Fujifilm FinePix F10

Fujifilm describes the
FinePix F10 as ‘the
24-hour’ camera, referring
not only to its ability to shoot
under lighting conditions four
times dimmer than its rivals, but
also its exceptional battery life.
It achieves these features
with new Real Photo processor
technology and a 6.3-megapixel
Super CCD sensor. This uses
Fujifilm’s trademark octagonal
pixel technology (the company’s
abandoned its double-sized
interpolation system), so the output
resolution’s 6-megapixels.
So how useful is the ability to
shoot at ISO 1600, and what on
earth does this do to the quality of
the pictures?

Using available light

This level of sensitivity represents
a kind of watershed, where shots
you wouldn’t have attempted
before now become possible. The
F10 crosses the threshold where
it’s possible to take hand-held
shots indoors without fl ash, using
available natural light or artifi cial
lighting. It produces better colours,
better lighting and, if you’re
photographing people, far better
‘environmental’ photos, where you
show them in their surroundings,
not illuminated by harsh fl ash.
After a short time with the
F10, you fi nd yourself taking
photographs you’d never have
attempted before. This is helped by
a Natural Light mode that switches
off the fl ash and uses an extended
Auto ISO range of 80 to 800. You
still have to select the maximum
ISO 1600 value manually, but
Natural Light mode nevertheless
exploits this camera’s remarkable
low-light performance in an
instantly accessible way.
The technology that produces
usable ISO 1600 images has a
knock-on effect down the ISO
range. At ISO 400, for example, the
tonal smoothness is vastly superior
to that of any similar compact
model. No other compact camera
has an ISO/performance ratio that
even comes close to the F10.
Compared to that, the 500-shot
battery life is a rather less dramatic
innovation, but it shouldn’t be
overlooked. Most compact cameras
are doing well to reach 200
shots, and even ordinary one-day
outings can leave your camera
exhausted before you’re ready to
stop shooting. A combination of
a fat battery and power-saving
technology gives the F10 greater
stamina than most, and you’ll
especially appreciate it on trips
where you’re away from your base
for extended periods.
But this is where things start
to take a bit of a downward
turn. Apart from the sensor’s
extraordinary sensitivity and the
extended battery life, the F10’s a
with standard snapshot features
and no more, including an ordinary
3x optical zoom, Program AE and
Scene modes.
The F10’s nevertheless a nice
camera to use. The big Mode dial
on the top switches between the
Scene, Auto, Manual and Movie
modes. The Manual mode doesn’t
give direct control over shutter
speed and aperture, but it simply
enables the white balance, EV
compensation and metering pattern
options, which are disabled in Full
Auto mode.
The 2.5-inch LCD could do with
a few more pixels than its 115,000,
because at this size the pixel pitch
becomes more obvious and the
display’s got a slightly granular
look. But it’s extremely bright and
colourful, and it has a 60fps refresh
rate that updates it smoothly, even
when the light’s poor.
You don’t get a live histogram
display for judging exposure
compensation, though, and
compensation control’s tucked
away in the menu system. The
image quality is patchy, too. On the
one hand, you get typically Fujifi lm
colour, which gives very pleasing,
‘clean’ colours, good saturation and
an ability to add colour to even the
dullest conditions.
Fine detail’s okay for a 6MP
chip. If you compare it with a
top 5MP camera like the Nikon
CoolPix 5900, you’d fi nd it hard to
decide which had the best outright
defi nition (maybe even the Nikon).
Fringing fl aws
The F10’s most serious issue,
though, is its fringing. This may
be due to residual chromatic
aberration, a lens defect which
worsens towards the edge of the
frame, but the main cause seems to
be sensor ‘blooming’, where bright
highlights overload neighbouring
pixels and produce characteristic
blue/magenta patches. All compact
cameras suffer from fringing to a
degree, but in the F10, with certain
types of shot, it becomes a problem
that’s a bit too serious to overlook.
That and the camera’s basic
photographic features take the
edge off the F10’s exceptional lowlight
performance and battery life. It
surely can’t be long, though, before
Fujifi lm’s ISO 1600 technology
fi nds its way into a model that’s
more able to do it justice.