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April 29, 2005
[ REVIEW — Fujifilm Finepix F810 ]
Fujifilm Finepix F810
Price: $800
Rating: 5 stars
The low-down: The Fujifilm FinePix F810 was a love at first sight experience for dpexpert. It sports an all-metal body of sensible dimensions, full manual over-ride if Auto insults the photographic intelligence, a reasonable optical viewfinder and a superb LCD screen. The essentials -- white balance, exposure and focus -- are exemplary. And, in addition to all that the F810 has a trick up its sleeve.
The F810 has been designed for a specific purpose -- to take photos for display on television screens. It has two selectable picture formats, 4:3 for standard TVs and 16:9 for widescreen. The aspect ratio for each type is set precisely by the camera -- 1024 pixels by 576 and multiples for widescreen and 756 by 576 for standard.
It is immediately obvious that this is not going to suit the photographer whose primary display intention is the print. Images will have to be severely cropped to fit standard paper sizes. But for those, like dpexpert, who turn a lot of images into TV slide shows on DVD using either Memories on TV or Nero, this camera is an excellent purpose-built tool.
Like this: The stunning resolution from the 6.3 megapixel (12 mp interpolated) sensor means that even with cropping big prints are still possible.
Dislike that: This is a quibble, but it wouldn’t be too hard for Fuji to incorporate a third picture format in its selection to match the aspect ratio of A4 and A3 paper. And the bundled 16mb XD memory card is a joke.
Parting shot: The F810 is the ideal camera for the traveller. Think of it as a sort of still equivalent of the digital video camera. The camera can, of course, be held vertically but that defeats the intention of the design. If the F810 were to be carried as a supplementary camera to a digital SLR, for instance, it would be a boon. The neighbours may not care for the endless hours of gorgeous widescreen slides on the telly, but Marco Polo would have been tickled pink.
Why 5 stars? Because as the realisation of a design concept the F810 is as near perfect as can reasonably be expected.
Posted by terry at April 29, 2005 04:33 PM
