Customer Reviews

Fujifilm FinePix F200EXR 12MP Super CCD Digital Camera with 5x Wide Angle Dual Image Stabilized Optical Zoom

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(28)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

I received this camera a week ago and have been very impressed with it so far. I had previously bought a Panasonic FX150 in December but returned it after 2 weeks due to horrible ISO400 performance and too much noise on the lower ISO settings as well. I had high hopes for this camera as I wanted a camera that could achieve good low light shots but thought something like the Panasonic LX3 was too big and too limiting with it's short zoom.

Before going into the many positives of this camera I want to express my only major negative with this camera and that is its ability to select the correct ISO setting for each shot. When shooting indoors in low to average light or when shooting with the flash the camera tends to choose a much higher ISO then needed resulting in shots with more noise then there should be. There is no reason for an image stabilized camera to select ISO800 with a shutter speed of 1/80 or faster when there is no movement in the frame. While this happens across all modes on the F200EXR it is more extreme in EXR Auto. I did a quick test with the camera taking two shots in P mode, EXR SN and EXR Auto seconds apart. P mode and EXR SN selected ISO200 while EXR Auto selected ISO400. In reality ISO100 would have been fine for this shot but the ISO200 shots still looked very good. I have even had shots where ISO400 would have been adequate but EXR Auto selected ISO1600! Thankfully in most modes you can set a max ISO to keep the setting better under control, EXR Auto is unfortunately always stuck in full Auto ISO. The one good thing to keep in mind here though is that the F200EXR's ISO400 performance is better then almost any other P&S out there so while it still might show some noise it will look almost as good as ISO200 on most of the cameras in its class. If EXR Auto is the main selling point for you then skip this camera. If you want one of the best cameras on the market right now then keep reading.

Now there are a lot of positives to this camera, many of which have already been discussed in other reviews so I won't go on forever about them. The screen is great and the camera feels solid in your hands. The menu system is a little strange but it's pretty easy to figure out once you get used to it. I am really just going to focus on image quality though. One of the best things about this camera is its EXR sensor that allows for 6MP images to be taken with low noise or increased dynamic range. While some may think 6MP isn't enough, don't believe the marketing hype. For 95% of the people out there 6MP is plenty and lower noise or increased dynamic range are far more useful then 12MP images. This lower noise is apparent across the board but is especially noticeable in how clean and detailed ISO400 and many ISO800 shots turn out on this camera. For web and 4x6 printing you will be hard pressed to find much difference in shots taken between ISO100 and ISO400 while in a true rarity for the class many ISO800 shots as well.

In my use I have found the secret to the best quality images from this camera is to avoid the EXR mode entirely and use P mode with the image size set to 6MP. While the instructions make it seem like the EXR sensor is only used when the mode dial is on EXR my results indicate that EXR is used anytime the image size is set to 6MP. For instance ISO100 with a DR of 400 would only be possible if EXR is used and this is possible in P mode (or M mode for that matter) as long as image size is set to 6MP. The setting I use for most shots is P mode, 6MP, DR set to Auto and ISO set to Auto (400). This keeps the ISO in a reasonable range and still allows the camera to take advantage of the EXR sensor. When shooting at night or in low light I will just adjust the ISO to Auto (800) to allow for a greater ISO range.

Overall I can't say enough positive things about this camera. Sure it would be nice if it had HD video or a higher resolution screen but those aren't required to take fantastic pictures. The automatic ISO performance is disappointing and the EXR Auto mode even more so but as I stated above there are plenty of work arounds. Sure the camera isn't perfect but I think for anyone willing to adjust some settings themselves will discover a P&S with some of the best all around image quality around.

I don't mean for this to be an in depth review. There are a lot of truly excellent in depth reviews posted here already.

I followed this camera since announcement and have been eagerly awaiting its release here in Canada. After about a week, though, it's going back.

The big issues I have with the camera may not be of high priority to other people, but are particularly important to me. This camera, as others have said, is generally superb, and can take absolutely fantastic pictures with the best dynamic range available.

And one other positive which is important to me but not mentioned by a lot of other people is the flash recycling time is quite good, maybe 2 seconds.

Auto white balance is excellent too.

My issues:

* Because this is to be a family camera, it has to be easy to use without really being educated about its functions. The full auto modes are not good enough - the EXR mode is loud and annoying, and both auto modes take pictures in ISOs that are not even remotely necessary. I don't need my wife taking ISO 1600 shots in decent indoor lighting at 1/60th of a second. That's not particularly helpful. It also prevents me from ever using most of the presets (snow, party, etc)

* While high ISO is obviously better than anything else in a compact, the camera needs it because the image stabilization is not as good as on Canons and Panasonics because it is sensor-based rather than lens based.

* I come from A series Canons, and the ability to set apertures and/or shutter speeds is sorely missed, particularly were auto ISO gives you 800 or 1600 more often than 200 unless outside in daylight.

* Video is important for us because with small children it is nice to have a video capabilities at all times and we don't carry around a video camera. Video capabilities on this camera kind of suck.

* A critical point for me, though not much I'm sure for a lot of others, is continuous shooting. Rarely do kids look the right way, so to be able to burst shots until you get the right one is very important to me. This camera can only do quick bursts at full resolution for 3 shots (or at least it only keeps the first or the last 3), and the full continuous shoot mode is painfully slow, I would say one shot every 1.5 or 2 seconds as it refocuses between each shot. That is not nearly good enough, and while the camera does have a (very) quick continuous mode, that takes shots at only 3 megapixels.

* The battery cover keeps opening up in my pocket. Not a huge deal, but at the same time, maybe it is...

So like I said, the camera is great at what it does, but its limitations may be important depending on your needs. Video, as noted by others, is bad. Photos, as noted by others, are superb, IF you are expert enough to learn and use the camera. As a straight point and shoot, the camera is not particularly good, as it boosts ISO way too much. And continuous shooting is, for me at least, unacceptably slow.

I really wanted to like this camera, and dynamic range is something I always really wanted, but the F200 EXR just doesn't work for me.

I am inclined to try the new Panasonic super zoom next (the ZS3/TZ7). I don't need a super zoom, and I understand Panny is coming out with a similar 5x zoom at some point, but I don't want to wait. I understand the ZS3/TZ7's burst mode is faster, the lens is wider (and better), and the video is HD. I also understand the Panasonic has excellent lens-based image stabilization, and much better battery life (though I never had a problem with the F200's battery life). While the Panasonic has fewer manual controls, it is supposed to have the best auto in the business. While I would prefer more controls, it is more important for everyone to be able to pick up and use the camera to produce quality shots than for me to be able to (and have to) play to get pretty pictures.

I think Fuji really missed the strike zone on this one. This camera with a better lens, better auto intelligence, and better video (and better continuous shooting for me at least) could have been a huge smash success that reinvigorated the Fuji brand for cameras. As it is, the camera is a tiny small step forward but big step to the side from their previous compacts. It's really too bad.

Hope this helps.

The short and sweet of it is this probably the sub-compact camera that will give you the best Image Quality (IQ) of any other camera in this category. I do not consider the Panny LX3 as being in this category as it is larger. If size is not an issue, then an interesting comparison can be drawn whereby they both produce excellent output with their own pluses and minuses. But, the LX3 was simply too large for my uses.

What it Is - This is a specialty compact camera much like the F30 and F31fd before it. I owned both of those cameras. I call it "specialty" because you have to coax it a bit to get the best IQ from it, just like the F30 or F31fd. Just like the earlier Fxx series, you can't rely on "Auto" modes to yield the best pictures. This camera, just like the earlier Fxx series, hikes the ISO way too much for the shot at hand in most cases. I believe that this was done to absolutely insure that no blurry pictures occur. Anyone with decent technique can take crystal clear pictures at much lower ISO's and lower shutter speeds if the subject is still.

Advantages over the F31fd:
Better lens, MUCH less purple fringing
Sharper pictures even in 6MP mode
Wider and longer reach
Image Stabilization
Better Noise Profile - Noise reduction is less aggressive thereby retaining more detail in 6MP mode. Noise may be a bit more prevelant, but it is much less bothersome on the F200exr. It is more film like in terms of grain, not that blotchy colored mess that can often be seen on cameras in this class.
12MP high resolution is there if desired and the subject is suited to it.

MUCH better WB. The F31fd was way too cool when doing typical shooting outdoors. I had to put it on the "cloudy" setting to get it to a more realistic balance even in sunny conditions. This is not the case with the F200exr. The white balance does a great job indoors and out. One less thing to fiddle with on the F200exr.

Dynamic Range, though not as high as billed, is better than the F31fd when in 6MP mode.

Disadvantages:
Shorter battery life
Lens is slower on the wide end, 2.8 vs. 3.3.
(I really hope they come out with an E900 update to address these issues)

Manual control, just like the F31 can be difficult when compared to the LX3 or the FZ28. There isn't the PASM modes on the selector dial, though a P mode and M mode are offered, but not at the level of control that you would get with a cam that gives you full control.

What it isn't - Fuji has billed this as the ultimate point and shoot. While it can certainly function in that role, you will not get the best IQ out of it that way. This is why you will see the occassional 1 and 2 star reviews with this camera, just like with the F31fd. The F31fd in knowledgeable hands could produce photographs of spectacular quality as does the F200exr. But, don't expect it to do that in auto point and shoot mode including the exr auto mode (jumping to high ISO's way too fast). Pannies don't do that and the LX3 may be better choice for this kind of shooting. It's auto mode tends to peak at ISO 400 until very low shutter speeds are encountered, and then it will increase the ISO from there. This is similar to the FZ28, which I do have. Great zoom cam btw. Panny also accounts for movement in the frame too. The LX3 also has that awesome F2.0 lens offering over at least a 1 stop advantage over the Fuji. This would be great if you didn't have to pocket the thing. The menus on the Fuji just aren't as easy to use as some other cams in this class and don't seem to offer the level of features either. This has not changed from the F31.

In summary, this camera, like the F31fd before it, is all about the sensor. You will have to put up with some annoyances in terms of camera features, but the output really is spectacular for a camera of this size. Know what this camera is and is not before you buy it, and you won't be dissappointed. If it is IQ in a pocketable compact you are after, then you have reached your destination.

Length:: 7:38 Mins

The FujiFilm F200EXR is a very compact camera that packs a lot of advanced features into a "Point & Shoot" format camera body. This camera is capable of taking outstanding photos in all of it's modes, including the "Auto" Mode for everyday picture taking (not to be confused with "Auto EXR Mode", see below). We are avid photographers and own several other digital cameras, including Point & Shoot, Compact, and a dSLR that we use for family photos and taking product pictures for our small business.

This is somewhat of a lengthy review, so I will summarize my findings here:

If you are looking for a "Point & Shoot" camera for taking the occasional casual picture, this camera is probably overkill for your needs and you would be better off with a less expensive alternative. That being said, if you are looking for a very powerful, feature rich camera that can be made to perform well in almost any setting and for any application, all in a very small "Point & Shoot" format, then this camera is well worth the investment! This camera packs more features and often takes better pictures than our much more expensive dSLR camera.

Now for my overview and full review:

The F200EXR is truly packed with many top of the line features, including -
* 12 Megapixel Super CCD EXR Sensor
* 3" LCD Screen
* Wide Angle (28 mm) through 5x Optical Zoom (140 mm)
* Dual Image Stabilization
* Wide Range of Preconfigured Modes (see below)
* Face Recognition with automatic in camera Red Eye Removal (works well!)
* Support for SD, SDHC, and xD cards
* Includes 48 meg of internal memory, enough space for about 10 pictures in the highest quality mode
* Long lasting Lithium Ion Rechargeable Battery (NP-50)

What's in the Box -
* F200EXR Camera
* Lithium Ion Rechargeable Battery (initial charge took just under 2 hours)
* Home Battery Charger
* Wrist Strap
* Proprietary USB/Video Cable (standard video/audio only, a HD cable is available but not included)
* Printed Basic Manual Booklet (in several languages)
* CD with Owner's Manual (Full) in PDF
* CD with FinePixViewer Software (not bad image management, basic editing, and linking to Fuji web content)
* Plastic Sleeve for Battery Storage
* Miscellaneous Warrantee and Warning Pages

The Controls on the small camera body are generally well placed and easy to use, with a "rose" type interface for selecting and navigating the many menu options, selecting Flash, Macro, Self Timer, Delete, and Exposure Compensation settings. In addition to the Power Button, there are also four small buttons for selecting Playback, Photo Mode (F), Face Recognition and Red Eye Removal, and Display.

Pressing and holding the Playback button while the camera is off will turn on the camera and allow for viewing your pictures without extending the lens.

The Photo Mode (F) sets many options that will affect your pictures, like ISO, Dynamic Range, Image Size, Image Quality (jpeg compression, I turned mine from the default "Normal" to "Fine"), White Balance, and Film Simulation. Interestingly enough, this important mode is not covered in any detail in the printed "Basic Manual" so you must look at the Owner's Manual on the CD or download it from the Fuji web site.

The numerous shooting modes are accessed through the Dial and include:
* "Auto" (Red Camera Icon) mode allows the F200EXR to be used as a "Point & Shoot" and usually produces truly outstanding quality pictures
* EXR Mode (EXR Icon, White Letters with Red Background) -
- Fine Capture Mode (High Resolution), produces very crisp detail of intricate subjects and is useful in product photography - The Camera will display HR when in this mode.
- Pixel Fusion Mode (High Sensitivity and Low Noise), produces low-light shots with minimal noise - The Camera will display SN when in this mode.
- Dual Capture (Wide Dynamic Range), takes two pictures and merges them in-camera to provide great detail in highlights and low lights. - The camera will display DR when in this mode.
- Auto EXR Mode, tries to select between several presets (many found in the SP Mode, see below). This is very Hit & Miss, as the camera will "hunt" around a lot - I will avoid using this mode and use the regular "Auto" mode or manually set the SP mode when possible.
* Program (P) and Manual (M) modes are standard modes enabling the user to set Shutter/Aperture priority or to take full control of settings, respectively
* Natural (N) is an interesting option for capturing images with the natural scene lighting
* Natural + Flash (N+ Lightning Bolt Icon) option takes two pictures, one as the "Natural" mode and another with the flash, to ensure a good picture is captured.
* Movie Mode (Movie Camera Icon) is a really useful video (with audio) clip capture mode that allows for 320 or 640 resolution at 30 Frames/Second. The clips are saved in standard AVI format and are surprisingly good! The one main complaint is that you cannot use Zoom while filming, so you must select the Zoom you want before starting.
* Scene Position (SP) Mode allows you to select between 15 presets, including:
- Portrait, Portrait Enhancer, Landscape, Sport, Night, Night (Tripod), Fireworks, Sunset, Snow, Beach, Underwater (for use with the optional Underwater Case, this camera is not waterproof), Museum (turns off sound, flash, and Focus Assist Light), Party, Flower, and Text

There are far too many options and combinations to cover much more deeply, so I'll wrap this up with my major likes and dislikes:

Likes -
* Great Point & Shoot "Auto" Mode takes impressive 12 MP pictures (file size is roughly 4.3 MB in Large 4:3/Fine resolution)
* Very low "Shutter Lag", even when not pre-focused
* Impressive Wide Angle and 5x Optical Zoom Lens
* Clear description of Shooting Modes displayed on LCD when changing dial settings
* Fantastic EXR Modes allow for capturing outstanding pictures that would have been unusable with lesser cameras. In particular, the Pixel Fusion (SN) and Dual Capture (DR) modes are very useful for solving difficult photography problems.
* Outstanding "Super Intelligent Flash" produces great illuminated scenes without washing out the subject, a feature that is very useful in Macro Mode which we use heavily for our business product photography needs.
* Accurate Face Recognition with automatic in-camera Red Eye Reduction - This feature assures people are in focus, helps with in-camera Slide Show playback, and can automatically remove Red Eye. It is also very cool to watch it work!
* Large ISO range of 100 to 12800, without much noise or grain when using SN mode
* Decent battery life of about 180 - 200 or so shots without flash, drops fairly quickly if flash is used a lot. I recommend buying an extra battery or two.
* Lots of user selectable options - Spending a little time reading the Owner's Manual is a good investment to learn about all of the features packed into this camera.

Dislikes -
* Steep Learning Curve (reading the Owner's Manual is absolutely required to take full advantage of all the features this camera offers)
* Auto EXR Mode is really "Hit or Miss", we will not be using this option as the camera makes a lot of noise and does not always select an appropriate mode.
* No Zooming while filming in Movie Mode
* No Remote Control
* HD Cable is not included

This is a very powerful camera that can be made to outperform almost any other consumer grade camera currently on the market if you spend a little time reading the Owner's Manual and do a little experimenting with the extensive options.

We have been able to take absolutely beautiful pictures in the standard "Auto" mode and have produced some photos that we would not have been able capture, because of tricky lighting, by using the EXR modes. We will likely make the F200EXR our primary camera for taking our business product pictures (using the EXR "Fine Capture" mode), as the results are truly outstanding!

The F200EXR is "Highly Recommended"! The positive elements of this camera significantly outweigh the few negative items, making this an easy choice for those in need of the advanced features and functionality this camera delivers in a very compact Point & Shoot form factor, 5 out of 5 Stars!

I consider myself to be a photo enthusiast / semi-professional as I do some commissioned portrait work on the side. I primarily work with the Nikon D300 DSLR for all of my photography and once I switched over 100% to DSLR's a few years back, I never thought I'd find a "pocket sized point and shoot" camera that I'd be "unashamed" to carry around with me. Well, I was wrong. I recently got my hands on the F200EXR, and it is a beautiful thing! It's got plenty of resolution (12MP) to satisfy any and all photographic needs, but even more important and impressive is its ability to capture clean (very low noise) images in low light (particularly when you boost the ISO to 6400 at a reduced resolution of 6MP). Another wonderful benefit not typically found in digital, let alone point and shoot cameras, is its wide dynamic range. Digital sensors have had a difficult time dealing with high contrast scenes, and losing detail in the shadows and highlights. The EXR sensor does a tremendous job of handling these situations with ease. I keep my details in the shadows without totally blowing out my highlights. Is the camera going to replace my D300...of course not, but it's absolutely my camera of choice for my everyday needs and will always be with me to capture lifes moments...especially with a newborn on the way! I'm not even worried about when the baby really gets moving either because between the high sensitivity, and the 5fps burst rate...I'll catch all the action.

The FujiFilm EXR200 has a ton of features and takes pictures with great ease. However, this is not your typical point and click camera. I have read some of the more expertise driven reviews and those more technical reviews were terrific in helping me to understand this camera before using it. This is particularly important with the EXR feature. As this camera has an almost unlimited ISO setting, it is important to put some limits on that. Otherwise, it does take pictures at very high ISO settings in an effort to maximize the resolution even though it might increase the graininess at the same time.

So I took the advice of the experts and re-set the ISO on 800 as a limit. That was very helpful as the pictures that were taken were not grainy at all. The camera has a terrific feature for those that were SLR photo-takers in the past. It shows all of the settings with the picture and saves them; I love this feature. Back to the ISO: It did take a while to figure out how to find and set that ISO feature. I'm still a little fuzzy on the screen walk-though to get to various settings and when they are applied. The instructions could be a little easier and that is the mark off giving this a "5" rating.

I took the camera on vacation with me and clicked away. I was mostly in the Auto mode (staying away from the EXR mode because of all of the discussion around it). I also used the double taking portrait mode (the camera will take two pictures within a second - one with flash and one without - if I understand this correctly). This feature is quite nice by the way. I also used the landscape mode quite a bit also.

The pictures are stunning. And since they are in full HD, they can be played back on a HDTV. We did this with relative ease - except that initially we did not realize that the 4:3 sizing was not automatic and had to be set at the TV level to get the proper sizing. But with a 52" screen, the pictures are spectacular.

Recently my daughter was in a dance recital and I decided to try out the full auto EXR mode. So I reset the ISO to unlimited and began to snap pictures of her dancing in the minimal stage lighting from a distance of 35 yards or so. And to my surprise the results were very good. Normally, I get a grainy photo in a blur and it is dark. With the EXR, the graininess was not too bad and the clarity was very good. Yes there were blurs when the action was too fast, but many times I got a very good solid picture with excellent lighting. Two additional settings were used on these pictures: "high iso and low noise" and "suppress flash".

One more feature observation: the purely "manual" mode is not quite as nice as I'd like. While it will allow you to set both the aperture and the speed, it does not allow an unlimited spread in those ranges. So the results are not as easy to obtain as with an older SLR manual camera.

That is the benefit of this camera and the downfall. There are so many settings, that the photographer might need more experience than a typical "point and click" picture taker to get the most out of this camera. But if you have any SLR background this is a terrific little camera. Even if you are not too experienced, just setting the ISO to 800 and using the auto shoot will give you very good pictures. But my sense with the price and features is that this is for someone with a little more experience than a typical point and shoot camera owner.

Why consider an expensive higher performance camera?

A few years ago I was enjoying a gourmet dinner served aboard Napa Valley's popular Wine Train. It was off-season so it was dark outside when our entreés arrived. The presentation was beautiful so I decided to photograph it. I removed my trusty Canon subcompact and proceeded to take pictures. The cabin lights were low but adequate, I thought, to avoid the bothersome shadows that using the flash would cause. Even though the Canon had yielded many great photos in daylight, it soon became apparent it was completely inadequate for this task, and without a wide angle lens,I had to stand away from the table to capture the complete place setting. On auto settings, the exposure took so long that I could not avoid blur. The less blurry pictures I did obtain had no definition in the shadow areas, and the pictures had a yellow cast rendering the food colors unattractive. I wondered if this were the nature of all subcompacts--that they were all just bright daylight cameras only.

A common set of preferences

Cameras have advanced since then. Image stabilization, more megapixels and wide angle and longer zoom ranges abound. Later I had purchased one of the first subcompact wide angle cameras, a Panasonic FX-01, and then replaced it with a similar FX-07 after it broke. Both achieved good pictures in broad daylight, and the wide angle soon became a feature I could not live without. But there was some noise in the darker areas of a picture, and in low light situations, even with the long exposures made possible by the excellent image stabilization, the noise (which gives smooth objects a disturbing speckled or smeared appearance) was too much to bear in a page size print. Even with only 6 and 7 megapixels respectively, I never thought my pictures from these cameras lacked sharpness. When my second Panasonic became flaky after much hard use, I went on a search for a pocketable camera that could produce great images not only in bright daylight, but also in such challenging situations. I also sought a camera that would produce good results automatically, without forcing me make numerous adjustments or require postprocessing on a computer.

The search for the best

What follows is a description of how I conducted a search and how I discovered some common misleading misconceptions. If you just want to know how well I thought the camera worked, skip down to the "Early Impressions" paragraph.

I started my review with Consumers Reports because I am a member. There was little information about camera performance in non-ideal situations. There were coarse ratings for dynamic range, a capability that would improve photos in high contrast situations, but no sample photographs to explain such a benefit.

I then went to the website of Digital Photography Review. Complete specifications were listed for every make and model camera, but only a few were reviewed. The reviews, though few, are astoundingly complete with side-by-side photographic tests of competing models and sample galleries downloadable at the pixel-for-pixel level to your computer. I read at least two dozen reviews (average length: 18 pages not including sample galleries) to find out what the editors considered important. In the process I learned that camera design involves trade-offs. Camera designers have to choose which areas of importance to emphasize.

The megapixel trap

One of the most interesting illustrations of this was in a Panasonic press release which introduced a new upscale compact camera, the DMC-LX3. The release went to great lengths to emphasize that the pixel count was deliberately kept lower so that each pixel would have higher quality resulting in an overall better picture. Yes, they were saying that excessive pixels results in a lower quality picture even though it makes the camera's specifications look better which can lure unsophisticated buyers. Even more interesting, in the DPR website's review they compared the LX3 with10 megapixels to the Canon G10 with 14.7 megapixels and the Nikon P6000 with 13.5 megapixels. In bright conditions the higher megapixel cameras excelled slightly in fine detail (differences barely visible in a poster sized print). But as light levels dropped the LX3 held it's quality, and in low light situations the Panasonic pictures were usable while the others were not. All 3 cameras had approximately the same size sensors. Even though the Panasonic's lens captured up to twice the light of the others', it's hard to believe that was enough to make such a difference. So in this case, it seems like fewer (but larger) megapixels did produce the best overall results.

Interestingly Consumers Reports rated image quality higher for the G10 while the Digital Photography Review editors rated the image quality higher for the LX3--and provided samples to show it. Apparently
Consumers does not take low light performance into consideration.

I agonized long and hard about purchasing a LX3 because i could use the battery packs from my older Panasonics. But even though the LX3 is among the very smallest compacts, its 1.5 inch thickness (manufacturer published specifications erroneously publish the thickness as 1.06") make it just too big to make it a comfortable fit for my jeans pockets.

My mission

So my mission was, as yours may also be, to find a subcompact that could yield great pictures not just in bright daylight, but also in less ideal conditions. In other words, an "all occasions" camera. And I wanted a wide angle lens because of its great convenience. Would I find such a camera? Would it just edge out the runners up or would it be a run away winner?

How specifications and sample photos can point to a winner

To find the best low light prospect I looked for 3 things in the specifications. Larger sensor size and a faster lens both allow for greater light capture. Third, I looked for a sensor technology with the most sensitivity and pixel uniformity so that light amplification would produce less noise. The first two of these criteria can usually be determined by looking at published specifications.

The great majority of subcompact (easily pocketable) cameras use tiny sensors that collect light over an area of only 1/4 of a square centimeter. Even the next larger category, compacts, use mostly these small sensors, but a few use larger sensors closer to 1/2 of a square centimeter, and these usually offer better low light performance. Larger cameras with interchangeable lenses offer sensors from about 3 to 6 square centimeters usually with proportionally improved low light performance. Specifications sheets use a strange description for sensor size. Because the common fractions of 1/4, 1/3, 1/2, 2/3 etc. in inches are not precise enough to describe sensor width, a decimal is often used in the denominator. For example: 1/2.5 or 1/1.6. If you divide these out you get 0.4 and 0.625 inches. Bigger is better because it captures more light.

So called "fast" lenses are simply larger and can collect more light. They are called "fast" because they allow a faster shutter speed for a given exposure. Common lens speeds are 1.4, 2.0,2.8,4.0, 5.6, 8.0, 11, and 16, with each lower number requiring only half the open shutter time of the next highest of these numbers. You will see some numbers in between and zoom lenses will have two lens speeds: one for fully zoomed in and one for fully zoomed out. Zoom lenses get slower the more they zoom out and low light performance gets correspondingly worse. A long, slow zoom combined with a small sensor can produce low quality pictures even in bright light, as I found out when I tried a Panasonic TZ3 long zoom compact. Yet many such cameras are popular.

So in specifications, I looked for larger sensors and faster lenses.

As for different sensor technologies I found only four. The best by far is a sensor made by Foveon which layers the red, green, and blue pixels on top of each other. In other sensors pixels are side by side and are only red, green, or blue sensitive, so the camera's processor extrapolates to get a color and brightness for each pixel. This processing involves a certain amount of error which accounts for a lot of the noise, and when you see the output of a Foveon next to the others, its superiority is striking. But no subcompact offers a Foveon processor. Only one compact does and it costs $800 and is so featureless it offers only a fixed lens. Maybe someday.....

The two most popular sensor types are CCD and CMOS. Each has its pros and cons, but CMOS are not produced in small enough sizes to be offered in subcompacts as far as I know.

The fourth sensor type is Fujifilm's proprietary modified CCD called a SuperCCD. I can't tell you about the engineering difference, but great claims are made for its low light performance.

The results from specifications survey:

Among subcompact cameras, hardly any offer other than the smallish 1/2.5 to 1/2.3 size sensors. The only ones I could find with wide angle lenses were from Fujifilm at 1/1.6 representing almost twice the surface area of the others' sensors. This was interesting because Fuji also claimed superior technology so it should have two advantages: technology and size.

As for lenses, the fastest I could find on a subcompact was f2.8. The only slightly larger Panasonic LX3 had an amazing f2.0 lens--if only it were thin enough!

Looking for wide angle, image stabilized, larger sensor size subcompact cameras I found only two, both from Fujifilm: the f100fd and the f200EXR. Both had lens speeds of f3.3, about 50% slower than the fastest in the group. The sensor was more than proportionately larger, so the Fujis looked promising for best overall. So I looked for reviews to see the differences.

Reviews from others

I checked CNET (Asia) and Digital Photography Review web sites for both cameras. The f200EXR is too new for anyone to have completed a review as of this writing, but I did find first impressions on CNET and a gallery of samples on DPR who is apparently preparing a review. The older Fuji f100fd was reviewed favorably on CNET and was the winner in a comparison test on DPR, but that wasn't a full review. The main advantages of the more expensive f200EXR seem to be a larger 3" monitor (vs. 2.7"), more manual control, and 2 new sensor modes that let you trade off resolution for either wider dynamic range or lower noise. I found a heavily discounted low price for the f100fd of $225 but the f200EXR is only available at full list of $400, at least till supply catches up with demand. Since I've seen the Panasonic LX3 below $350 I anguished over its just-barely-too-large size. I saw no claims for superior per pixel sensor performance for the f200EXR over the f100d--only that the trade off modes would offer better results in some situations. On DPR's gallery, the f200EXR's low noise shots looked really impressive. Some shots were duplicated in two modes for comparison, and you could see, for example, that you could choose a slight loss of fine detail (6 megapixel picture) to gain shadow detail that was blacked out at the high resolution (12 megapixel) setting. One particular shot (looking up the trunk of a defoliated birch tree in late afternoon light) was not one where forced flash could have filled in the dark areas.

Since I had previously owned the original Canon Digital Rebel SLR, I knew that its 6 megapixels offered plenty of resolution for page size prints--as long as the pixels were good ones. So I decided on the f200EXR.

Early impressions of the f200EXR

First the bad news:

If you've been spoiled by previously owning a Canon or even a Panasonic, you're going to feel Fuji's product presentation is rather crude. There's no compact pocket size manual you can carry around for reference--only an insultingly simple "basic" manual that might get you to taking the first picture. Then you have a CD with a pdf file for the complete manual. And boy, is it confusing. Part of the reason is that Fuji didn't really work out a user friendly menu system. While the manual warns "not all options may be available in all modes" that's not enough to prepare you for never seeing the menu choices you expect. Menus are different for shooting and playback, and you have two different buttons which will access different menus most of the time. There seems no logic as to which functions are put into which menus. Eventually you can learn it, but what a pain. Finally, to put icing on the cake, some settings (flash is one) reset if you go back and forth to play and shooting modes--but not all.

As for manual controls, they are limited. There's no manual focus, and I've found that in some modes the auto focus malfunctions--especially in night shots. Control over aperture lets you choose only from the two available extremes at each focal length. And often you can't use settings in certain desirable combinations, such as using the sensors' special dynamic range and low noise options in combination with aperture control.

The access door for the AV/USB port is attached by two delicate rubber standoffs rather than being hinged securely as most competitors' models do.

While the monitor is a generous 3" its resolution is no better than before. 230,000 pixels is OK but that's half that of some same size monitors (LX3). Also, when you want to check your shot for sharpness, you'll find you can't zoom in far enough. You can zoom in to look at 1/64 of the full shot, whereas my old Panasonic zooms in to 1/256.

Movie mode is an afterthought. There's 640x480 or 320x240 capture. No widescreen capture format and no HD capture, even though the camera has component HD output (via a pricey optional cable) for still photos.

The battery is smallish, only 1000 mah. My smaller and older Panasonic's battery is 15% larger. You'll use it up fast fiddling with all the menus. Spare batteries are precious, about $40, but I ordered some Kodak spec batteries that are supposed to be compatible on Overstock.com for 1/3 the price.

The image stabilization seems noticeably less effective than my old Panasonic. To be fair, the Fuji has much greater zoom (5x) which really challenges the IS. I briefly owned a TZ series Panasonic with 10x zoom, and even Panasonic's superb stabilization wasn't enough to make the long end of the zoom reliable.

And finally, those tenths of inches add up. Its large for a subcompact, and about as large as it can be and still fit easily into your jeans pocket.

The bottom line is that this is really a point and shoot camera, and enthusiasts will be frustrated trying to exercise manual control.

Now the good news.

Image quality. The f200EXR's probable top competitor is currently the Canon SD880is, matching the Fuji with a wide angle lens and trouncing it with greater compactness, style, and ease of use. And it can pretty much match the Fuji in bright light when you look at DPR's photo tests and sample galleries. It boasts the some of the best image processing algorithms in the industry to control noise.

But when you look at the darker parts of a picture, the Fuji produces great color saturation and amazing smoothness. I'm not sure my old Digital Rebel did any better. In low light there is still some noise, as there would be in any camera, but for a subcompact the smoothness and saturation is amazing.

And the Fuji is pretty smart about automatically making choices that consistently yield a great picture. Put it in EXR automatic mode and it trades off resolution for less noise or more dynamic range only when it needs to in low light or high contrast situations. The 12 megapixel settings have enough resolution that you can count the links in a chain link fence a quarter of a mile away. The 6 megapixel low noise setting has astoundingly low chroma noise in dark parts of the picture. The 5x zoom outdoes almost all subcompact competitors.

In direct comparison to my old 7 megapixel Panasonic, which is not a bad camera (can you say Samsung?) the differences were dramatic.

So does this camera seem to be a runaway winner in the subcompact class? For image quality, quite probably. Would it have given me a perfect picture on the Wine Train? I doubt it -- it's a subcompact! But it probably would have given me a picture good enough to keep.

I still wonder about the sexy LX3 with its fantastic fast lens and large sensor (which should enable it to use a lower ISO than the f200EXR in any given situation), and all its great manual control features. I've read that you can get really good results if you transfer the RAW files to your computer and process them in an imaging program like Photoshop. Been there, done that (with the Rebel), and I've found the more work it is to take a picture the fewer you take.

Long after the f200EXR has bitten the dust I won't remember about the fiddly controls, but I will still have gorgeous pictures to excite my memories. Lots of them.

I bought my F200EXR the other day and I love it! I am replacing my F10. I bought my F10 a few months before the F30 came out so I knd of missed the boat last time. I have friends who own the F30 and were always bragging about the low light capabilities. I shot the F200 downtown at different ISO's as well as on EXR Auto. The noise is considerably lower than my F10. I am very excited about the amount of detail in my photos even at 800 - 3200 ISO. My 8x10 prints look great. EXR mode does a good job but I usually like to adjust the ISO myself according to the situation.

I love the 5x wide angle lens. I travel quite a bit and this camera is the type of camera that I have been looking for. It allows me to be prepared for any situation that I might encounter. I highly recommend it!

If you are looking for one digital camera that has virtually every feature you would need or want for typical "point and shoot' photography, the Fujifilm FinePix F200EXR is that camera. The camera is well designed, full of features, yet very compact.

What's in the box?
* 12 megapixel F200EXR camera.
* Li-Ion Battery
* Battery charger
* Camera cable with USB or RCA connectivity
* Wrist strap
* Basic instruction manual (three manuals, English, Spanish and French)
* FinePix Owner manual - on CD
* FinePix Viewer software - on CD.

While the camera does not ship with a SD card, typically you will find offers when buying digital cameras for free cards with the purchase of cameras.

The cameras basics include a 5x optical zoom, which is equivalent to a 28mm - 140mm focal length. There are point and shoots with longer focal lengths (the Panasonic TZ-5 is 280mm), but the F200EXR still has a decent optical zoom Unlike some of its competitors, the F200EXR gets its image stabilization from a sensor not the lens.

At 12 megapixel, this camera has more than enough resolution to satisfy most consumers. It has a great range of speed/sensitivity, being capable of ISO from 100 all the way up to 3200, as well as 6400 ISO when shooting at 6 MP, and 12800 at 3 MP. The camera sets itself between 400 and 3200 ISO in auto mode (400, 800, 1600, or 3200). In other manual modes, you can select 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600, 3200, 6400, and 12800).

As with any camera, I would advise that you set the auto mode for the lowest ISO to get the most noise-free photos, and then move to higher ISO setting when warranted (sports or activities where you are trying to photograph moving objects).

This camera sports a good size CCD sensor. The F200EXR's CCD is 1/1.6". In comparison, Panasonic's TZ-5 has a CCD of 2.33. That's a CCD almost 45% larger than the Panasonic, which is a nice camera in its own right. For those of you who don't delve that far into digital photography, here's a key point to keep in mind when choosing still or video equipment......in general, the bigger the sensor (the CCD) the better quality (less noise) you can anticipate in your photos. Don't obsess about CCD size - Naturally, lens quality, processor, and design all play a part, but all other things being equal, a good size sensor will help generate less noisy shots.

What is a CCD? Let me back up a step - In the old days, taking photographs was a chemical process - film, development chemicals, and mechanical camera parts. In today's digital age, most of this happens electronically, outside of maybe some mechanical camera components. Simply put, a CCD is a "charge coupled device". It converts light into electrons. The information is transported across the CCD and converted from analog to digital. This turns each pixel into a digital value. So why does it matter if the CCD is bigger? The bigger the sensor, the less `noise", therefore you capture more minute detail.

This camera is not the least expensive in its class. It is, however, in my opinion, one of the best. The face detection on this camera works very well, appearing to recognize the correct number of faces in a photo and not usually getting fooled.

The 3" LCD display is very bright and easy to view. Although like any camera, when you are in direct, very bright sunlight is becomes hard to see the viewfinder.

The flash is superb. It provides very good exposures, lighting the subject and backdrops nicely. Flash photos from the F200EXR produce very true to life colors, even contrast and natural results. I am yet to have any photos that appear washed out, "over exposed" or "under exposed". Even when used in macro mode, this flash is fantastic. Typically I disable a camera flash in macro mode and depend on natural or other artificial lighting. But this flash allows for a close-up focus with the flash enabled.

In normal modes, you can focus on subjects as close as 1.5 feet. The camera's macro mode will allow you to focus as close as 1.9 inches.

My lone complaint about the camera is that it does not truly have a "fully manual" mode. The manual mode is good and you change change shutter, aperature, and ISO. The aperture range is F3.3 to 9.0 but you are not able to randomly select any F stop and shutter speed, as you are limited to only the F stops the camera makes available for a particular ISO or shutter setting. This is just a minor issue; the camera produces great photos at any setting - I just like to be able to make manual settings as I choose.

I found the F200EXR delivered great photos in all three modes: High Resolution, High Sensitivity and Low Noise, and Wide Dynamic Range. High Resolution is just what it says - 12 million pixels and a lot of detail. I took some early evening photos of a lacrosse game using Pixel Fusion (High Sensitivity & Low Noise) mode. There was some slight noise, but considering the conditions, these action photos were very clear and crisp. These photos were slightly more vivid than those shot using other modes.

The EXR mode worked well for me. When in this mode, the camera recognized the subject matter (faces/portraits, sports/high speed subjects such as a lacrosse game, and some nighttime portraits) and made appropriate adjustments and delivered superb results.

Overall, this is not an inexpensive camera for its features, but I believe you get what you pay for. That's the case with the F200EXR. This is a very, very good product; it has exceptional face recognition and produces very natural result for portraits, especially under flash conditions. If most of your photo subjects are family, other people, etc. then I would highly recommend this camera.

I have an unaccountable attraction to small point and shoot cameras, even though I have pretensions to being more than a casual photographer. And when I do get my hands on a point and shoot, I want to test its limits. The limits of these cameras are generally poorer performance across the board compared with their big brother digital SLRs, but their attraction is of course their simplicity and small size. If made right, they should be the ideal street camera.

I recently acquired what is considered to be the best point and shoot available, the Panasonic LX-3, and I haven't been disappointed with it. It's super-fast lens and ability to shoot raw images make it hard to beat in this category. However it's not really a pocket camera, so the convenience factor is compromised. You really need to hang it around your neck.

The Fuji F200 EXR is truly a pocket camera, and so I find myself carrying it to more places. Its automatic lens cap nicely protects it without my having to worry about it, and it has a plethora of features. Some have complained that it is not very intuitive, and that the various automatic settings don't always result in the best possible images. I have found this to be true especially in interior shots without flash, notably these cameras' weakest area. The camera either pushes the ISO to a noisy 1600 level, or if I prevent this, the shots are often blurry. Moreover the color, especially in mixed light, can get a little wonky.

I have been spending a good deal of time with the EXR features, and agree with other reviewers that the total automatic setting under EXR is to be avoided. The camera just isn't that smart. However, if you give it a little help, and experiment with some of the specific EXR settings, most notably those designed to reduce noise, you can get some pretty good results, even at 1600. The 5X zoom is robust enough to pull in quite a bit, and the close-up macro capability is impressive. You can focus down to a couple of inches.

The non-HD video capability is only average -- good for those times when you don't have a better video camera with you, mostly for casual use.

This is a good $229 camera priced at $369. It needs at least one more generation before it's the camera it could be.