Customer Reviews

Fujifilm FinePix F30 6.3 MP Digital Camera with 3x Optical Zoom

5 star:		(73)
4 star:		(25)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I've been a Canon guy for several years and throught that they lead the pack in photographic innovation. My family has several Canon SLR's, assorted lenses and digital Elph pocket cameras (SD 400, SD450 and SD550). Pocket cameras trade performance and features for small size and ease of use. In bright light without flash the Canon Elphs usually provide image quality which is ok for 8 x 10" photos if one is not too critical about sharpness, especially near the edges and corners. This resolution limit has more to due with the lackluster optics being used than with the number of megapixels. Basically, the tiny lenses are the limiting factor and not the sensor.

The Fuji F30 is about the same size and weight as the Canon SD550 (or SD700). I bought it based on the rave reviews it got in the high-ISO, low light category. So, when I tested it against my 7.1MP Canon SD550 I was greatly surprised by the vastly superior image quality of the 6.3MP Fuji at ALL ISO settings. The Fujicon lens used provides much sharper pictures than the Canon from edge to edge. Sure, the Canon will make ok 8 x 10's but those from the Fuji will be much sharper and crisper, especially away from the center where the Canon image gets softer. The difference is even more striking in lower light, such as indoors or outside when the sun is low or under heavy clouds. The Fuji provides much sharper AND lower noise images at ISO 800 than the Canon does at ISO 200. Essentially, the Fuji can use the same shutter speed (to freeze action and mitigate hand-shake) in one-fourth the light while still producing superior pictures!!! The Fuji could also provide a shutter speed four-times faster in the same light and give sharper pictures and less noisy pictures.

Another advantage of the Fuji F30 is the option to have full manual control over aperture, metering, etc, just like an SLR (no manual focus however). The LCD on the Fuji is also much brighter and clearer (many more pixels and less reflective) than the Canon. One more advantage is battery life. The Fuji battery is about twice as large as that used in the Canon SD550. It is rated at 580 shots while the Canon is rated at about 150 shots. There's not nearly as much need to buy and carry a spare battery for the Fuji.

OK, the Fuji does have a few disadvantages over the Canon. The worst of these to me is the use of tiny xD memory cards. Not only do you need to buy yet another type of card but large 1GB xD cards require much longer times (about 5-10 times as long) to transfer images to your computer through a card reader than do 1GB SD cards. The reason for this is that the small sized xD card require special hardware compression to allow 1GB to be stored. In reading the card the pictures have to be uncompressed into normal jpeg format. This slows down the transfer. The xD card compression seems to have no effect on how fast the camera can take pictures. The Fuji is at least as fast as the Canon in starting up and taking pictures.

Another lessor complaint IMO is the supplied Fuji battery charger. It charges the battery only while in the camera and has a cord to plug into the camera and another long cord to plug into the wall. In contrast, Canon provides a very tiny battery charger with folding outlet prongs. This packs easily and charges the battery directly with NO cords. Fuji could provide a similar charger but, instead, offers to sell you their version of the Canon cordless charger for an extra $60-90 as an accessory. You can also buy a non-Fuji version of the cordless charger for about $28, so it's not a big issue, but is an irritation. It is also worth noting that the Fuji has no peephole viewfinder. I rarely use this but some folks may think this an omission. On the other hand, the Fuji LCD is much brighter and less reflective than the Canon screen so it can actually be used in bright sunlight when the peephole would be the only option with the Canon.

In summary, aside from the issues of the xD card and supplied charger, the Fuji F30 represents a significant breakthrough in image quality, low-light performance and optional manual controls for small pocket cameras.

The F30 continues in the F10 tradition. After years of trying to hype up interest in their cameras with SuperCCD claims of 12 MPs etc But falling completely short with excess noise, Fuji has come out with a decent camera this time. This camera compares very well to the higher megapixel cameras like the Canon SD550 and the Sony W70.

Fuji succeeded in besting the previous FinePix F10 which was well liked for the quality of its high ISO upto 800 ISO images. The F30 as about a stop better in terms of image quality. So at ISO 800 the images are similar to ISO 400 images on the F10. Higher ISO increases the sensitivity of the sensor to light but at a cost of increased noise.

Generally the image sensors in digital cameras can be adjusted so that the ISO setting can be increased by simply amplifying the output of the image sensor, which increases image noise, sometimes beyond the level that is acceptable. Just as in photographic film, greater sensitivity comes with some loss of image quality, though this is visible as noise rather than grain.

Here in the Fuji F30, even ISO 1600 is usable. However, note that ISO 3200 images do suffer from noise artifacts. You are not going to notice any of this for small prints but not for prints above 8x10. However no other small point and shoot digicam offers ISO 3200 - in fact not even DSLRs like Canon Rebel 350XD does this..

I think its closest competitors are the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX01, Sony W100 and the Canon SD630 all of which are priced slightly lower than the Fuji and have some really compelling features. The Panasonic even has image stabilization which this F30 does not have.

Here are the PROS (Good Things)

1)The F30 is almost identical in shape and weight to its predecessor, the F10 except for that it's a bit more rounded. In size, it is in between compact and ultra-compact. It is similar in size to the Canon SD550. It has a nice sturdy metal body, although not as sleek as and thicker than the Canon SD line but an improvement over the F10

2) Very low noise upto ISO 800 although has purple fringing on some pictures. Blows away the other cameras here. The ISO1600 on the F30 is far less nosiy than the ISO1000 on the new Sony cameras.

3) Low light: This is the main feature and this little camera has actually usable ISO 1600 settings. The ISO3200 is barely useable if you run it through "neat-image". In some cases (not all) this eliminates the need for the the image stablization. I have not been able to find a better point and shoot at ISO1600 which is only avaible on DSLR.

4) Very good battery life. Fuji says 580 pictures per charge...really good for this small camera. I got about 300 pictures for a charge

5) Priced very well if you take a lot of pictures in the nightclubs and parties.

6) Finally a good movie mode (at 640 x 480 and very crisp 30 fps)


Here are the CONS (BAD Things)

1) Uses those pesky SLOWWW xD cards which are harder to find, more expensive and smaller capacities than the SD cards. In comparison to performance. xD is slow, low capacity, and overall really dumb(only on Fuji and Oly cams, while SD are in... everything). A lot of my friends were planning to buy the F30, but really upset at the xD flash format.

2) No optical viewfinder. This will come back to haunt you in bright sunlight when the LCD gets completely washed out.

3) Really stupid design flaw of the use of a propreitary Fuji USB cable. Thanks for getting rid of the dock/adapter from the F10 for any of the ports, including USB, A/V out, or Power.

4) Hard to use menu system. Canon and Sony totally blow away this camera is ease of use menu system

5) Manual controls are better than the F10 but not as good as the Canon manual control. Not all combinations are available in all exposure modes. Fuji tries too hard to make their cameras as "idiot proof" as possible, which tends to be frustrating for more advanced shooters. Getting the settings you want takes a bit of menu changes and mode switching...but you are buying this camera for its point and shoot capabilities and not manual controls.. right !!

6) Lens is not wide-angle as compared to the Panasonic which starts out at 28 mm. The Fuji starts out at a longer 36 mm which are not very useful for wide angle work.

7) Autofocus did not work very well for me. It was slow and tended to search and then it picked the wrong points.

8) Does not have IMAGE stablization. Fuji tries to compete with Panasonic and misrepresents the camera by labeling a mode as "Picture Stabilization". However this is not an optical image stabilization system. Just a really dumb confusing mode which adjusts the ISO setting (from ISO 100 to ISO 3200) to give a shutter speed fast enough to eliminate blur due to camera shake.

9) Oddly enough, not as good on outdoor bright sunny days as it is indoors /at night. THe tonal curves produce images that lack highlight or shadow detail. There is also a huge tendency to over expose in most of the outdoor pictures. On large blow-ups (13x19 and above), the colors appear to be kind of "smeared". Skin tones appear to be little funny at lower ISOs and with flash. Some have an exaggeration of blues or overemphasis of orange. Some pictures are too contrasty and over-saturated, so details gets lost. Canon pictures are a lot more crisper.

10) Controls are very limited.. for example no flash power control.

11) Large Bulky AC Adaptor. Canon has a nice one which plugs right into the wall with built-in prongs.

12) Built-in flash is weak.. even weaker than the f10 and you cannot attach an external flash

13) Made in China. The older models F10 etc were made in Japan. This F30 model is now made in China. I dont know if this will have an impact on quality.

Overall this camera depends on your needs.. if you do a lot of outdoor shooting, go for the Panasonic or the Canons.. If you do about 70 - 80% of your shooting at night events and parties then this Fuji is for you. In summary its best feature is its low-light capability and its biggest flaw is the xD cards. I also stay away from any cameras from Olympus which uses the same small capacity slow but expensive xD cards.

Recently I'd planned to replace my Panasonic Lumix FX7 with the FX9. I love the handy little FX7, but its battery life was prohibitively short. To the point that anxiety about when the camera was going to die was marring the pleasure of vacations.

The FX9 has twice the battery life and I thought, problem solved. But just as I was beginning to purchase the FX9, the FX01 came out. I was thrilled, as I could really use the extra wide angle capability.

But then the Canon SD700IS came out. What a lovely little camera. Beautifully made, also good battery life, a longer lens, and now with the Panasonic's trump card, optical IS. And while it seems that the image quality of the FX01 is a slight step down from FX9, the Canon appears to be a clear step up. Megapixel absolutely loved the SD700IS

My only hesitation was that some time ago my wife bought me a Canon A80. It had a tendency to "smooth" the image and I didn't like it. It seemed to diminish the realism and crispness of the picture. Indeed, the criteria I'm used to using when evaluating a camera or camera lens are sharpness, contrast, and saturation. Yes, I could sharpen the image made by the Canon using the computer, so clearly the data was being recorded. However, the actual plane of focus, even after sharpening, is not obvious. I know that professionals actually prefer this smoothness, but I found this so troubling that after days of agonizing, I sent the otherwise lovely A80 back.

When I later acquired the Panasonic FX7, I didn't hold it to the same standard, since it is truly only a pocket camera. I was resigned to accepting slightly disappointing images, but was grateful the camera was there to get the shot. And as long as it is set to ISO 80, the FX7 can deliver a pretty good image and has good lens.

As I agonized about my decision, I looked at quite a few online camera review sites. I particularly like Dpreview, Dcresource, Megapixel and Dave's picks. So, I carefully scrutinized the sample pictures for the SD700IS, and uh oh, there's that Canon smoothing again. This is particularly obvious if you have a look at the macro shot of Mickey Mouse in the DCresource site. The silver bit on Mickey's hat is just a blur- yipe! It's not out of focus, but it almost looks like it is due to the "smoothness". It's just not my cup of tea.

As a piece of kit, the SD700IS is a great thing, so despite the smoothness I didn't want to totally let go of the idea of getting it. As I was agonizing over the camera's images, I noted that in Dpreview, cameras are often compared to a very high resolution camera called the "Fuji F10". This camera's images are a virtually always superior to whatever they are compared to, so much so that I had just assumed it was a DSLR. But I clicked on it and I was shocked to discover that it is another point and shoot!

Now all of a sudden there was another player. I looked through the images from all the website reviews, and in terms of image detail, contrast and ISO the F10 with its "superCCD" appears to be in a slightly higher league than other point and shoots, including the Canon 700IS.

The newer F30 just came out, and so I decided to bite the bullet and buy one before the DPreview came out. I was a little spooked by the Megapixel review, which did not give the F30 as high a rating as the CanonSD700. On the other hand, Dave's site provides a means of side-by side comparison between the CanonSD700 and the F30. In this case, in equal light, my own subjective assessment gave the edge to the F30. But at 400 ISO and above, the F30 blew the CanonSD700 away. In fact, the image quality of the F30 at ISO 400 is as good as the SD700IS at 100, and vastly better than the FX01.

True, the main strength of the F30 is its light gathering capability, making it seem like a one trick pony. However, it is a very important trick. A camera is a machine whose main purpose it to gather light, focus it, and record it. The F30 is very very good at this. It's bit like saying a particular racing car is a one trick pony if it has more horse power than the other cars. Again, if you are going to pick one trick to be good at, that is a very major trick.

And when I'm honest with myself, I frequently use point and shoots in low light situations- indoors, in shaded areas, at dawn, at dusk, at night. When I look at my average travel photos- a very high percentage of the shots are in low light. With many of my shots with the Panasonic FX7, the static parts of the image are clear, but the people are blurry. This is the legacy of low-light optical image stabilized shots. I'm steady, shooting between breaths, the camera is steady, thanks to OIS- but the subject is not completely still. But by shooting 2 or even 3 stops faster, my hope is that both the people and the background will be clear.

When the F30 arrived, I immediately noted it is larger than the Panasonic FX01, which was a bit disappointing. And although easy to use, it didn't seem quite as slick at the Canon. However, as I handled the camera for the first few days, I realized that it is very well made, and one has the feeling that being tightly squeezed in a jeans pocket won't hurt it. So I'm now fairly comfortable shoving it in my pocket.

But once I saw the camera's first pictures, all concerns vanished. The pictures are phenomenal. The sharpness, edge definition, and lack of noise in the low light shots are so good that the camera is really in a higher league than the other point and shoots I was considering. Granted, saturation is a bit low. I used to be an enthusiastic amateur photographer- Bogen tripods, Nikkor Lenses, and push processing my Fuji Velvia one stop. You know the drill. Well, that was years ago. But the F30 is good enough that I'm starting to take more artistic shots again. And I'll just bump up the saturation a bit using the computer.

Another facet is that phenomenal battery life. I shot 375 images, with flashes, and lots of reviewing, and even transferred them to my computer before the battery indicator finally moved from full to the next level down. On my second 4 day trip with the camera, I didn't bother to bring the charger. I didn't need it. Sitting for 2 weeks without use- turning it on- full charge indicated with no losses. What a difference, and what a relief from the constant ritual of charging the battery after every 5 hours with the Panasonic FX7.

So the F30 is a two trick pony- battery life and fantasic light gathering.

When the Dpreview came out, it confirmed my findings. The dpreview is spot on. If you compare the images of the Fuji F30 and the Canon SD700 at 400, 800, well, it's not even close. I wouldn't hesitate to blow up an ISO 400 shot from the Fuji, wherease with the Canon, I might not even bother to take an ISO 400 shot. In retrospect, I'm a bit puzzled the scoring of the Megapixel review, which I'm chalking up to their weighting the handling and menu systems highly.

Since I'm primarily concerned with image quality, battery life, and the speed to focus, the F30 is perfect for me. The camera does what is it advertised to do and I'm really happy that I have it along with me, knowing that I'll never have to feel even slightly disappointed by the results.

I acquired this camera a few weeks ago, recently I was also given a Canon SD700 as a gift - which I considered getting when I was buying the F30. I wasn't inclined to write a review on this camera but since I now have both (for now - I will get rid of the Canon soon) I thought I would write a review and try to compate the two a little. Many points have been made about this camera in prior reviews already. My take after comparing the two is that: if you want a capable and flexible compact camera this is the choice for you. My main gripe with the SD700 was that it offered no manual controls which I have come to love on the F30. Also, the images out of the SD700 are softer straight out of the camera. Also the SD700 suffers from corner softness and some mild vignetting (especially in sky shots). The SD700 does have its better points like continous shooting and having OIS. But, the ISO performance is non-comparable to the F30 starting at ISO200 and above. Also, the battery litteraly lasted at least twice as long as the SD700. The flash power is much much better and when coupled with the ISO performance it is very nice. Now in low-light the F30 is no doubt the king of compacts. The one area where the SD700 did better was the F30 would sometimes blow highlights more often than the SD700 (whose images were almost always more underexposed) - but this is an easy fix - either keep the camera on -1/3 EV or even -2/3 in Multi metering to match the exposures from the SD700, or in bright sunlit landscape scenes use Average metering for perfect results. Though be warned - Average isnt for all situations, but works well in sunlit outdoor shots for an even exposure and in other cases too. Overall, I am keeping the F30 for sure and either giving the SD700 as a gift myself or selling it - since I can use the F30 in more photographic oppurtunities - low light, bright light, flash shots, etc. Also, the SD700 does not offer anything to justify its high price - no manual controls (Aperture control is most important and the F30 has 10 stops that can be set manually - the SD700 has none - your at the mercy of the camera and it tends to always pick a wide open aperture), the SD700 also has OK feature set, and decent but not amazing image quality especially considering the price. The one issues the F30 suffers most from is purple fringing, but this can also easily be fixed without resorting to post-processing: there is PF if you overexpose the image if the aperture is at the wide-open setting, but setting the aperture to f4 or higher eliminates all PF problems - that simple. The F30 can produce a better image in every situation I tested the cameras in - especially if you know how to get the best out of the camera - then it is almost in a class of its own as far as compact cameras go - especially in low-light. A great buy for sure.

You'd be hard pressed to find any camera, even a dSLR, that can take acceptable hand-held low light photographs, barring the Fujifilm Futura film series. My Canon 20D can take extended "bulb" shutter release photos, but shadows are invariably mangled with noise banding on anything above ISO 400. The F30 is so light sensitive at high ISO it can overexpose images, and I say that with astonishment and respect.

I've had the F30 for a few weeks now, and the few gripes people have with it (purple fringing on high contrast details such as tree branchs against sky, can be handled by upping the F stops up to F5; user interface, which once mastered is fine; AC chord which is minor, and there are cheap $19 chargers on ebay; viewfinder and LCD which are fine and high rez for what it is; xD card which although a bit slow, is $50 for a 2Gb on ebay; Daylight color I found perfectly acceptable, all the images can use a bump in contrast, but my dSLR shots do too) don't compare to the advantages.

The intelligent lighting algorithm makes flash photos come out excellent, and the level of detail and sharpness from the lens are on par with professional Canon lens. And as mentioned, being able to literally see objects in near dark, as if they are lit, is the price of admission. I have a digital SLR, so if I want a daylight shots of the Grand Canyon, that's the camera I want to use. The majority of "I wish I had my camera with me" shots are invariably nighttime, indoors, and in situations where you don't want to try to hand hold a 5 second exposure, no matter what image stabilization tricks some cameras and lens claim to possess. The very high ISO settings give very very natural noise... not tack sharp, but done in a grain-like manner to be acceptable. Normal high ISO shots on typical CCDs give horrid banded "grid" noise that is impossible to remove without blurring it to death. I happen to like the naturalistic noise... and anything below 400 is completely noiseless. Rather astonishing and I wish more camera manufacturers would stop the Megapixel size race and start making higher quality chips like this one.

My only beef with the camera was the AF was slow... so it's point, wait, and shoot. This is really a camera meant for professionals that know their way around photoshop, or amateurs with a desire to do some manual tweaking. This is not the camera for grandma or parents that can only handle the power and shutter buttons, although the "settings" feature is close to be idiot proof. (nighttime setting defaults to 10 sec exposures, and I doubt anyone realizes it's meant as a tripod shot) Had there been just Auto, A/S, (true) Manual, and Video settings, this camera would be flawless. It tries a bit too hard to offer too much control wise, and at the same time automate too much.

But I think anyone seeing the types of shots you can get in lowlight, from tourists who'd like lit up cityscapes of the places they visit, to college kids wanting nice embarassing shots of their friends in bars... this camera is a must for what it offers. Check flikr dot com for samples. Highly Recommended.

PS if you want to add wide angle to the camera, use a Nikon Coolpix WC-E63 Converter Lens & UR-E3 Adapter (easy to find both on ebay ~$20) At wide angle F30 lens is equivalent to about a 36mm SLR lens, the Nikon lens (good glass, 4 elements with some barrel distortion but sharp at edges) makes it roughly a 22mm true wide angle.

The Finepix F30 is the first camera in its class that allows the user to take low light photographs without flash. In the outdoors, it's the first camera in its class that allows the user to take action photos on cloudy days and capture a dog in mid-leap as it grabs a frizbee in its jaws.

I truly wish people would stop lamenting over the F30s lack of "Image Stabalization." The latter doesn't help much at all in capturing real life photography. Image Stabalization is excellent for taking movies because it compensates for hand shake.

That's all it does. It is not intended to freeze movement of the subject. For that, you need high ISO sensitivity, and all of you Canon and Panasonic loving syncophants should reconcile your minds to the fact that in this area, the Finepix F30 breaks new and even hostoric ground for a camera this size.

Outdoors photography isn't always taking photos of people posing, or static landscapes. It's capturing the flight of a butterfly, or a flower waving in the wind, or a bird in flight. And in these cases, high ISO is far more important than worrying about stabalizing the shake of your hand.

In an ideal world, digital cameras would have high ISO sensitivity for enabling fast shutter speeds and Image Stabalization for that extra help against a shutter release fumble. But few things are ideal and if given the option, I wouldn't think twice in choosing the ability to use high shutter speeds with moderate aperture openings.

I've used the Finepix F30 for several weeks now as a handy take everywhere supplement to my larger cameras. I've taken some 350 photos under all conceivable circumstances, including many using flash. The battery indicator has just dropped to half, which means that Fuji's claim of some 580 shots per charge is accurate.

When set to Fine/Hard mode, colors are excellent and photos are quite sharp with virtually no noise through ISO 1600. ISO 3200 can be used in a pinch. Compare that to any other camera in of its kind.

While I prefer using an eyepiece, a refresh rate of 60 per second for the rear viewer allows comfortable use even on sunny days. I might also add that the movie mode in 640X480 is very impressive.

Finally, I don't like XD cards because of their small size. I'm 6'2" and have large hands. Bud I don't like SD cards either and prefer the 1 inch square and more substantial feel of CF cards. But you debunkers of XD technology should understand that lab tests on read/write speed are frequently misnomers. True usable speed is based on the interaction of the memory card and the electronics of the camera. And in this context, I've found that the F30 writes at about average speed.

As for autofocus, the F30 is blazingly fast. Anyone who claims otherwise is showing a bit of prejudice.

The Finepix F30 is with little doubt, the best all around camera of its kind. There is nothing like it for "real life" photography.

You know the specs. You've read the reviews. You might have even been caught up in the hype. So let me get straight to the point: My Fuji FinePix F30 observations:

First off, I'm not sure why people loathe the XD format. I purchased a current-generation, high-speed 1 Gig XD card for about $30 a year or so ago -- not much more than its SD counterpart.

Second, I must mention that the video mode on this camera is absolutely phenomenal for a digital camera -- complete with stereo sound!

Third, the battery life, at 500+ shots per charge, is astounding. (I wish cell phone batteries lasted this long!)

With respect to flash performance, the Fuji FinePix F30 is also a lot better in macro mode than other digital cameras I own (three presently). Specifically, the flash doesn't wash everything out because it stomps down in anticipation that the subject will be close to the lens -- which helps improve image detail and color accuracy in ways I have not been able to obtain with other cameras I've owned or used. Color reproduction, with or without flash, is also a strong point. Even difficult to capture colors, such as those on the feathering of my Budgerigars, are true-to-life -- something that none of my film shots, let alone my digital cameras, ever accomplished. Likewise, image noise is surprisingly low, which helps bring out the detail -- providing you don't lose them to overexposure or motion blur, which will be the focus of the remainder of this review.

DPREVIEW, among other professional digital camera review sites, has mentioned, but underemphasized, IMHO, a tendency for image exposure to vary considerably -- even when shooting the same scene back-to-back. Sometimes auto exposure is spot-on, and sometimes not. That being said, the F30s exposure consistency is still much improved over the F10 (had and returned three of those due to problems I ultimately attributed to inconsistent quality control, otherwise known in the digital camera world as "sample variation"). Getting back to my point, overexposure is mostly a problem under bright sun. To one degree or another, many of the outdoor or landscape pictures shown here on Amazon demonstrate blown highlights and/or chromatic aberrations (purple fringing). While all digital cameras suffer from this to some extent, there are others that reconcile light and dark areas of an image much better -- even so-called entry-level cameras such as the Panasonic LZ series -- that are roughly half the price. Translation? This is not your best camera for vacation photos. I went to a theme park, for example, and the white roller coaster tracks against a blue sky just clip off in mid air -- not during a summer at midday, but under a winter sun less than an hour before sunset!

Another unfortunate surprise: The camera performs absolutely horridly inside even the slowest and brightly lit kiddie rides (regardless of setting). The low light is not a problem as is typically the issue with competing digital cameras; rather, unlike other digital cameras I have used under the same circumstances, the focus is very easily disrupted by photographer motion. Similarly, if you can't brace well or don't have a steady hand, this camera isn't the best choice -- ostensibly because it completely lacks true image stabilization (to help compensate for the shaking). Consequently, inside the rides, only one out of every 10 pictures was a "keeper". True, it's a hard situation for any camera, but I've had digital cameras as old as six years that managed to capture a higher rate -- albeit noisier -- percentage of focused images under identical shooting conditions. The rare F30 shot that came out focused under these conditions, however, was significantly brighter looking with less image noise; however, the camera's excellent handling of low light is precisely why it is so frustrating to have such a great range of useable ISOs paired with a camera that has trouble remaining focused due to motion blur or, perhaps more accurately, anytime the scene is even slightly reframed after the initial focus object has been obtained. The only exception to the motion=blur rule was when shooting out of a moving car (as a passenger, of course!). My amateur guess is that auto focus to infinity helps the camera compensate. In a theme park ride, by comparison, objects are much closer to the lens -- and not as well lit -- which probably explains why they rarely turn out no matter what automatic setting is used.

On a related note, Fuji documentation for the F-series warns users that panning is not a recommended use of their cameras. Sure enough, when I shot images of my 60-gallon aquarium, I had no success capturing the activity behind the glass. Whereas a six-year-old camera I owned faired well shooting into an aquarium, even churning out postcard like results with modest effort, none of the Fuji F-series cameras I've used, including the F30, can produce a useable picture under like circumstances. For this reason marine park and aquarium enthusiasts should consider a camera that handles panning better than the F30. For similar reasons, panning to follow active subjects in close proximity would seem to preclude many situations, including sports at close range, fast moving people at dance clubs and active pets or children.

Even low light use revealed its share of surprises. Fireworks mode, as the manual states, won't work without a tripod. As such, the anti-blur mode was my choice for hand-held fireworks shots. (Even better for capturing fireworks is the camera's video setting.) Similarly, I shot roughly 100 pictures in dual natural light + flash mode over the holidays, yet threw out all but a handful of natural light pics. Reason? In default settings the camera tends to choose its unusable maximum setting indoors: ISO 3200. (I guess the people I know don't have very well lit homes.) As a result, indoor images are never particularly crisp or accurately saturated. Second unpleasant surprise: Outdoors at night, the moon turns into a luminous white haze -- so much so that it is barely circular in shape (using the camera in point-and-shoot mode). Seemingly, the Fuji F30, at least in auto settings, cannot reconcile a bright full moon and dark surroundings. Ditto for bright neon lights (Los Vegas style) or even lights in parking lots. Light instead forms streaks, flares and gigantic halos. To a lesser degree, the same phenomena takes place indoors: Lit floor or table lamps in my natural light images cast a diffuse glow that washed out detail in nearby people and objects.

Don't get me wrong: I like the camera for what it can do that others cannot (and for its high-resolution, low-glare LCD). So who is best suited for this camera? Answer: Those who negate its weaknesses (in full auto) by making full use of the manual settings and features. For those who do not have the steadiest hands, most camera know-how or just lack the patience, there are less expensive cameras to be found that will serve you nicely. If Fuji's legendary low-light performance has you sold, however, I would say that its main strength is for still-life shots (objects, museums and the like). A second strength is macro photography (flowers and smaller). A third use would be relatively distant subjects (sports scenes from the stands). Who should avoid this camera? I would stay away from the Fuji FinePix F30 if you live in a mostly sunny climate and intend to use it in full auto mode primarily as an outdoor camera (for vacations and the like). Though your individual user experience will vary, it's not the do-all camera to end all searches for the perfect digital imaging tool.

Bottom line? Low light superstar or not, there's just no overlooking what I believe to be the biggest oversight of all: Lack of true gyroscopic image stabilization. If you have a habit taking shots over your head or shooting low profile objects, pets or people, you won't be in perfect compensatory bracing form. Similarly, hyperactive or excitable types, those who drink a lot of caffeinated drinks, or anyone who has a medical condition that causes handshake or tremor will appreciate a noticeable improvement using a digital camera, such as Panasonic or select Sony or Canon models, which supplies genuine image stabilization. Problem is, despite the advertising, the Fuji FinePix F30 does not include an image stabilizer -- only a combination of fixed ISOs and increased shutter speeds. It's a modest improvement over the Fuji FinePix F10, which had no anti-blur mode whatsoever, but as an owner of cameras with and without gyroscopic image stabilization I can attest to the fact that Fuji's anti-blur mode is still a poor substitution for the real thing (in terms of percentage of useable pictures, particularly under challenging shooting circumstances, such as panning to follow your subject). Unlike gyroscopic image stabilization, which is always enabled for every setting and any picture you wish to shoot on competing cameras, the F30's anti-blur mode is only one setting of many on the camera dial, and completely inaccessible in full auto or scene modes. Although the Fuji FinePix F30 takes many steps in the right direction, I won't be joining the "cult of Fuji" quite yet.

I've owned 5 digital cameras; I'm an amateur who goes back to the SLR days. I have liked my prior two Fuji's but have had reliability problems, battery life problems, exposure problems. Minor. I decided to step up. I was looking at any and everythingi from Panasonic/Canon/Olympus to Leica. I could afford anything and had 2 cameras to trade in.
I finally settled on the F30. First of all I was impressed with the uniformity of excellent reviews across a whole range of sites online. Second, my local camera store raved about this, despite the fact that I said the only thing I wanted was high quality pictures, price no object.

Frankly, I'm very impressed. I didn't want to go from AA's to proprietary lithium, but frankly @ >500 pix on a charge I am OK. With my prior camera the AA's wore down in a day. With this, it is small enough to go in my pack 24/7 and the battery has lasted over a 2 weeks with no sign of loss. I am totally fine with Xd cards, in fact I didn't want to switch to something else. Lack of optical viewfinder was a touchy area but frankly the other cameras I was looking at lacked one also, so I figured I'd make the leap. Fit and finish are wonderful. Video is excellent, in fact for travel I used to use a combo camcorder that took stills; now I use this for the occasional videos that I want. (incidentally, they sync with my creative Zen perfectly. I mean perfectly)

Picture quality is superb. I buy into the super CCD and the quality of the lens. This is far better optically than my e550 - no contest. I can magnify this on my monitor to tremendous zooms and the resolution is phenomenal. I take a picture of ivy from 20 feet away and blow it up till it fills my 15" monitor with just a leaf and it is crisp.

Menu, great. Ergonomics - so-so. Very hard to pick up with moderate sized hands. NO grip - hard to pull out blind from your pack and orient yourself. Probably my major gripe.
Very happy with selections. Like the 1600-3200 ISO settings. Superb in low light. I was very disappointed with prior cameras - birthday parties, kids indoors, snapshots in restaurants, buildings, museums were blurry and awful. No more.
Zoom is adequate. I wanted resolution. I managed to handle my Pixel envy and stick with a 6 instead of a 10, and am thrilled with the results. Macro, flash very good.

I have two small kids and most of my pictures happen in interior settings (at home or at parties) and mostly after the sunset. My previous camera was 5 years old, had a large shutter delay and could not take pictures at low light, so most of my pictures were moved and missed the moment. It basically worked well in sunlight and that was it.

I was waiting for the Panasonic LX2 to come out, because it has many features I liked better than the F30 (wide angle, manual controls, etc). But it came out and the noise in even well lit pictures at ISO 100 is really awful, so I decided not to wait anymore and went for the Fujifilm F30.

The F30 is not the perfect camera (that would be the Panasonic LX2 with Fujifilm SuperCCD sensor) but it meets my needs perfectly. The flash is only needed to fill a backlit scene, but I never again used flash under any other circumstance. There's no need.

I have to say it performs exactly as I expected. I was traveling with two friends, each with his own camera, and all the shots taken at night had to be taken with my F30 because the other cameras (comparable pocket digicams) could not handle the low light as the pictures turned out moved or noisy.

As a bonus, the movie mode is so good that I stopped using my DV camcorder, even considering that the 640x480 video frames are smaller than the 720x480 DV frames. But the video quality of the F30 is so much better that I am happy to have less pixels. Of course, I am using a 1Gb memory card, otherwise I wouldn't be able to take useful movie clips.

So, I am very happy with my purchase, even after having some problems with Amazon and its customer support (hint: don't cancel an order if you have little credit left on your card; Amazon doesn't handle that too well and their customer support people simply don't get it).

So I recently got this camera based on the good reviews and it sure doesn't dissapoint. It is an excellent all-around performer in many regards. I rated this camera 5 stars since I do think it is the best and most versatile compact camera in the market.

Here are the main good points about the camera.
1. Very fast startup and focusing (which is also very accurate too). Speedy performance overall.
2. Very impressive lens. The Fujinon lens is remarkable (it also has an EBC coating, what that does is remove lens flare which happens in scenes with high contrast). I am very impressed by the piece of glass on this cameras, definetely the sharpest lens I have encountered on a P&S for sure.
3. Super CCD sensor. The camera has excellent noise control for a compact cam. Detail and noise levels are excellent up to ISO800. Very acceptable at ISO1600 (makes an 8 x 10 print) and acceptable as a 4 x 6 at ISO3200. This is quite remarkable. This fact also enables the camera to use high ISO's to reduce camera shake and also reduce subject movement by using a fast shutter speed (which optical Image Stabilization systems cannot achieve - they only stop camera shake, not subject movement). Thanks to the cams impressive control of noise (although noise and noise reduction is visible (beyond ISO800) at 100% on your computer screen - which would be the same as printing the image almost 4ft wide) it does an excellent job when shots are printed. Thus the cam offers currently unmatched noise capability for a compact making it ideal in low-light.
4. Manual controls. I love having Aperture and Shutter priority modes in a camera this size, there is also custom white balance too. Very nice.
5. Excellent movie mode (640 x 480 at 30fps until the card is full).
6. Very nice ergonomics (the design looks much better than the prior F10 yet it still feels very nice in the hand and is easily grippable with one hand due to the cleverly placed rubber grips under the zoom lever).
7. The best battery life in its class (580 shots). The best by far actually. Again, currently unmatched.
8. Smart layout of controls, (a dedicated EV button - which is very useful) plus two Auto ISO modes (Auto 400 & Auto 1600) very smart. Also the ISO adjustment button is the first item in the F menu (making it easily accessable and the other items Metering, WB, etc. are all also easily accesable in the main menu. Good layout of items so everything is adjustbale in a quick manner.
9. The LCD. Very high quality screen - again the best I have seen on a compact P&S. It has +230,000 pixels, plus an anti-glare coating for outdoor use, it is very bright. In fact I turned it down to -2 to -3 setting to get more accurate reproduction of the scene. Also a quick brightness button which brightens the image when needed with the touch of a button, even more useful though hardly needed since its already very usable outdoors, but its there, just in case. Oh, not to mention 60fps view mode. In one word - smooth. Makes taking actions shots a breeze. A truly quality screen you really dont miss the viewfinder at all with this LCD.
10. Very good metering and color reproduction. When compared to my SD450 (which underexposes significantly in bright light and overexposes significantly in low-light with a lot of noise) the F30 does a spot-on job almost every-time. If you happen to get blown highlights which is usually pretty rare (but not uncommon in P&S's in general, the dedicated EV button I mentioned comes in very handy here). Very high IQ overall. Also, I have found that the Shade WB results in absolutely perfect colors in shady and cloudy sitations outdoors (better than the Auto WB outdoors IMO - which can be too blue in those cases).
11. The AF illuminator is very bright. Can focus in pitch black, though what I like is that it doesnt resort to using it nearly as much as my Canon SD450 (ie. slow focusing) but only when it truly needs it.
12. The flash metering system (another excellent feature) called I-Flash. What it does is adjust ISO (up to 800 in Auto mode) to keep more natural lighting in the image and also reduce flash power to create a very impressive flash shot. Not your usual white-light overexposed foreground and dark black background but truly a balanced exposure with well-lit foreground and the natural colors from the lighting in the scene. Does not make the scene have that bluish-white like cast over the image like cother cameras flash system do. An excellent feature.

So as you can tell, the camera offers excellent performance, image quality and features. It is an incredibly impressive camera for the price and size. Next my few gripes with the camera. The main negatives of the cam are (and unfortunately every camera has some)

1. Higher than average purple fringing. Though both my prior cams (Minolta and Canon) also suffered from this. It can also be controlled to a degree by adjusting aperture and EV to compensate for overexposure and also setting Shade WB helps too (PF is caused mostly by overexposure so controlling variables helps - though you will only get it if the image is overexposed and the scene has very high contrast - otherwise a non-issue.) Also PF can be removed quite easily in post-processing so its not a huge burden. This is the only issue relating to image-quality and the other optical positives seriously outweigh this issue.
2. Continous shooting is a mixed bag. While the Top 3 and Final 3 modes are blazin fast, the Long Continous mode is quite slow (since it focuses before every shot - which can be usefull too -the other modes lock focus to >1 meter, hence the quick shooting). I suspect XD cards may have something to do with this though Im not sure. Also, XD cards are not really a burden anymore since 1GB cards can be found for about $40 online.
3. The battery is charged in cam with the AC adaptor (which is in fact pretty tiny), this can be a burden since the cam cant be used and a spare battery charged at the same time (unless you buy an external charger - a la Canon - however the battery literally lasts close to 600 shots so it wont run out during a days shooting (more like a weeks shooting - even if you shoot a lot), and if you come back with an emtpy battery you dont have to wait till its charged to transfer images to your PC, just plug the AC adaptor in the wall and plug in the USB cable and you're good to go so its not that bad really, It would be if the battery only lasted like my other two cams batteries do but thankfully the battery life is remarkable it literally just keeps going and going and going.
4. Lastly, deleting an image in-cam is slow compared to my previous two cameras though this is not representative of overall operation and playback, they are very swift.

To sum up, this is my 3rd digital camera (first Fuji) and I am thoroughly impressed with this cam. It has the best image quality in its class with levels of sharpness and detail that I have not seen in any camera in the same category. (For example, the Canon and Minolta images look terribly soft and almost out-of-focus-like in some cases when compared to the F30 at 100% on screen. It really is remarkable, it is the king of low-light shooters among P&S's but whats equally as striking is the impressive image quality in daylight shots with the excellent exposure (almost all the time) and the oh-so sharp images. The Fujinon lens is excellent, I cannot stress the sharpness and level of detail enough, you have to see it with your own eyes. This lens when coupled with the 1/1.7 inch Super CCD - which is almost 50% bigger than the Canon SD700's 6MP CCD - it becomes clear how the Fuji is able to control noise the way it does. Also, the flash is about 50% more powerful than the Canon's too though the camera does an excellent job of controlling how much it throttles down on the subject to accurately expose the shot (It's not physically stronger however, but has a longer effective working range due to the fact that it can utilize higher ISO's (ie. ISO 800 - and still keep the foreground properly exposed (by throtelling down) instead of blowing highlights). The battery literally lasts 2-3 times longer than my Canon's. Some comments on here are frustrating me with regards to this cam (some issues I have already covered above and some others for example are: the dock adaptor - this camera does not have a dock-adaptor!!(that was for the F10 - the F30 has no dock adaptor or dongle or anything of that sort)! Makes me feel rather skeptical and hesitant about some comments to say the least. Also, the AC adaptor is actually smaller than both my Canon and Minolta battery chargers, though it does have cables, hardly a drawback when the actual adaptor is so compact though. The images are not oversaturated one bit and infact are far more undersaturated than Canon images (also with none of the ugly "yellow-casted" greens the Canons Digic II processors create in shots of plants and trees and such) - Fuji's are famous for their natural looking colors - this is like a fact among photographers.

All in all the F30 is a great camera with truly remarkable image quality, outstanding sensitivity levels and noise handling (unmatched in the indsutry - less a DSLR), advanced manual controls, swift operation & focusing and excellent features (some of which again - are unmatched in the industry). Lastly, the highly impressive metering, along with the Super-CCD and Fujinon lens produces results that are quite simply astonishing for a camera it's size! Very Highly Recommended.