First Results with Fuji Natura Camera

[raid]

I got back my first roll of Fujcolor 100 film from the neat Fuji Natura Black P&S camera. The special thing about this little camera is its 24mm/1.9 lens. I bought it for the lens. It operates similar to an Olympus Stylus camera, being all automatic. It does, however, have exposure changing capabiliites (+/- 0.5, 1, 1.5, 2). It has a built-in flash and it has a huge screen with all the options. The lens seems to be very sharp. I have not used the camera yet with available light and at F 1.9, but this will be my next step. The lens is a true 24mm lens, so any distortion you get with your Nikkor 24mm lens is similar here in this camera, but some it has excellent correction for such distortion, considering it is a fancy P&S camera. There are no manuals for the camera that are in English, so I am still trying to figure out how to turn off the date registering in one corner of each photo. My Japanese is as good as your Swahili. Maybe better.

 

[dazedgonebye]

Neat little camera. I'll be watching for more.

 

[aterlecki]

What aperture were those shots taken at? There's quite a lot of unpleasant light falloff on the two horizontal compositions.

 

[peterc]

I got back my first roll of Fujcolor 100 film from the neat Fuji Natura P&S camera.

Looks like it's workiong quite nicely.\
Was this full auto? If so, that's impressive handling of a beach scene.

Peter

 

[dcsang]

Thanks for posting Raid!!
I've been eyeing this camera as well - I had a hankering for the Leica CM but, due to cost, it seemed a bit "out of control".

I've seen this cam on Ebay for about $330-$350 CDN so that's quite a huge diff from Leica AND it's got a nice wide angle too.

Cheers
Dave

 

[yossarian]

I wondered who among us would be the first to fall under the spell of this camera to
the point of actually acquiring one. I'm envious of your new optical marvel, but also
the beautiful white sand of the panhandle beaches. Our central east coast sand is
coarse and dirty looking. Can't wait to see low light shots. Fuji USA are a bunch of
stinkers for not letting us have this camera.

Fred

 

[raid]

I wondered who among us would be the first to fall under the spell of this camera to
the point of actually acquiring one. I'm envious of your new optical marvel, but also
the beautiful white sand of the panhandle beaches. Our central east coast sand is
coarse and dirty looking. Can't wait to see low light shots. Fuji USA are a bunch of
stinkers for not letting us have this camera.

Fred

Fred: I love the white beaches here in Pensacola, and I agree with you that most other beaches have coarser sand.

I hesitated before making the plunge for this camera, but I managed to see somebody's thread on his results with the Natura in low light situations. People were amazed at how good the results were. I was also impressed.

 

[raid]

Looks like it's workiong quite nicely.\
Was this full auto? If so, that's impressive handling of a beach scene.

Peter

Peter: I did not use any exposure adjustments when taking the entire roll. I will try to post more shots tonight if I can. The camera is full automatic, and it is not possible to know which aperture was used, except from guessing.

 

[raid]

What aperture were those shots taken at? There's quite a lot of unpleasant light falloff on the two horizontal compositions.

I agree with you on the light fall-off, but this is not unusual for beach scenes with ocean view. Try using a polarizer with a 24mm lens and you not get the same blue throughout the scene, and this may be similar due to the 24mm perspective. Maybe I am wrong here ...

 

[ch1]

I agree with you on the light fall-off, but this is not unusual for beach scenes with ocean view. Try using a polarizer with a 24mm lens and you not get the same blue throughout the scene, and this may be similar due to the 24mm perspective. Maybe I am wrong here ...

Raid,

I had noticed it too and thought it was vignetting. But only on the horizontal? Seems odd.

But these are great pics and I envy you the warm beach weather. Oh, and, BTW, your two models are "picture perfect"! 🙂

 

[raid]

Here are some additional photos, and yes, there seems to be a light fall-off, but I don't see it in all photos. Could it be the wide open sky ... ? Why don't the vertical shots show light fall-off?

 

[ch1]

It's more subtle in the non-beach shots (particularly the second one with the fountain spray on the left) but it's there.

Only see the darkening on the top. But if you look at the first shot of your last post - you can see a "roundness" of the total image.

But, Raid, remember, we're a bunch of nitpickers - this is a great little camera. Definitely nice for taking to the beach where you wouldn't want to risk other gear with salt and sand etc.

 

[Stephanie Brim]

I really, really want one of these. I'm actually waiting for Fuji to announce the thing for the States so that I can buy one without importing it. Not that I have the money...it would just make things easier and maybe it'll be less than $350.

What would be really nice is if Fuji made a cheaper version of this with an f/2.8 lens or something...then I'd have that. f/1.9 isn't really something I need in a point and shoot. Would it be nice? Yes. Practical for that price? No.

And BTW: I love the vignetting.

 

[raid]

I really, really want one of these. I'm actually waiting for Fuji to announce the thing for the States so that I can buy one without importing it. Not that I have the money...it would just make things easier and maybe it'll be less than $350.

What would be really nice is if Fuji made a cheaper version of this with an f/2.8 lens or something...then I'd have that. f/1.9 isn't really something I need in a point and shoot. Would it be nice? Yes. Practical for that price? No.

And BTW: I love the vignetting.

Stephanie: I paid less than $200 to somebody here in the RFF. He tried to sell this camera day after day, and nobody wanted to buy it, so I did. It is a very small camera that will be fun to include in any camera bag or shirt pocket. By the way, I did not enhance any of the scans in any way. I still think that what we see is what we expect to get with an excellent 24mm lens. Check out your photos when you used 24mm lenses with an SLR. The "blue" is never equally dark for a horizon.

 

[raid]

It's more subtle in the non-beach shots (particularly the second one with the fountain spray on the left) but it's there.

Only see the darkening on the top. But if you look at the first shot of your last post - you can see a "roundness" of the total image.

But, Raid, remember, we're a bunch of nitpickers - this is a great little camera. Definitely nice for taking to the beach where you wouldn't want to risk other gear with salt and sand etc.

George,
This is a camera that is more delicate than. say, a Konica II rangefinder camera, so I treat it with gloves [so far]. The "roundness" you refer to is most likely due ti the fact that the lens is very wide.

 

[Stephanie Brim]

Yeah, I know. And I never shot SLRs with anything other than a 50. I was a purist. 😉

 

[raid]

Here are a few shots of the camera itself. I put the camera in a soft lens puch. Note the green background; you can also get a red background with one button push.

 

[Taipei-metro]

I got back my first roll of Fujcolor 100 film from the neat Fuji Natura P&S camera. The special thing about this little camera is its 24mm/1.9 lens. I bought it for the lens. It operates similar to an Olympus Stylus camera, being all automatic. It does, however, have exposure changing capabiliites (+/- 0.5, 1, 1.5, 2). It has a built-in flash and it has a huge screen with all the options. The lens seems to be very sharp. I have not used the camera yet with available light and at F 1.9, but this will be my next step. The lens is a true 24mm lens, so any distortion you get with your Nikkor 24mm lens is similar here in this camera, but some it has excellent correction for such distortion, considering it is a fancy P&S camera. There are no manuals for the camera that are in English, so I am still trying to figure out how to turn off the date registering in one corner of each photo. My Japanese is as good as your Swahili. Maybe better.

Excellent camera.
On 3-3-06, another Natura, the Natura Classica hit the Tokyo street, Super EBC Fujinon 28-56mm, 2.8-5.4, 30 thousand Yen street, so it's about $260, not too bad. I believe you can order either the Natura Black, (or other color which is cheaper, same 24/1.9) and Classica thru Amazon Japan. I have the DL Mini Zoom, 28-56 4.5-7.5, this Super EBC lens is also very good( my $390 Fuji F10 is a Fujinon lens, not Super Ebc), max 1/500 sec. small, and very fast to shoot.
I think the date imprint is great, most of my photos are date imprinted, ( I leave the date on my Hexar Silver all the time too) a kind of my favorite feature in 35mm photography 🙂 .
Thanks for sharing.

 

[raid]

Mine is the Natura Black version.
Taipei-Metro, how can I turn off the date?

 

[Taipei-metro]

Turn the camera on,
Press 'date' until '----' shows on LCD.
No?