Fujifilm FinePix F31fd Digital Camera Review

The mode dial has black icons on it except for a red camera icon designating the Auto mode. This makes the point-and-shoot mode very easy to find. This mode is the simplest to use on the F31fd. The “F” menu is shortened to include image size options, color modes, and only the automatic setting of the ISO. The shooting menu is also shortened to include high-speed shooting, continuous, and setup. However, in auto mode, the on-camera buttons are still fully functional, so users can still activate the cool face detection mode. The flash, macro, and self-timer are still available too. The auto mode turns the camera into a true point-and-shoot and is very easy to use.

 

Movie Mode (7.0)

The movie mode freezes the optical zoom, but it allows recording of 640 x 480 and 320 x 240-pixel video, both at 30 fps. The movie size can be chosen in the “F” menu, but there are no other options available in that menu and the shooting menu (except the setup menu). Monaural audio can be recorded, but its quality isn’t spectacular. It can record voices within about ten feet of the camera, but it doesn’t do so well with faraway sounds. I recorded a concert where about fifty kids sang about a hundred feet in front of me. The F31fd recorded the audio, but it was garbled and hard to distinguish the words. Another drawback: there is no image stabilization to keep movies from looking like earthquakes. This is a feature that Fujifilm has neglected so far, but almost every other competitor has jumped on the bandwagon and started to include image stabilization.

 

Users can’t change the white balance, metering, or auto focus settings – or anything, for that matter. Despite the lack of options, the movie mode produced decent videos even in low light. Users who want to be in the movie, though, are out of luck because the self-timer is disabled. The one-touch gain function at the top of the multi-selector is dysfunctional too, so it is difficult to shoot movies in strong lighting.

 

When movies are played back, they cannot be fast-forwarded or rewound – only stopped and started. The camera’s volume can be changed in the setup menu but not mid-movie. The volume can be adjusted in ten levels, but it’s hard to tell just how loud the volume is until something is played in the playback mode.

 

The Fujifilm FinePix F31fd isn’t meant to replace your camcorder, but is there for a few short and occasional clips. The movie mode doesn’t provide many options or flexibility, and the lack of image stabilization is discouraging. However, the quality of the video is decent. If the audio was as good, then the movie mode would fare much better in this review.

 

The burst mode can be activated by selecting the Continuous option in the shooting menu. Top-3, Final-3, and Long Period burst modes are available but none of them are very impressive. The first two modes are advertised to shoot 2.2 frames per second, but they seemed slower than that. With a Fujifilm 64 MB xD-Picture card provided by the manufacturer, the camera snapped a picture about every 0.6 seconds. The 3-shot buffer doesn’t provide much of a window in which to capture action though. It certainly doesn’t measure up to competitors' burst modes, like those on the Canon PowerShot digital cameras, where the burst modes capture pictures until the memory card reaches capacity. The Long Period burst mode shoots much slower at 0.7 fps.

 

There are two self-timer modes available from the bottom of the multi-selector that delay for 2 and 10 seconds. Another feature to mention in this section is the high-speed shooting mode available in the shooting menu. It can be turned on and off, but it really doesn’t make an enormous difference. This feature shortens the auto focus time. Overall, the burst mode isn’t impressive on this digital camera.

 

The playback mode can be accessed by a button to the top left of the multi-selector. The F31fd can display pictures individually, in a multi-up mode of 9 thumbnails which is organized by date. When viewed individually, the pictures can be magnified up to 8x with the wide end of the zoom lever. The multi-up mode and the date views can be seen by pushing the Disp./Back button. The playback menu describes many of the features in this mode.

 

 

The voice memo function can record up to 30 seconds of audio with each picture. The audio quality is good if the photographer is speaking or if the subject is within just a few feet. Faraway subjects sound garbled.

 

The face detection feature can be seen in the playback mode by pushing the designated button. When pushed once, boxes appear around the faces in the picture. When pushed again and again, the screen shows the contents of those boxes zoomed in so users can see if the faces are focused.

 

From the “F” menu in the playback mode, users can transfer and receive images with the IrSimple infrared communicator, create print orders, and play slide shows. Several transitions are available for the slide show (Normal Face Detection, Normal, Fade In Face Detection, Fade In, Multiple, Clock), but the interval time can’t be changed from the three-second-per-picture show.

 

Users enter the playback mode by pushing the designated button but cannot exit that way. The following message appears if pushed: “Press the shutter button to go back to shooting mode, Press the power button to turn off the camera.” This is different than most digital cameras, but it makes switching from playback to shooting mode a quick process.

 

The Fujifilm FinePix F31fd has a small series of scene modes, many of which are located in a menu in the N/SP position. The “N” stands for the Natural Light mode, which is one of the more standout preset modes on the camera. The following modes are also listed within the shooting menu: Portrait, Landscape, Sport, Night, Fireworks, Sunset, Snow, Beach, Underwater, Museum, Party, Flower Close-up, Text, and Natural Light & With Flash. The last mode listed snaps two pictures one after another similar to a burst mode; the first picture uses the Natural Light mode and the second fires the i-Flash. After the pictures are taken, they are displayed next to each other and are both saved. Another scene mode is directly on the mode dial. It is called Picture Stabilization and is marketed as being better than it actually is. This mode sounds like image stabilization, but there are no optical elements that shift in the lens to stabilize or even digital algorithms to compensate for natural hand shake. Instead, this mode hikes up the ISO sensitivity and quickens the shutter speed. Sometimes the flash is fired too. When the scene modes are used, the following options are in the shooting menu: high-speed shooting and continuous. The “F” menu also gives the option to change the color mode to black & white from standard.

 

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