Little big camera (Fujifilm Finepix 1300)

Member Name: cabguy

Product:	Fujifilm Finepix 1300
Date:	28/05/02 (141 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: convincing quality, handy, best value for your money

Disadvantages: no optical zoom, display difficult to handle in sunlight

For quite a few months I've kept an eye on the market of digital cameras during the last year. I found the development to be far enough now to be ready for buying a digital camera for a valuable price. Of course they still were not beating the conventional cameras in quality of resolution and true colours except (if ever) you were ready to pay a fortune on those. But in addition to the camera for portraits and high-resolution-artwork it seemed to be quite reasonable to purchase a digital camera for Internet purposes and quick snapshots.

I didn't claim a high-standard equipment, but a price-performance ratio. With this I excluded as well the bargain basement as the high-end offers. I neither needed a resolution of 3 or more megapix nor necessarily an optical zoom.

My comparison was a Canon Powershot A 10 and an Olympus 960 Zoom. Both I'd tried before and was quite satisfied by the results of quality, although the Olympus only had a resolution of 1,3 megapixels. Both of them were about 500 Euro that was more I was ready to pay.

When I rummaged around in a Woolworth store in October 2001 I bumped into a special offer inconspicuous stored in the last row of a small showcase. The Fuji Finepix 1300 was offered for only 150 Euro (around 90 Pounds) Comparing the prices the same evening at the internet I found out this to be a real bargain nowhere else to be found at this level. The average price for that camera was not lower than 140 Pounds. I didn't hesitate to seize the opportunity right the next morning.

The camera came with an 8 MB Smartmedia-Card, the drivers on CD including a simple viewer, an USB connection cable and 4 batteries. With that the Finepix was ready to start immediately.

As for my former research I knew this camera to have a quality above the average of comparable models, although the appearance seems to be simple. The lens only is a fixed focus with a speed of F4,5 (normal mode) or F11 (ma
cro mode). The focus distance of F=5,8mm corresponds to a 36mm lens of a conventional camera. This is quite sensible for a wide angel of view.

The digital double zoom only is available in the lowest resolution (640 x 480) but as for the quality even in that mode it is not really a disadvantage.

The sensitivity is equivalent to ISO 125. The shutter speeds vary between 1/2s and 1/1000s.

The focus is working from 70cm (2,3 ft.) to infinity. For the range from 8 to 15 cm (3,1 - 5,9 inches) a macro mode is available.

The pickup element is a 1/2.7 inch square pixel CCD (1,31 million pixels)

The body is compact and handy and has only a few switches. The big dial switch changes between the set-up-, the photography- and the playback-mode that can be viewed by the 1.6 inch LCD-monitor with 55.000 pixels. With the 4-direction button almost all available options may simply be chosen. Another small button is assigned to the monitor and directs different view modes.
In summary clear options easy to handle.

Wishing the simplest operation, the automatic-mode is best choice. In case of normal daylight snapshots will be easy. If the light is not sufficient enough, the flash with an effective range from 2.3 to 9.8 ft adds automatically.

Unusual for it's class the versatility of manual modes is extensively. The white balance for example has 7 different modes to choose. Automatic mode, sunlight / snow, diffuse daylight and four further modes for different artificial light may be chosen. The display shows the changes in a real mode that allows experiments as well.

In case of difficult conditions or forced effects one may set the brightness in 9 different compensation levels in a range of -0.9 to +1.5 EV in approx. 0.3 EV increments. This for example is helpful in case of a contre-jour shot, in case of strong or very weak contrasts.

The flash as well is adjustable for 5 different modes, such a
s "auto flash", "forced flash", "red eye reduction", "suppressed flash" and "slow syncro" for night shots. The latter one extends the exposure time and allows catching more background instead of the usual darkness behind the focussed object.

A self-timer is available as well as a continuous shooting. The latter one allows 2 shots per second up to 9 consecutive shots.

For close up photography a macro function is available too. This one works between 3.1 - 5.9 inches.

All options are shown as icons on the display. Admittedly the size of those symbols shown is rather unconvincing as far as one is not familiar with them. But once you got used a little bit to the functions it is not so important anymore as one recognizes the icons then.

The review mode allows, if required, a zoom to the images. Although the display is rather small you can watch some details with that option though.

With all these features the Fuji Finepix 1300 is much better equipped than many conventional 35mm cameras and even many digital models in that price range.

The power supply is possible with 4 AA batteries or equivalent rechargeables. The consumption seems to be quite low as I can say after 6 months of use. A set of rechargeable (in my case with 1.400mA) is well for over 150 shots in case of using the display frequently, even in case of many times with an active flash. Within that a file transfer to the computer is included 3 or 4 times as well. The display shows if the batteries are getting weak. I always carry a set of charged batteries with me, so I never need to wait for the batteries to be recharged.

The images are saved on a 3.3V Smart Media Card up to 64MB. With best resolution and lowest compression this allows 101 shots. But the quality in the high-resolution "Normal" mode is far good enough for average use; this increases the memory capacity much more.
<
br>The camera is supplied with an 8 MB Card, so an additional card is badly needed. I bought a 32 MB card for about 25 Pounds (38 Euro) and I never ran out of memory yet with that.

The saved files may be write protected. If you want to delete failed images or clear some memory capacity it is possible to choose either single photos or all images. One can as well protect or format the card in the same menu.

The file transfer is most simple. Once the USB driver is installed on the PC the camera is detected as an additional drive as soon as it is connected to the computer. With the file manager you can copy the images to any wanted directory. The transfer takes only a few minutes even if the memory card is full. One of my transfers with the size of 13MB I stopped with 54 seconds.

The CD delivered with the camera contains as well an image view program. Installed to the "Autostart" directory it enables an immediate thumbnail preview to the current pictures at the camera.

The camera surprises not only with its technical features but as well with its high quality of the images. Colours are brilliant and true with well-balanced contrasts. This is valid as well for snaps taken in the macro mode. Although the resolution of 1.3 Megapixels is no revolution anymore the results with that camera seem to be another class. Take a few snapshots and compare them with other shots of other cameras on your monitor.

When printed out, the photos still keep their quality in addiction to an equivalent printer. Often the printer is the weakest chain-link. In my case the printer is a Canon S 400, not too bad but easily to be beaten for example by the HP 960 C that I use in my office. With that you get first class pictures.

For an album on your PC or for internet purposes this camera is a good recommendation and will easily satisfy you, if you?re not hunting for high-tech perfection. (Although the distance isn?t too far)

Summary: