Software for FinePix (version 5.2b) that contains FinePix Viewer (v5.2 for Windows and version 3.4 for Macintosh), USB drivers, Fujifilm's RAW File Converter LE and ImageMixer VCD2 LE for FinePix, a program from Pixela.

FinePix Viewer is an image browser that shows either tasks or the computer's folders on the left side of the program's window, and the images from the currently selected folder in the right side pane. Photos can be seen in any of three ways: as thumbnails of adjustable size with the file name below; as thumbnails in a film strip format that appears at the bottom of the window while the currently selected image is presented at a larger size; and as lists file names with some of their details.

Although primarily an image viewer, FinePix Viewer allows modest editing. Photos can be cropped, rotated, resized, have text added, be readied for e-mailing, or have red-eye corrected. Furthermore, photos can adjusted for sharpness, brightness, saturation, hue and contrast manually, or be automatically adjusted, and if desired, converted to sepia or black and white.

Whatever the correction, a before and after view is available, making it easy to see if the change produced the expected result.

Once adjusted, the image can be saved into another format (TIFF or BMP), or re-saved as JPEG.