Fujifilm FinePix F200EXR

By Leonard Goh
Mar 9, 2009

Since the introduction of the Fujifilm FinePix F31fd, the Japanese company's shooters have been synonymous with excellent low-light photography. Fujifilm's niche lies in producing great-looking night images with little digital artifact, and its cult-like fan following proves it. However, the company somehow didn't quite manage to replicate the success of the F31fd with its next two iterations, the F50fd and F100fd.

Last year, Fujifilm introduced the Super CCD EXR at Photokina. This technology enables the sensor to adapt to different shooting conditions to produce the best-looking pictures. We saw some initial sample images and were astounded by the high dynamic range and low noise levels. However, the skeptics in us would not be convinced unless we managed to achieve the same results ourselves.

The FinePix F200EXR is Fujifilm's first point-and-shoot to utilize the Super CCD EXR technology. As promised, the shooter delivered lovely pictures consistently, and it's the first time we relied so much on an automatic mode because we trusted it. Although it lacks fancy features such as HD video recording, the image quality more than makes up for the lack and that's what matters most in a digital camera. For that, we awarded this camera our much-coveted Editors' Choice.

Design

The design of the F200EXR remains the same as its predecessor, the F100fd. We wonder if this is a template which Fujifilm is drafting onto each of its flagship shooters. With its boring black (or silver) casing and slightly pudgy footprint, it probably won't appeal to fashionistas who fancy slimmer cameras such as the Cyber-shot series from Sony.

While the chassis of the F200EXR has a glossy overlay, it didn't leave much fingerprint smudges when we were using it.

An issue we have with the camera is the flash placement. It is located near the grip and some people tend to cover the flash when holding it. This is the same problem we had with the F100fd, and Fujifilm's response was that if the strobe was placed close to the lens, it might cause lens flare.

The rear estate of the F200EXR is mainly taken up by the 3-inch LCD, an upgrade from the 2.7-inch display we saw on its predecessor. On the right of the screen are the controls which include a mode dial, four-way clickable directional pad and four buttons for commonly used settings, playback, display setting and face detection options. We missed the scroll wheel which was seen on the F100fd, and wondered why Fujifilm didn't include this feature on the new point-and-shoot. One possible explanation could be that the implementation of the mode dial took up additional space and made it less practical to introduce a smaller scroll wheel for navigating menus.

Tags: Lens, Sony Corp., Camera, scroll wheel, LCD

User Discussion

 

• Most Popular

• Upcoming

What's Hot