Fujifilm FinePix F31fd Digital Camera Review

The F31fd has some manual control, and although it does have an “M” position on its mode dial, it does not have a truly manual mode. With aperture and shutter speed priority modes, users can make some manual adjustments but cannot adjust both exposure parameters at the same time. The “M” on the mode dial would be more accurately titled a Program mode because that is about the level of manual control it allows. The shooting menu and “F” menu allow some manual controls to be changed.

 

Auto Focus (8.0)
The Fujifilm F31fd normally focuses from 2 ft to infinity, but it can focus as close as 2 inches in the macro mode. The auto focus can be controlled singly or continuously and with center and multi modes. These are standard auto focus settings on compact digital cameras. The F31fd’s LCD screen shows yellow brackets to indicate where it is focused, but the brackets don’t change color when the focus is locked or anything. The older F10 made quite a bit of noise in the continuous auto focus mode. This issue has not been fixed on the F31fd. It still sounds like a trapped bug in an aluminum can. In the continuous auto focus mode, the LCD screen’s refresh rate slows down considerably too, which is disappointing. Of note is the white auto focus assist lamp located on the front of the camera; this helps the camera find subjects in low light.

 

The F31fd distinguishes itself by including face detection auto focus, although some other compact digital cameras are beginning to include this as well. Fujifilm claims that its face detection technology can recognize up to 10 faces at a time. In testing, it got up to 9 faces. The face detection auto focus is available via its own button on the bottom right side of the back of the camera. This is nicely accessible, and it makes it very easy to use. When the F31fd finds a face, it tracks and focuses on it – and it does so quite effectively. It didn’t do quite as well with quickly moving subjects and with turned faces not looking straight-on. That is one of the caveats of the technology – and not just in Fujifilm’s system – because the algorithm uses distances between the eyes and mouth to recognize faces. The face detection auto focus system is fast – much faster than the older Nikon face priority auto focus system. Nikon’s system is software-based while Fujifilm's technology is built into the hardware of the camera.

 

In the playback mode, users can view the faces detected by the auto focus system by pushing the designated button. The faces are framed in green boxes, then zoomed in upon with each press of the button so users can check the focus. Overall, the Fujifilm FinePix F31fd’s auto focus system is fast and effective both in and out of the new face detection mode.

Manual Focus (0.0)
This FinePix does not include a manual focus mode.

 

ISO (9.5)

The F31fd boasts a variety of ways to snap good photos in low light with high ISO offerings that are widely used. Fujifilm uses the high ISOs in the Natural Light, Natural Light & With Flash, and Picture Stabilization scene modes. This digital camera allows for a lot of manual control too. It has 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600, and 3200 manual ISO settings – the most offered in full-resolution on a compact digital camera. The camera has a fully automatic ISO setting, but in the “M” (program) and priority modes, it provides ISO ranges that users can manually choose so the camera can automatically choose from within them. Auto 400, Auto 800, and Auto 1600 settings are available. It seems like if users take the trouble to select those, they might as well manually choose what they need. All of the ISO settings are located in the “F” menu, where a live view is provided. The F-lineup of Fujifilm digital cameras has done well in the past suppressing noise even with high ISO settings; to see how well the F31fd did, check out the testing portion of this review.

 

The white balance settings can be found in the shooting menu. Its live view was refreshingly large and unobstructed because the menu overlay disappeared and the white balance sub-menu moved to the far right of the screen. Icons appear in the sub-menu, but the text title appears next to them when scrolled upon. The following modes are available: Fine, Shade, Fluorescent Light Daylight, Fluorescent Light Warm White, Fluorescent Light Cool White, Incandescent, Custom, and Auto. The fluorescent modes aren’t very nicely labeled in the menu: they are only labeled 1, 2, and 3. The live view probably helps more than the text title though. Setting the custom white balance is fairly easy, although it isn’t entirely intuitive. There are on-screen directions, which is good. The entire frame must be filled with something white though as there isn’t a smaller box to frame the white card in. Overall, the selection of white balance modes is broad for a compact model and leaves the choice in the user's hand. 

 

There are lots of exposure modes that range from the simple auto mode to the more advanced aperture and shutter priority modes. There isn’t a fully manual mode where those parameters can be set simultaneously though. The Fujifilm FinePix F31fd also has exposure compensation, but it isn’t as accessible as it should be. It uses the same button as the face detection auto focus, and it seems to be trumped by the face detection auto focus in most of the modes. The only modes that can use the exposure compensation scale of +/- 2 in 1/3 steps are program, shutter speed priority, and aperture priority. Pushing the button in the other modes activates the face detection. There are no histograms for monitoring the exposure in real-time on the F31fd but point-and-shooters probably won’t mind.

Fujifilm uses a through-the-lens metering system that gauges from 256 zones throughout the frame. The typical selection is available: Multi, Spot, and Average (center-weighted). However, the camera's face detection system also plays into exposure, exposing for the detected faces, even when the subject is off center. There is a live view when scrolling through these options in the shooting menu, so users can see that the metering modes work properly.

 

The shutter speed is automatically chosen from a range of 15-1/2000th of a second in many of the F31fd’s exposure modes. The shutter speed priority mode is the exception, of course. It allows users to manually adjust the shutter speed, although within a shorter 3-1/1000th of a second range. To attain longer exposures, this FinePix has a long exposure setting in the shooting menu that can be turned on and off.

 

The Fujinon 3x lens on this digital camera isn’t very impressive, but it does have a decent f/2.8 aperture. This is wide enough to allow a lot of light in for naturally lit photography, something this camera does much better than its peers. The maximum aperture in telephoto is f/5, which is smaller than typical. The minimum aperture on the F31fd is f/8. In the aperture priority mode, photographers can choose among 10 options (in 1/3 increments between the maximum and minimum apertures with f/2.8-8 in wide). The aperture and shutter speed priority modes share the same position on the mode dial (“A/S”), so users have to select the proper mode within the shooting menu the same way they would switch scene modes.

 

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