Fujifilm FinePix F10 Digital Camera Review

Manual Controls
The Fujifilm FinePix F10 has a mode designated as Manual, but don’t be fooled — that mode does not offer the traditional shutter speed and aperture manual controls you might expect. Instead, it offers the following manual options: ISO, Exposure Compensation, Photometry (metering), and White Balance. These will be discussed further in the coming sections.

Focus
Auto Focus (6.5)
Within the Manual mode, three focusing modes are available: Center, Multi, and Continuous. The Multi focus option is the default; this automatically selects the object closest to the lens and focuses on it. Users can see where the camera is focusing with yellow brackets that are superimposed on the LCD view. Unfortunately, the item closest to the lens is not always the subject of the photograph — and there’s no way to fix this. The Center AF mode focuses only on the middle of the composition. The Continuous AF mode focuses on the center of the picture continuously instead of waiting for the user to press the shutter release button. Unfortunately, the focus mechanism makes an unsettling noise when it focuses. It is not very noticeable in the Center and Multi AF modes, but is absolutely obnoxious in the Continuous AF mode. It sounds like a large moth caught between a screen and a closed window, banging around helplessly before it dies. Charming.

Despite the noise, the Fujifilm FinePix F10 uses the TTL contrast-type AF system to focus from 3 inches to 2.6 feet in macro mode and 2 feet to infinity in the normal shooting modes. When the camera has a difficult time focusing, users must activate the AF illuminator, which is a green LED on the front of the camera. Perhaps because of the time needed for the camera to speak its dying-insect dialect, focusing adjustments are drawn out and will require some time to properly calibrate and set. The F10’s AF is faster than some other point-and-shoot models on the market, but it is about average by today’s standards.

Manual Focus (0.0)
There is no manual focus available on the Fujifilm FinePix F10.

Metering (7.5)
This function is referred to as Photometry in Fujifilm digital cameras. The through-the-lens metering system offers three modes: Multi, Spot, and Average. The Multi mode is the default option for the F10 and measures settings from 64 different points in the frame. The Spot mode is particularly useful if subjects are backlit or there is heavy contrast in the composition. The Average metering mode measures from 64 points, then uses the same average value for the entire image. The user manual states that this mode is good for subjects wearing black or white clothing and landscape shots. It did work well in those situations, producing evenly exposed images.

Exposure (7.0)
There are four exposure modes on the dial — Scene Position, Auto, Manual, and Movie — but the typical exposure controls of shutter speed and aperture are not available on this digital camera. There is, however, exposure compensation available in the typical +/- 2 EV range, moving in 1/3-stop increments. To adjust the exposure within the menu, users scroll up and down on a graph-like bar with the numerical value posted atop the screen. A real-time view is available, so users can see the compensation effects on the image.

White Balance (7.0)
The Fujifilm FinePix F10, instead of sporting a white balance option, has an adjustable "White Ballance." Ok, so they're the same thing and all modes do function properly, despite the spelling errors here and elsewhere in the menu. The first production line of Fujifilm F10s will have a "White Ballance" menu with three "Foluscent Light" modes. (How did they miss this? There’s even a misspelled screen shot in the user manual!) It is unfortunate that these errors made it past the editor, but hopefully users can still decipher the words enough to choose an appropriate setting. The following settings (with spelling corrected) are available: Auto, Custom, Fine, Shade, Fluorescent Daylight, Fluorescent Warm White, Fluorescent Cool White, and Incandescent. As users scroll through the menu icons, a real-time view showing the lighting changes can be seen beneath the menu. While the spelling errors are an embarrassment to look at, the real-time view is a nice feature that users will pay more attention to.

While the auto white balance setting is not terribly accurate, the included list of seven preset options and a full customizable option ensures accurate color calibration, so long as the user is willing to invest a bit of time.

ISO (8.5)
Most compact digital cameras have an ISO range of 50-400. The FinePix F10 goes above and beyond — far above and far beyond — with seven ISO settings: Auto, 80, 100, 200, 400, 800, and 1600. The 800 setting is rare in cameras of this size, but the 1600 setting is unheard of. This high sensitivity will allow users to take photographs in low light without using the flash — a nice feature for those "No Flash Photography" museums or chiaroscuro scenes, and nice for significantly minimizing apparent camera shake. While the available ISO range rivals most prosumer SLRs in terms of sensitivity options, don’t expect quite the same handling of noise, as it is all taking place on a 1/1.7-inch sensor. Still, the F10 performs much more like a DSLR than a compact or point-and-shoot model in terms of sensitivity options available and noise handling.

Shutter Speed (0.0)
Shutter speeds cannot be manually adjusted on the F10, but they range from 3-1/2000^th of a second, depending on the exposure mode. There is also a Long Exposure option in the Setup menu that can be turned on and off. When it is turned on, it works only in the Night scene of the Scene Position mode and lets users take exposures from 3-15 seconds. The camera automatically determines the exact length of the shutter speed, but stays within the 3-15-second range when the Long Exposure option is turned on. The shutter speed is always displayed on the LCD screen just prior to image capture. Within the Setup menu, users can change the volume of the shutter sound to one of three levels or even turn it off. There is only one shutter sound — a kitschy high-pitched electronic noise that sounds like an attacking cat (to complement the sound of the Continuous AF's trapped and dying moth?).

Aperture (0.0)
Although the aperture cannot be manually adjusted, the aperture reading appears on the LCD screen just before a shot is taken. When the lens is at its widest angle, apertures can range from f/2.8-f/8. Apertures range from f/5-f/8 when the lens is zoomed in to its telephoto capabilities.