The Fuji F31 Successor ? ? ? - New P&S Announced

[dcsang]

I'm sure you guys have seen this already - http://www.dpreview.com/news/0902/09020402fujifilmfinepixf200exr.asp - but it looks like an interesting camera - specifically the fact that the sensor can "switch" to 6MP for capturing in low light and wide dynamic range modes.

This is one of (if not the) first camera to use Fuji's new super ccd exr sensor technology.

The mere fact that Fuji is bold enough to offer ISO6400 (at 6MP resolution) and ISO12800 (at 3MP resolution) seems to be pretty cool - only issue I have is the lens is slow (f3.3 at the wide end).

Cheers,
Dave

 

[FA Limited]

interesting ... will be nice to see when people start to get samples

 

[Bruin]

Not a bad start for Fuji's new sensor...I hope the next couple generations will really capitalize the way the F30/31 did. One stop faster on the lens, 24mm or wider, RAW output and Fuji could have an LX3 killer on their hands 😱

 

[dcsang]

As long as the ergonomics are better than the LX3 I would be happy with just good high ISO JPG 🙂

Dave

 

[squirrel$$$bandit]

The controls certainly don't look very promising...

 

[dcsang]

It may, upon looking at the fuji website, suffer from the same "ouch my thumb is now jammed into my hand" scenario that the LX3 suffers from ergonomically

I'm not sure why people want/need such "large" LCD screens 🙂

Dave

 

[migtex]

I did like it too! So I can replace my F11 after so many years of great work (ain't finished yet). So samples.... in here http://www.fujifilm.com/products/digital_cameras/f/finepix_f200exr/sample_images/index.html User photo - (and he has a lot of other Finepix photos too) - http://www.letsgodigital.org/en/21309/fujifilm-finepix-f200exr/

 

[IK13]

I like my F30, but there few things that just make me not want to use it at all:
1. No histogram of any sort (luminance or R-G-B).
2. No real manual mode. Fuji's "M" mode ain't manual.
3. No RAW

Until Fuji get's all 3 (or at the mere minimum the first two), I'm looking elsewhere and I doubt it'll be an LX3 killer.

The sad thing is that all that is really easy to do. The fact is - it's probably there already, but suppressed, so the camera can fit the "average consumer" profile...

 

[IGMeanwell]

From the Samples a couple of conclusions:

Noise reduction is still pretty heavy handed even at ISO100, even in the 6mp mode on the Let's Go digital samples you can see that detail is not kept very well.

That being said, where this camera seems to do very well is

1) color fidelity; all those samples even at the high iso end (with the exception of ISO3200 and ISO1600 at 12mp) have excellent color rendition
2) Dynamic range; very impressive with the dynamic range... feel free to download some of those samples and just look at the highlight recovery as well as the shadow recover... no other P&S can touch it... its just too bad it doesn't have any RAW capabilities:
3) The lens does seem to have a good coating but the overall sharpness seems to be only ok ... Hopefully Fuji has improved the image stabilization

In those ways they are better than my Fuji F30

Perhaps over the spring/summer Fuji might put out a new model aimed directly at the LX3 with a faster lens or a pipe dream fixed lens.

I think Fuji still is more worried about satisfying everyone who may use this camera not just the more advanced amateur more like those who are using the LX3

That is fine as a market strategy but its not going to satisfy the forums nor the internets in general 😉

 

[VladimirV]

I'm not sure why people want/need such "large" LCD screens 🙂

The large LCD screens are not the problem as you can see on the Ricoh R10. It has a large LCD screen but still very good ergonomics. The problem are manufacturers who rather include silly features like blink detection than actually spending some time to work on the handling and ergonomics of a camera.

The new Fuji F200 looks good and it sounds interesting but it seems to be more a marketing gimick. The first samples don't look great and the high ISO EXR mode looks like a simply downsampled picture. The fact they don't offer RAW shows that there is probably more software at work than actual hardware. Fuji and Panasonic certainly know how to develop good software to mask the flaws of their cameras or make them appear better.

The concept of the EXR sensor sounds good though and I would like to see a different manufacturer use the CCD in their cameras instead of the cheap and flimsy Fuji cameras.

 

[gavinlg]

samples on japanese dcwatch page. Can't link now, gotta run. Samples look brilliant on that page.

 

[dcsang]

I'm not running so, let me link for you Gavin 🙂

http://dc.watch.impress.co.jp/cda/review/2009/02/05/10144.html

The page is in Japanese.

Cheers,
Dave

 

[gavinlg]

I'm not running so, let me link for you Gavin 🙂

http://dc.watch.impress.co.jp/cda/review/2009/02/05/10144.html

The page is in Japanese.

Cheers,
Dave

Thanks Dave,

You can use google translate to get a bit more understanding of what the settings are etc. I probably wont buy it - too clunky a interface for me, but the samples look very good for such a cheap and versatile point and shoot.

 

[dcsang]

FYI: Sample gallery based on Beta version of this camera is up at DP Review - ISO 1600 doesn't look "that bad" to me...
http://www.dpreview.com/gallery/fuji_f200exr_beta_samples/

Dave