Fujifilm FinePix F100fd First Impressions Review

Manual Control Options       
This digital camera is not made for those who really care about manual controls. There just aren’t that many. The ones that are on the camera are generally hard to find.

Focus
Auto Focus – The F100fd’s autofocus system is updated thanks to Fujifilm’s third-generation RP image processor. It is nice and snappy and keeps subjects crisp.

The new image processor allows the face detection system to focus on up to 10 faces, like the old camera, but does it faster and more accurately. In the press release announcing the product, Fujifilm claims it can detect 10 faces in "as little as 0.036 seconds." And it can do so even when subjects’ faces are looking to the side, up, down, left, right, upside down, or just about everywhere.

The "face detection 3.0" delivers as promised, even on the preproduction model. It detects and follows faces very well, except when faces are in the outer edge of the frame; the face detection system favors the center of the image.

The camera focuses from 1.5 feet when zoomed wide and 2.4 feet in telephoto. There is also a Macro focus mode that can capture subjects in a 5 to 80 centimeter (3.9 inches to 2.6 feet)range zoomed wide and 50 to 80 centimeter (1.6 to 3.6 feet) range when zoomed in telephoto.

The autofocus area can be changed from Multi to Center. There is also a Continuous autofocus mode that can be turned on.

In dark places, the contrast detection system may have trouble spotting its subject, so there is an autofocus assist lamp to help light the way.

Manual Focus – There is no manual focus on the F100fd.

ISO
The Fujifilm FinePix F100fd expands ISO sensitivity even farther than its predecessor. The F50fd topped off at ISO 6400, but the F100fd adds an ISO 12800 setting. That isn’t a typo: there are two zeros there. Granted, the top two ISO settings are only functional when the image size is set to 3 megapixels or less. But still, they are there. Few digital cameras rival this range, but we'll have to wait until we get the F100fd into the lab before we can judge how much of a problem noise becomes at the higher settings.

The F100fd offers more automatic modes than most (and perhaps more than is neccesary for most users). There is a standard auto ISO setting, an auto setting that maxes out at 400, and settings that max out at 800, 1600, and 3200. This will be one of the less frequently used settings. If you’re going to adjust the ISO, you might as well do it manually rather than select which "auto" mode should be in place.

The manual ISO range is sensational with its ISO 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600, and 3200 available in full resolution and its ISO 6400 and 12800 available at reduced resolution.

White Balance    
The white balance options can be found in the Recording menu, complete with a live view: Auto, Fine, Shade, Fluorescent Daylight, Fluorescent Warm White, Fluorescent Cool White, Incandescent, and Custom. The latter mode lets you frame something white in the box that appears on the screen and then push the shutter to finish setting the white balance.

Exposure
The exposure compensation is available in almost every mode. It has the same +/- 2 EV range that comes in steps of a third that just about every digital camera has.

Metering
The Fujifilm FinePix F100fd has a through-the-lens metering system that uses 256 zones to figure out what kind of lighting is in the image and how the camera should compensate. There are Multi, Spot, and Average modes in the menu under the photometry heading.

Shutter Speed
This digital camera has an automated range of shutter speeds from 4 to 1/1500 of a second. Many digital cameras go slightly faster at 1/2000 of a second, but most users won’t notice this little change.

Aperture
The Fujifilm FinePix F100fd has a 5x optical zoom lens with a maximum aperture of f/3.3 when zoomed out. This is smaller than the typical, bright f/2.8 on most models. The aperture can shrink to f/9 when zoomed out, but this cannot be controlled manually. When the lens is zoomed in, the aperture changes within a f/5.1-f/14 range.