Fujifilm FinePix V10

Model Design / Appearance
The V10 has all the brains of a great digital camera and the body of a sleek, modern video gaming device. This model comes in two colors, named gun-metal and orange by Fujifilm. The gun-metal color is actually a dark silver that still looks somewhat traditional. Perhaps the gun-metal name will attract video gamers? In whatever color, the Fujifilm FinePix V10 is very compact. It is almost square in shape and attractive with its flat features and large LCD screen. The camera has a lens that extends from it in three segments when powered on and not in playback mode. There are polished silver highlights around the rim of the lens and atop the camera. Constructed of a durable plastic with an outer metal plate, the V10 looks good – much better than the Fujifilm F10.

Size / Portability
With its 3.3 x 2.5 x 0.9-inch measurements, the Fujifilm FinePix V10 is a bit too square to fit into a skinny pocket, but it could definitely fit into a cargo pants pocket. It is certainly thin enough, but a bit wider than traditional models. The specifications indicate that this camera weighs 5.5 ounces without the card or battery. It seemed to be a little heftier than expected for the small size of camera. Still, the slight heft won’t damage any ligaments and makes the V10 feel like it’s a solid and durable chunk of metal. The wrist strap attaches to the large eyelet on the right side of the camera body for easier portability.

Handling Ability
The FinePix V10 is balanced enough so that when its lens extends it doesn’t plop forward and face-plant into the ground. Besides its lens, it is otherwise flat and free of ergonomic grips. This is great for portability, but not for handling. There are no rubber surfaces for the fingertips to grab or divots for the thumb to settle in, but the V10 wasn’t made for hour-long photo shoots. It is designed to be snatched out of a pocket for a few quick shots. The right fingers will probably settle on the front FinePix logo, which is slightly textured so there is some surface to hand onto. The right thumb does not have a comfortable bucket seat to chill in, but lands around the slightly protruding Menu/OK and Disp/Back buttons (ever so slightly, but enough to have some grip). Sloppy users may grab the flash with their front fingers because of its somewhat awkward placement. Users could take pictures using only one hand, but changing exposure settings or entering the menus will require two hands. The navigational control complicates the handling a bit. The control consists of three buttons that are all a bit small and not as easy to push as they should be. This will especially annoy those users who get blown up in the Shooting Game frequently because they couldn’t move their battleships fast enough. This will also annoy users who want to quickly access the white balance presets or the formatting option in the setup menu.

Control Button / Dial Positioning / Size
Because the 3-inch LCD monitor takes up so much space on the camera, the buttons are squashed into a narrow space along the bottom edge of the back. There are also a few buttons on top of the camera. The top buttons consist of the usual shutter release and power buttons. The shutter release button is large and smooth ad comfortable. The zoom toggle surrounds it and moves enough to be comfortable as well. To its left is the power button, which is smaller and more recessed into the camera body. There is also a ‘F’ Photo mode button that accesses the image size, ISO, and color mode options. All of the buttons on the top of the camera are properly sized, spaced, and labeled. The rest of the control buttons are located along the bottom of the LCD screen. The navigational control is located in the center. It consists of a long, skinny rectangular toggle that moves up and down. To its right and left are buttons that scroll to the sides; these buttons are a little too recessed for comfort and slightly difficult to push. There are buttons to the right and left sides of this feature. All are somewhat small, but not terribly so. To make their size bearable, they are spaced apart from each other just about the width of a fingertip. Fat fingertips may have some trouble, but the Average Joe should be able to operate the V10 just fine. One quirky fact about the FinePix V10’s control buttons is that the playback button only enters the playback mode – pressing it a second time does not make it exit the playback mode. To get out of the playback mode, users must push the shutter release button halfway down.

Menu
The menu system is typical of other Fuji models. Most options are found when the Menu button is pressed, but some appear only when the ‘F’ Photo mode button is pushed. The ‘F’ button has only three options: Quality, ISO, and FinePix Color. The font is large and readable, albeit a bit ancient looking. The menus appear as white text on a gray background; some of the menus have a live view behind the gray box as well. The selected option turns a different color other than gray. This color can be selected by the user in the setup menu. Pink, green, and blue are just a few of the available colors. The menu options are expressed in icons vertically and text across the top horizontally. There are tabs in some of the menus that allow for quicker navigation. The tabs are labeled only in numbers and not as groupings (eg. Card, Camera, etc.). Unfortunately, the navigational control isn’t as simple to use as other models’ controls; this is mainly because of the lack of space on the V10’s body. The following menu is available when the Manual mode is selected: Shooting Mode, Exposure Compensation, White Balance, High Speed Shooting, Continuous, AF Mode, and Setup. The Auto mode shortens the menu to Shooting Mode, High Speed Shooting, and Setup. There are live views in the white balance, exposure compensation and color mode options, but nowhere else. The Playback mode consists of the following options that are organized into two tabs: Erase, Image Rotate, Print Order (DPOF), Protect, Playback, Game, Voice Memo, Trimming, and Setup. The Playback option is vaguely titled, but is where the slide show is located. The Setup menu is insanely long and organized into three tabs: Image Display, Shutter Volume, Beep Volume, Playback Volume, Frame Number, LCD Brightness, Digital Zoom, Auto Power Off, LCD Power Save, Format, Date/Time, Time Difference, Language, Background Color, USB Mode, Video System, and Reset. The menus are thorough and the icons are intuitive, but the grouping of the options into tabs is beyond me.

Ease of Use
The Fujifilm FinePix V10 is quite easy to use and mostly intuitive, but has a few quirks. The menu groupings into tabs is one quirk; who would remember which tab the Time Difference option is in? The other quirk is that the menu is broken up into two places: the Menu button and the ‘F’ Photo mode button. Still, the Fujifilm FinePix V10 has some helpful features like the large menu font and the live previews when scrolling through white balance, exposure compensation and color modes. Handling is a little odd because of the completely flat surfaces, but this complication is universal with flat, portable digital cameras. The FinePix V10’s auto mode overrides almost all control and is very easy to use.