Excellent compact camera (Fujifilm Finepix F11)

Member Name: JonLavender

Product:	Fujifilm Finepix F11
Date:	20/12/08 (42 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great battery life, quick startup, big screen, very nice pictures

Disadvantages: No eyepiece viewfinder, no fully manual mode

Overall this has been a great little camera, and although it is getting on a little now, I'd still buy another tomorrow, if it was cheap and mine broke.

The first thing is the looks. This is not a stunner! It's quite functional and well made though and sits quite nicely in the hand. It feels as though it will take a fair amount of abuse, but I haven't tested this fully (yet!)

Switching it on, the first thing you will notice is that the startup is very quick for a compact. Press the power button on top, and in under 2 seconds you are ready to shoot. Focusing is fast as well, and there is even a rapid focus setting for when you really can't wait. This uses a little extra battery apparently, but it's not an issue because the battery life is great. I leave mine on rapid all the time and still get over 500 shots between recharge. I mostly leave the flash off however. Haven't really used the flash much so couldn't say of battery life with flash. The battery is a Fuji 1950mAh Li-ion so the downside is you can't buy AA's etc on holiday for instance. A small price to pay I think.

The modes are pretty self explanatory and easy to use, and while it doesn't have a mode for every concievable circumstance, a little common sense from the user will see you right. I leave it in manual and set white balance and exposure compensation according to conditions. The menus are easy to navigate once learned (5min job) I wish they had put white balance on the shortcut "f" key though. Also there is no mode to set both aperture AND shutter speed, just aperture OR shutter speed: the camera always chooses one. This is disapointing as it just seems so easy to have done.

Taking a picture you are forced to use the screen; there being no optical viewfinder, but it is big and bright and quite satisactory for me. The auto-focus is fairly loud but it doesn't bother me.

Pictures look sharp and vibrant; it does an excellent job with colours but does have a tendency to over-expose IMO. However this is what exposure compensation is for! I generally leave it at -1/3, moving to -2/3 occasionally, and the pictures look good. Not dSLR professional good, but good, quality home snaps.

Back to the flash, the reason I don't use it is because the higher ISO's are useable. It goes up to 1600, and 400 is very useable, with little noticeable noise, 800 too. Whilst you wouldn't not notice leaving it set at 1600, in a museum with no flash allowed, it allows you to photo what you otherwise couldn't. Very useful.

I've had the camera a year or two now, and whilst cameras have definitely moved on, this still gets my seal of approval.

Summary: Good pictures, well made.

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