It's been a month now since we bought the Fuji F11 and here's my opinion on the hits and misses of the Fuji F11. First, why Fuji? Fuji is not a brand name associated to digital cameras, but don't forget Fujiflim had been around for years, just like Kodak and Konica, the other two brand names that I associate with films. Well, in case you don't know it, Fuji had been developing it's super CCD technology that enables it to produce better images from its own sensors. The result, the Fuji F10 and subsequently, the Fuji F11 is widely accepted as the first Fuji cameras that had realised its potential from this technology.

Fuji F11 as High ISO Compact Camera


When I just got home withe the Fuji F11, my first task was to put it through an ISO test. So I grab a few items, lay them on a table and put some desktop lamps on it to take this images. There's altogether 6 different ISO settings and below are the 100% crops of the setup using different ISO settings.


ISO80, 1/6 sec, all apertures at 2.8 unless otherwise stated.


ISO100, 1/8 sec


ISO200, 1/15 sec


ISO400, 1/30 sec


ISO800, 1/60 sec


ISO1600, 1/125 sec

The images look clean up to ISO400, most details are observable at ISO800 while some details are lost for the ISO1600 images. Look at the furry part of the soft toy. I'm perfectly happy with the images up to ISO 800 for this little compact camera. As for ISO 1600, I would gladly use it to capture those indoor actions (a.k.a. Xiaobudian running indoors).

Note: Till date, the only other camera maker that could match Fuji's achievement in high ISO sensitivity is the electronics giant, Sony. Other unnamed brands that boasts high ISO capabilities either have Sony sensors (second grade versions) or do so by pixel binning (or high ISO at small image sizes). But Sony is still behind the Fuji in this respect.

Aperture/Shutter Priority
The F11 does include A, S and P modes, but these are still auto exposure mode. Therefore we had to rely on the camera to gauge the exposure correctly. Choosing appropriate metering modes had never been more important now. The lack of any histogram also makes it difficult to check for exposure. Coupled with the fact that the screen brightness could be adjusted manually (and automatically), it is difficult to judge if you get the right exposure based on the LCD output.

Tedious Menu System
I always find it a chore to nagivate through many menus and submenu to get stuff that I want. For example, it becomes irritating to go to the menu every time to set the camera on 2 second timer. Many commonly used functions are hidden instide the menu, for example, we had to access the menu to switch to shuter priority mode and go into another menu to set the ISO sensitivity. After a while one gets tired of all the additional work that needs to be done.

Good Battery Life
Managed to take roughly 800 photos for 3 charges, or about 200+ pics per charge. (Don't believe the 500 shots per charge rubbish, they assume you use all the power saving options which is not useful when you need to shoot on the fly.

Focusing Issues
This camera had quite a few focussing misses, even during normal usage (the read AF! symbol flashes). On paper, this camera could focus on objects 5 cm away, however, I notice that the F11 invariably will try to focus the background. Therefore I had to shift the camera a bit further away to ensure sharper pictures.

All (AV, charger, usb) in one port
I didn't like the filmsy door to the all in one port. Neither do I like the fact that we use the same port to do all 3 things by attaching an external hub to it. Batteries are to be charged in camera means that the F11 will be down for hours when we need to charge up. I would prefer an external charger since I have an extra battery so we could use it and charge it separately.

Compact Camera with Leather Pouch
I like the compact size and we ended up bringing it along many places too. The fitting leather pouch that came with it had a belt loop and everything fitted nicely too. The camera build is sturdy and feels solid to hold.

Image Quality
Besides my point about sharpness earlier, we also find that the colours out of the camera are not as pleasing as my Sony H1. Flowers turn out pretty dull when we use the default colour settings. Perhaps we need to explore the other colour mode. Other than these 2 points, there is really little to pick on image quality. Besides, I'm not those who print posters size photos (at most A4 lar) so won't really pixelpeep. Most photos ended up in my DVD/CDs, some in my blog, some printed on 4R and only a selected few end up to be A4 size.

Conclusion
The Fuji F11 may not be the perfect camera, but it is an excellent camera for us to use now. Compared to another similar "unnamed" brand camera that we got to try recently. We find that the F11 still manage to take better quality pictures. Perhaps I need to lower my standards for compact cameras because the H1 is really great in terms of quality.

singapore review photoblog fuji f11