Fujifilm Finepix F10: It's been eating carrots

By Barney Worfolk-Smith on 02 August 2005, 12:55pm

Fujifilm has announced the launch of the FinePix F10, a 6.3-megapixel, 3x optical zoom compact digital camera that can see in the dark. Well, almost.

The camera looks and feels great. It's reassuringly solid, with a clean silver exterior, perhaps a touch larger than the slew of wafer-thin, credit-card-sized cameras available, but the extra heft may appeal to people who can't quite believe a tiny sliver of metal and plastic really is a camera. On the back is a 64mm (2.5-inch) screen, which has a range of image capture and display options. The control navigation is simple if a little too beep-heavy -- at times, we thought the smoke alarm was going off.

Its 'Real Photo Processor' claims to provide a sensitivity range from ISO 80 to a whopping ISO 1600. Crave found that a picture taken in a darkened room seemed to capture almost as much detail as the naked eye. This should be great for pictures in dark settings like restaurants, and perhaps help avoid the glowing-faces-on-black-backgrounds you so often get with a flash.

Fujifilm is very excited about the F10's battery life, claiming 500 shots per charge. We've not put it to the test yet, but we'll let you know how it performs in the real world.

The camera ships with a 16MB xD-Picture Card, which is annoying -- what's the point of being able to take 500 pictures when you can only store ten? Also, it's an xD card (groan), which is tediously small, fiddly and compatible with fewer devices than the trusty SD -- especially all the new laptops that are shipping with an SD reader slot. However, it is compatible with the PictBridge printer standard, and comes with all the gear you need to connect it directly to a printer without needing a computer.

The F10 is available now, and should set you back about £230. Expect a full review soon. -BWS