Not long ago, I lost my Lumix FX35 (aka my “Leica” <- yes that’s his/her name) and felt very sad about it. While desperately needing a replacement for that loved one, I couldn’t allow the same budget I had for the FX35 (400$ at the time, it was THE best compact camera of its generation). With a 300$ budget in mind, I searched the market for the best I could afford. This is when the F70EXR stood out.
Little history lesson
Fujifilm has been a once legendary brand of photography that made high quality film. As it enters the digital age, it took sensor technology in different ways than the main gearheads over at Sony, Canon and Nikon and produced the SuperCCD. While the first version of the compact Fujifilm F series, the F10, harnessed the powers of that sensor, it isn’t until the F30 shook the compact camera business to its very core by producing the first useable ISO 800 picture ever. Although the F30 (and its slightly improved sibling F31fd) were the best high sensitivity performers, they were competing against market filled with cameras with more than twice the megapixel rate: the Fujifilm only had 6 megapixels. Thus by adding more megapixels to their cameras, Fujifilm sacrificed a lot of shine in their legend. In the spring of 2009, the introduction of the SuperCCD EXR brought the brand back in the map with the F200EXR camera. The results were astounding: never has a compact camera achieved this much dynamic range in a picture. The ISO performance also made a great return thus reclaiming the throne of image quality from the era of the F30.
What is dynamic range?
You might be unfamiliar of this technical term, but let me explain shortly. It’s the number of light variations from the brightest part to the darkest part of the picture. The wider the variations are, the higher the dynamic range.
The SuperCCD phenomenon
The Fujifilm SuperCCD is a sensor that works differently than a conventional one. One can picture it as a sensor made of two sensors working together: one records the highlights while the other records the shadows and the camera merges both renders together in a final composite shot. This procedure immediately boosts the dynamic range of a picture but halves its resolution by half.
Shooting experience 
I once tried my friend Manli’s F200EXR and pretty much loved how responsive the camera was (fast zoom controls, fast autofocus, low shutter lag). When opened after 4 long seconds of power up, the F70EXR behaves as swift as it’s big brother. I’m surprised at how slim and light the camera was compared to its counterparts: a 10x zoom that fits in my pants pocket.
The battery life isn’t quite stellar. I remember being able to hit at least 300 shots with my old Lumix while the F70EXR shuts down after 220 shots or below (depending if you zoom a lot). I believe the SuperCCD requires a lot of processing power to run.
The lens isn’t very fast (f3.3-5.6), so it’s a bummer for night photography (I’d say it’s good enough for minutes after sunset and it goes downhill from there). Thanks to the image stabilizer, you can push your luck for wide angle low light shooting (the metering will make your camera take ¼ speed shots). This is a compromise the designers had to make to fit a huge 27-270mm equivalent 10x zoom lens in such a small camera. Getting that focal range is very handy for me.
I found the AF very fast for most of the daily normal subject but it lack the precision or customization found in other brands. Only three modes: a defective face detection mode, multi-nine-point-AF mode, and center cross-point mode. When doing macro photography, the center cross-point mode often misses the mark.
What I also found a bit retarded was the camera’s auto ISO function. Usually, to get a sharp shot of a static subject, a speed of 1/(current focal length) is fast enough, but the camera tries too hard to compensate for camera shake as it meters, without taking the image stabilizer motor in account, a speed two stops above the correct value. I found this way of thought a bit frustrating when I was trying to get the lowest noise possible for my shots (even if 400 is very good on it)
So the camera is a blast to use during the day but it’s best to carry a second battery if you are going for a day trip of photography.
Interface
The high quality screen makes you forget it only has 230 000 pixels, a number below average in today’s camera screens.
Most of the controls are straightforward. I have the mode dial wheel, the four-way function controller for macro, compensation, flash etc… the display control button and pretty much what you get from a conventional compact camera.
The complex old school 8-bit-like menus might require a computer wiz to comprehend and use (two buttons: F-button for quick access to “some” settings or MENU-button for the full deal… why not just make us customize what to show when we press F-button?). At the time of this writing most of the major camera brands did an overhaul of their menus… it’s a bit time for Fujifilm to step up. At least I didn’t get the Monochrome-like menus of RICOH cameras… lol
Image quality
I also enjoyed how good the ISO 400 of the F200EXR looked on the pictures (this level is usually the max useable ISO value on a conventional compact). Thus, the final results of the F70EXR came to no surprise: they were awesome (mostly sharp at all focal length and with great colors). What’s even more amazing is the dynamic range the F70EXR could record for something of its class: normally the other competitors I’ve tried would have given up trying to balance highlights and shadows in a high contrast shot or cheated using ISO to compensate.
In terms of ISO, yes I can go to 800 without much compromise. One gripe though is the fact that the camera is most effective running at half resolution than indicated: to fully push its image quality, it needs to be set to produce 5 megapixels shots instead of 10 (I have yet to truly see a difference in both).
Another cool thing is the Pro Low Light Mode: it’s a scene mode in the camera that makes it take and merge 4 ISO 1600 shots into noiseless one. I was able to get some fairly sharp results using that function.
This is hands down the best image quality you can get from camera around 250$.
The video quality
CRAP CRAP CRAP CRAP… yes it truly is. Not HD and noisy as hell, even a cheap HD USB camera (like the Kodak Zi8 or the Mino FlipHD) can do a better job than this! But you can use the lens to zoom during recording. I believe the SuperCCD sensor wasn’t design for such use and the video function is just there… to be there. It’s good enough that Fujifilm designed a true photo sensor and not a video sensor.
Bottom line
For me, at the moment of this writing, the F70EXR is good enough for my everyday use. I’ve taken some great shots with it and I’m very happy of the picture rendering it gives. I’m surprised at how little post-processing I had to do on the shots before I share them online! So if you are shopping for the best image quality in a low cost compact camera, forget the other brands and get the F70EXR. If you want a more balanced option, look elsewhere.
This is what I wrote about the F70EXR 24 days after buying it.
http://pyktures.blogspot.com/2010/01/f70exr-24-days-later-pyktures-reviews.html
I once tried my friend Manli’s F200EXR and pretty much loved how responsive the camera was (fast zoom controls, fast autofocus, low shutter lag). When opened after 4 long seconds of power up, the F70EXR behaves as swift as it’s big brother. I’m surprised at how slim and light the camera was compared to its counterparts: a 10x zoom that fits in my pants pocket.
The battery life isn’t quite stellar. I remember being able to hit at least 300 shots with my old Lumix while the F70EXR shuts down after 220 shots or below (depending if you zoom a lot). I believe the SuperCCD requires a lot of processing power to run.
The lens isn’t very fast (f3.3-5.6), so it’s a bummer for night photography (I’d say it’s good enough for minutes after sunset and it goes downhill from there). Thanks to the image stabilizer, you can push your luck for wide angle low light shooting (the metering will make your camera take ¼ speed shots). This is a compromise the designers had to make to fit a huge 27-270mm equivalent 10x zoom lens in such a small camera. Getting that focal range is very handy for me.
I found the AF very fast for most of the daily normal subject but it lack the precision or customization found in other brands. Only three modes: a defective face detection mode, multi-nine-point-AF mode, and center cross-point mode. When doing macro photography, the center cross-point mode often misses the mark.
What I also found a bit retarded was the camera’s auto ISO function. Usually, to get a sharp shot of a static subject, a speed of 1/(current focal length) is fast enough, but the camera tries too hard to compensate for camera shake as it meters, without taking the image stabilizer motor in account, a speed two stops above the correct value. I found this way of thought a bit frustrating when I was trying to get the lowest noise possible for my shots (even if 400 is very good on it)
So the camera is a blast to use during the day but it’s best to carry a second battery if you are going for a day trip of photography.
Interface
The high quality screen makes you forget it only has 230 000 pixels, a number below average in today’s camera screens.
Most of the controls are straightforward. I have the mode dial wheel, the four-way function controller for macro, compensation, flash etc… the display control button and pretty much what you get from a conventional compact camera.
The complex old school 8-bit-like menus might require a computer wiz to comprehend and use (two buttons: F-button for quick access to “some” settings or MENU-button for the full deal… why not just make us customize what to show when we press F-button?). At the time of this writing most of the major camera brands did an overhaul of their menus… it’s a bit time for Fujifilm to step up. At least I didn’t get the Monochrome-like menus of RICOH cameras… lol
Image quality
I also enjoyed how good the ISO 400 of the F200EXR looked on the pictures (this level is usually the max useable ISO value on a conventional compact). Thus, the final results of the F70EXR came to no surprise: they were awesome (mostly sharp at all focal length and with great colors). What’s even more amazing is the dynamic range the F70EXR could record for something of its class: normally the other competitors I’ve tried would have given up trying to balance highlights and shadows in a high contrast shot or cheated using ISO to compensate.
In terms of ISO, yes I can go to 800 without much compromise. One gripe though is the fact that the camera is most effective running at half resolution than indicated: to fully push its image quality, it needs to be set to produce 5 megapixels shots instead of 10 (I have yet to truly see a difference in both).
Another cool thing is the Pro Low Light Mode: it’s a scene mode in the camera that makes it take and merge 4 ISO 1600 shots into noiseless one. I was able to get some fairly sharp results using that function.
This is hands down the best image quality you can get from camera around 250$.
The video quality
CRAP CRAP CRAP CRAP… yes it truly is. Not HD and noisy as hell, even a cheap HD USB camera (like the Kodak Zi8 or the Mino FlipHD) can do a better job than this! But you can use the lens to zoom during recording. I believe the SuperCCD sensor wasn’t design for such use and the video function is just there… to be there. It’s good enough that Fujifilm designed a true photo sensor and not a video sensor.
Bottom line
For me, at the moment of this writing, the F70EXR is good enough for my everyday use. I’ve taken some great shots with it and I’m very happy of the picture rendering it gives. I’m surprised at how little post-processing I had to do on the shots before I share them online! So if you are shopping for the best image quality in a low cost compact camera, forget the other brands and get the F70EXR. If you want a more balanced option, look elsewhere.
This is what I wrote about the F70EXR 24 days after buying it.
http://pyktures.blogspot.com/2010/01/f70exr-24-days-later-pyktures-reviews.html
