Editorial Product Review:Item Description:Equipped with the latest high-speed infrared connectivity, F100fd lets you send photos to another IrSimple camera or device in seconds without the need for a cable or PC. FinePix Wide Dynamic Range gives you the ability to explore extreme scenes and capture all the nuances of brightness and tonality. Using an aspherical lens to efficiently collect light at the focal point, the lens can deliver high-performance and phenomenal clarity of image with only a few lens elements for a more compact engineering experience. 12-Megapixels are arranged in Fuji Film's unique honeycomb pattern, which maintains high pixel numbers and enhances the light collection efficiency and light capture efficiency per pixel. Dual IS uses FinePix high sensitivity to freeze the movement of subjects and defeat motion blur, while CCD Shift Image Stabilization automatically compensates for camera shake. View and select up to 100 photos at a time in a 10x10 array of micro thumbnails. With the high resolution LCD, it is so easy to scan the micro images and find the photos you want to share with friends and family. Take the new Wheel Dial interface for a spin. Navigating modes, positions and functions has never been easier or more intuitive. With each selection, a helpful explanation of the mode or position appears on the display. It can display full-resolution photos on the LCD at a speed of 10fps. 1/1.6 Super CCD HR Sensor File Format - JPEG (EXIF Ver 2.2) Aperture - F3.3 - F9.0 (Wide) / F5.1 - F11.0 (Telephoto) Shutter Speed - 8 seconds to 1/1500 second Self-timer - 10 seconds and 2 seconds delay IR Communication IrSimple IrSS for Wireless Communication Shooting Modes - Auto, Natural Light, Natural Light & with Flash, M (Manual), Movie Portrait, Portrait Enhancer, Landscape, Sport, Night, Fireworks, Sunset, Snow, Beach, Underwater, Museum, Party, Flower, and Text Dimensions - Width 3.8 x Height 2.3 x Depth 0.9 (97.7x58.9x23.4mm
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Buyer Reviews
Average Buyer Rating:
-
Great picture quality, but just too slow
I assume anyone who's reading this review already has looked at the specs, so I won't regurgitate them. I did a lot of research and finally settled on a top 3 list of point-and-shoot cameras in August 2008, which were the Fujifilm F100fd, Canon SD770-IS, and the Panasonic TZ5.
My main criteria were:
1. Picture quality
2. Low-light performance
3. Speed (boot up, focus speed, etc.)
This is how the F100fd stacked up against the other two.
The F100fd's main selling point is its low-light performance. I found that although the low-light performance was good, it wasn't as good as it was hyped up to be. ISO 400+ pictures were a bit grainy -- much better than my previous Canon, but not near as good as I had expected. In decent light, the picture quality was superb, the best of any point-and-shoot I've used. 5X zoom was great, and although cumbersome the menu system was acceptable. I also loved the feature where it takes two photos when you press the shutter - one with a flash the other without, to see which one comes out better. However, the killer was speed. The time it takes to actually snap the photo after you press the shutter button is just too long. Focus and time-to-shoot was too slow, and by the time it actually took the picture the moment was gone most of the times.
By comparison, the Canon SD770-IS speed was superb, it took photos almost instantly, and was the much lighter and smaller than the other two cameras. Overall an excellent point-and-shoot. It takes very nice pictures, almost as nice as the F100fd. However, it does very poorly in low light, and you basically have to plan on using the flash all the time. My camera also did poorly in bright light, most of the pictures in sunlight were over-saturated. (The front panel of this particular camera was popping out a little, a manufacturing defect, which may have affected the light meter on the camera).
The Panasonic TZ5 had the best of both worlds (almost). It did much better than expected in low light - almost as good as the F100fd. There is more noise than the F100fd, but the overall picture tone and sharpness are still excellent. In terms of speed, it was almost as good as the Canon, and much better than the Fuji. It also had some nice features like continuous shooting (at about 2 frames per sec), 720p video (but which records similarly to a decent 480i camcorder), the nicest LCD screen of the three. The flash isn't very good, and it's the bulkiest of the 3.
So overall the Fuji had the best picture quality overall and had good low-light performance, but was just too darn slow. The Canon had great overall picture quality and was the fastest but with sub-par quality at low and bright lights. And the TZ5 was in between, good overall picture quality, decent at low light, and with good speed. So I ended up choosing the TZ5 because it was a good compromise and my kids can't sit still. But if shooting speed is not a major concern for you, the Fuji will give you wonderful quality pictures.
Customer Rating: 
-
surprisingly poor performer
I've been a fan of Fujifilm cameras since they used film.
I'm sorry to see that, after using this camera, Fujifilm is going in the wrong direction.
If they would've just added the wide angle lens and 5x zoom to the F50fd they'd have a winner. Instead they removed the ability the choose the type of image stabilization in favor of one generic image stabilization mode that is ineffective. The dynamic range that was added washes away all fine details and gives the term watercolor noise reduction a whole new meaning.
The price is astronomical for the poor performance this camera provides.
If you want a good camera with a wide angle lens and more zoom look to the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ4S 8.1MP Digital Camera with 10x Wide Angle MEGA Optical Image Stabilized Zoom (Silver) or for a wide angle lens with less zoom try the Canon PowerShot SD870IS 8MP Digital Camera with 3.8x Wide Angle Optical Image Stabilized Zoom (Silver). If you want a great camera that delivers excellent detail, great low light shooting, go back to the Fujifilm Finepix F50fd 12MP Digital Camera with 3 x Optical Image Stabilization.
I'm sorry to say that it appears Fujifilm has lost their way with the F100fd.
Customer Rating: -
Waste of money. Great specs, but it doesn't happen.
Waste of money. Great specs, but it doesn't happen and its a big camera, not small. I will keep it short. I have owned many Fuji cameras, I buy one each time a new model is introduced. Low light performance is poor, not any better than the prior model, maybe worst. Buy plenty of extra batteries, it has no battery life. Lots of blurred pictures despite its phony baloney image stabilization system. Sorry I purchased it, it will become a ebay item so I can move to another manufacture of cameras. Last, the charging is a stand alone unit. It was better when you could just simply plug the power direct into the camera and charge, that was easy. I guess those review these, don't really use these them in every day life. I do, PASS ON THIS CAMERA!
Customer Rating: -
Pros & Cons
Pros:
- 28mm wide angle, great for group shots
- SD or xD card types
- High ISO Image Quality better than 1 f-stop better than f50fd and almost as good as f31fd
- Optical image stabilization
- Dynamic range maintains shadow details that would otherwise have been lost
- Good automatic flash adjustment
Cons:
- Menu much less intuitive than predecessors. Useful options buried--may make you miss the shot.
- Slow start up time.
- Less than average battery life
Quality:
I leave this at ISO400 (AUTO). With the camera at the other ISO AUTO modes, it prefers the higher ISO's when indoors, producing ugly noise. ISO 400 is almost as clean as ISO 100, where ISO 100 will produce shots that are too dark indoors. I also took a shot of a subject about 1 1/2 feet away with flash, and surprisingly used just enough not too overexpose it, where my other digicams would have.
Design:
The dial around the menu button is unnecessary, since you could do the same with the 4-way button action. I never needed to scroll through shooting modes or photos quickly. Miss a dedicated selector for shooting modes, and single button press for menu.
Wish List for the next model:
- If they made a slot for just xD or SD instead of both, they probably could have fit a larger battery with higher capacity.
- Sacrifice 5x zoom to make it smaller & lighter. Make 3x: it 28-105mm.
- Dedicated shooting mode dial as on the f31fd. Easier menu.
- Zoom buttons, which is more comfortable, instead of a rocker.
- The return of manual settings.
