Photos: Hands-on with the Fujifilm FinePix F100fd
The Fujifilm FinePix F100fd has arrived in Crave this week. Take a look at our photos to see if this point-and-shoot live up to the expectations
We've been waiting with bated breath for the Fujifilm FinePix F100fd. It has, as Gene Hunt might say, 'previous'. This top-end 12-megapixel camera in the FinePix range has a number of quality snappers in its lineage.
We first encountered the camera Fujifilm describes as 'the ultimate F series' compact in the glamorous environs of Birmingham at this year's Focus On Imaging. The F series has kept plenty of customers snapping away on the F31, F40 and F50, and judging by our forums the F100 has been one of the most anticipated compact cameras for a while. You can imagine our excitement when it finally arrived at Crave for us to have a really good play with -- er, we mean, exhaustively and scientifically test for an in-depth review.
The big jump in nomenclature from F31, F40 and F50 to F100 suggests that Fujifilm has made a sizeable leap with this camera. This seems to be mostly incremental improvements to established -- but still welcome -- features such as optical image stabilisation and face detection. In fact, the phizzog-finding technology is on to version 3.0, which claims to pick out faces even in profile or partially obscured. Like the F40 onwards, the F100 supports both xD and SD format memory cards.
The Fujifilm FinePix F100fd is available now, with an online price of around £160. Take a look through our photos to see more of this snapper, and find out how Fujifilm has cut out the clutter. -Richard Trenholm
Update: Read our full Fujifilm FinePix F100fd review.
The F100 is slimmer than its forebears, with a curved design. It's still quite weighty, though. You can choose from black or silver versions.
Look at the size of that lens. It's a honking great 5x optical zoom, but even at full telephoto it doesn't overbalance the F100. It's also a satisfying 28mm, equivalent to a 35mm camera, at the wide angle.
The 69mm (2.7-inch) LCD screen is sharp is pretty large, yet doesn't dominate the camera, thanks to the spartan button layout. Click for the next photo to see how Fujifilm has cleverly decluttered the F100's controls.
The F100 keeps things simple on the button front. There's only four buttons -- an F menu button, face detection and red-eye toggle, display options, and a playback button. The bulk of the control work is done by this zippy scroll wheel, which doubles as a clickpad. It's a joy to use, especially with the wheel-shaped onscreen mode selector.
That said, there isn't a huge amount to actually control. Manual mode lets you set the ISO speed and boost the dynamic range, but that's about it. Check back for our full review to see if this truly is the consummate point-and-shoot.