Fujifilm FinePix Z30

Manual Controls

The Fujifilm Z30 features a manual mode in the camera's shooting mode menu. Strangely, this mode doesn't allow for any manual control over shutter speed or aperture. All it lets you do is apply exposure compensation, adjust ISO,choose white balance presets, and select an autofocus mode. Is this seriously what passes as a manual mode these days?

Focus

The camera doesn't offer manual focus, an omission that's typical of compact point-and-shoots. There are two autofocus methods — AF Center and AF Multi — and both utilize a contrast-detect through-the-lens (TTL) system. In normal focus mode the camera has a focus range of 2 feet to infinity (60cm - infinity). In macro mode, this range goes from 3.2 inches - 9.8 feet (8cm to 3m).

ISO

ISO settings can be controlled in manual mode. The sensitivity can be set to Auto, 64, 100, 200, 400, 800, or 1600. A number of scene modes (like the night modes) will automatically set the ISO to high sensitivity levels in order to capture a crisp image and reduce blur.

White Balance

In addition to auto, there are six white balance presets on the Z30 — Fine, Shade, Fluorescent light (Daylight), Fluorescent light (Warm White), Fluorescent light (Cool White), and Incandescent light. Since Fujifilm went to such lengths to six white balance presets, we would have liked to see them throw in a manual option as well.

Metering

The camera uses through-the-lens (TTL) 256-zone metering and there are no different options for metering ranges or systems. There is manual exposure compensation that can be adjusted with a range of -2 to +2.

Shutter Speed

The Z30 uses a combined mechanical and electronic shutter. In auto mode the shutter speed won't drop below 1/4 of a second, but in all other modes the range is 3 seconds to 1/1000 of a second. There is no manual shutter speed control on the camera, but a few scene modes (like Night Tripod) will automatically set the camera to slow shutter speeds.

Aperture

No manual aperture control is present on the Z30, but the lens has an aperture range of f/3.7 - f/8.0 in wide angle and f/4.2 - f/9.0 at telephoto.

Image Stabilization

The Z30 doesn't have optical image stabilization, which makes sense because we're dealing with a fairly inexpensive camera here. Fujifilm does tout its anti-blur scene mode as offering 'picture stabilization,' but all it does is use fast shutter speeds to reduce blur—no special image stabilization is involved.

Picture Quality & Size Options

The Z30 doesn't have as many size options as some compact cameras, but it still offers a fair share:
3,648 x 2,736 (10M)
3,648 x 2,432 (9M, 3:2 format)
2,592 x 1,944 (5M)
2,048 x 1,536 (3M)
1,600 x 1,200 (2M)
640 x 480 (0.3M)

For 10-megapixel images (the maximum size setting) images can be set to fine or normal quality.

Picture Effects

There are many funky picture effects available in the playback menu as post-processing features (under the Blog Trimming menu). In shooting mode you can access the FinePix Color option that will allow you to take images using F-Chrome for a saturation boost, F-B&W for black and white images, and F-Standard which is the normal setting.