Fujifilm FinePix F70EXR- Good Inexpensive Camera

Sum and Substance:

Thumbs Up:

Inexpensive, good photo quality, very compact considering this has a 10x zoom.

Thumbs Down:

Lacks HD recording, menu systems take a while to get used to, the EXR modes drop down to 5 MP.

Inside the Trunk:

Drivers & Utilities, FinePix Viewer, A/V cable, USB cable, Hand strap

The Whiz Kid Speaks:

LCD of the camera is 2.7 inch big and has 230,000 pixels.

F70EXR has a 10 MP resolution lens, light sensitivity options are ISO 12800 (3Mpix), ISO 6400 (3Mpix), ISO 3200 (5Mpix), ISO auto, ISO 1600, ISO 800, ISO 400, ISO 200, ISO 100

It has a 4x digital zoom, shooting programs include text, flower, EXR mode, landscape, night mode, party/indoor, portrait mode, night(tripod), snow, beach, sunset, fireworks, pro focus, sports mode, natural light, pro low light, portrait enhancer.

Special effects include soft, vivid, film simulation, sepia, black and white. Maximum shutter speed is 1/2000 sec, minimum shutter speed is 8 seconds, exposure modes include manual, automatic, program, aperture-priority. White balance presets fine, incandescent, fluorescent light (warm white), fluorescent light (cool white)\, fluorescent light (daylight), shade.

Videos are stored in MJPEG or AVI format and still images are stored in JPEG format. For video capture, the options are AVI – 320 x 240 and AVI – 640 x 480. for image storage, resolutions are JPEG 1920 x 1080, JPEG 2048 x 1360, JPEG 2048 x 1536, JPEG 2592 x 1440, JPEG 2592 x 1728, JPEG 2592 x 1944, JPEG 3616 x 2048, JPEG 3616 x 2400, JPEG 3616 x 2712

The lens is Zoom lens – 5 mm – 50 mm – F/3.3-5.6, has focal length 5 mm – 50 mm, lens aperture is F/3.3-5.6, macro focus range is 5-200cm and has 10x optical zoom.

Additional features include AE lock, Face zoom, Direct print, Audio recording, Built-in speaker, Resizing an image, PictBridge support, Digital image rotation, Dual image stabilization, AF lock, DPOF support, Face detection, Date/time stamp, Cropping an image, Exif Print support, USB 2.0 compatibility, Digital noise reduction, In-camera red-eye removal

Connectors on the camera include composite video/audio output and USB and there is a slot for putting expansion card. The battery included is li-ion rechargeable battery and the camera comes with an external battery charger.

Razzle Dazzle:

F70EXR is sleek and quite small for a camera considering all the hardware that goes inside it. The exteriors are attractive and the camera is very comfortable to hold and use. LCD screens are known to be shy of bright sunlight but this one was better than what we often see.  On the top right of the display there is a dial for Shooting Mode which we thought was a bit loose and moves very freely.

Inside Dope:

F70EXR sports the same features as F200EXR which we saw from Fujifilm in February. The notable differences are that F200EXR had a 5x, wide angle lens but this one has a 10x zoom lens but the exterior remains the same and the price is still pocket friendly. The sensor resolves problems of noisy photos in dim light conditions and dynamic range, which you see in compact cameras. When it comes to performance and quality we will say F200EXR is better than this one.

We found the menu system a bit perplexing initially and it took a bit of time getting used to it. The f-mode buttons is underneath the Mode dial and it is used to bring up shooting options menu for the mode that you are in. All other camera controls like light metering, shooting priority, AF mode, image stabilization, continuous options are under the system of main menu and you can reach it by pressing the OK/Menu button which is located at the center of the navigation pad.

The secondary settings like time and date, format memory cards and LCD brightness are all housed under the main menu. The navigation pad is used for adjusting exposure compensation, timer options, flash mode, deleting photos and turning on Macro mode. Below the control panel there are buttons for changing the information on the screen and toggling the face detection on/off. You need an external charger to fill juice in the battery and the on the right of the camera there is a miniUSB port which is used to transfer pictures and videos from the F70EXR.

There is no dearth of shooting options on the F70EXR and for newbies there is EXR mode which has D-Range Priority, High Resolution Priority, Auto EXR and Low Noise and High ISO priority. Auto EXR is recognition of scene; it is reliable and effective if you don’t mind the reduced resolution of 5 MP of Low Noise & High ISO Priority modes and D-Range. It has minimal fuss and will be welcomed by newbies who hardly use a camera.

Apart from the EXR you can use the standard Auto mode which exploits the 10 MP resolution of the camera to the fullest. There are fifteen modes of scene which you can choose from including Pro Focus and Pro Low-light options.

For the face detection feature you get the option for turning off the red-eye correction. It face detection has improved and now detects up to ten faces. For video recording you get a resolution of only 640X480 at 30 FPS which is a bit disappointing. The video quality of the F70EXR is good but then there is no HD recording option but we won’t call this a deal breaker since this camera can do what other can’t for the given price range. You can also make full use of the optical zoom while in video mode.

The F70EXR is very fast, from on to first shot takes about 2.1 seconds and between the shots it takes about 1.5 seconds. If you add flash there is a 1 second additional delay. Shutter lag too is not much; at just 0.5 second is bright light conditions and 0.7 in dim environments.

The 10 MP camera gives excellent photo quality, at ISO 400 the quality starts to dip and ISO 800 is good only for small sized prints. You will find that the quality is better in 5 MP EXR mode. F70EXR is one of the best when it comes to capturing photos in low light conditions but there is a bit of noise visible and we would advice you against taking full size prints of such photos, don’t go above 4×6 inches. Colors on the photos produced by the camera are natural and nice.

Nitty Gritty:

Fujifilm FinePix F70EXR is good for picture and video quality but is a bit inferior when compared to the F200EXR. But still we will advice you to go for this device since it has good auto features and plenty of flexibility for shooting. It has a few limitations but for this price we can surely forgive Fujifilm and go for this camera.