Fuji F30 - The ultimate small camera?

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  • RojarRojar Registered Users Posts: 2 Beginner grinner
    edited June 21, 2006
    nice!
    Well, I picked this camera up Monday morning at a local camera shop and I've been very impressed so far. I'm more of a mild digital photography enthusiast, so I don't have a lot of experience with many different cameras, but this one meets or beats my old canon powershot a70 at just about everything it does. It's fast, it's smaller, and after a bit of playing around, easier to use menu-wise.

    One thing I was worried about was that the 500 shots on a single charge thing wasn't going to be true - well... I haven't walked around taking 500 pictures, but certainly, the 170+ I took yesterday didn't even knock the battery indicator icon down a notch.

    I can't say I'm particularly enjoying the image software that came with the camera - but the camera itself is just very, very nice to use.

    The only issue I have (and I'm chalking it up to me just needing to spend a bit more time playing with settings) is that by default, nearly every indoor picture I've taken with the auto setting has gone to ISO 1600. Now, the ISO 1600 setting doesn't look terrible with this camera... but the noise is noticeable and unwanted. These were pictures that I was sure could have been taken without blur at maybe ISO 400 and a slower shutter speed... But the camera had other thoughts, it seems. heh

    At any rate, I'm sure there's a lot I can and will learn about this camera... but thankfully, it's fun to use while I'm doing that. No buyer's remorse at all.
  • Shay StephensShay Stephens Registered Users Posts: 3,165 Major grins
    edited June 21, 2006
    Rojar wrote:
    The only issue I have is that by default, nearly every indoor picture I've taken with the auto setting has gone to ISO 1600.

    Thanks for the report. I am actually glad to hear they finally have a camera out that errs on the side of faster ISO rather than the other way around like all the rest of the "flash the living daylights out of the scene" cameras hehehe.
    Creator of Dgrin's "Last Photographer Standing" contest
    "Failure is feedback. And feedback is the breakfast of champions." - fortune cookie
  • RojarRojar Registered Users Posts: 2 Beginner grinner
    edited June 22, 2006
    Thanks for the report. I am actually glad to hear they finally have a camera out that errs on the side of faster ISO rather than the other way around like all the rest of the "flash the living daylights out of the scene" cameras hehehe.

    No problem. In general, yeah, being able to take a shot at ISO 1600 is better than a darkened, blurred, flashed, glowing red-eyed monster... but this was a little extreme. I was still in "powershot a70 mode" with my picture taking/judgment, and I was fairly sure that with that camera, some of the shots would have come out just fine at lower ISO and slower shutterspeed... So when I viewed the images after taking them and finding that they had defaulted to ISO 1600, I was surprised.

    The sweet thing about viewing your photos on f30 vs the powershot a70 is that by default, the ISO of the image is displayed on the corner of the screen, letting you know then and there what sort of noise you can expect to see. If the ISO is too fast and you don't want noise, better take the shot again with some different settings. (Maybe this has become a more common practice with the new larger displays on the back, I don't know... they certainly have more real estate back there to work with now.)

    Well, I'll see if I can post a few shots when I get home tonight. Then you can see some examples. I'm new, so hopefully I'll get it right the first time.
  • ziggy53ziggy53 Super Moderators Posts: 24,129 moderator
    edited June 24, 2006
    Thanks for the report. I am actually glad to hear they finally have a camera out that errs on the side of faster ISO rather than the other way around like all the rest of the "flash the living daylights out of the scene" cameras hehehe.

    Shay,

    I figured you would jump for this camera, once it was finally available. Has something changed your mind?

    ziggy53
    ziggy53
    Moderator of the Cameras and Accessories forums
  • Shay StephensShay Stephens Registered Users Posts: 3,165 Major grins
    edited June 25, 2006
    ziggy53 wrote:
    Shay,

    I figured you would jump for this camera, once it was finally available. Has something changed your mind?

    ziggy53
    No just time and money right now. It's on my short list of things to get, but my laptop died and I had to buy a replacement, and that drained my happy money stash mwink.gif
    Creator of Dgrin's "Last Photographer Standing" contest
    "Failure is feedback. And feedback is the breakfast of champions." - fortune cookie
  • knaryknary Registered Users Posts: 61 Big grins
    edited June 25, 2006
    FWIW,
    There's a $50 rebate from Fuji on this camera if you buy it before July 15th, 2006.

    rebate form here
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