Fujifilm Finepix F700 Zoom

Review Date: 16th December 2003

Features

The Fujifilm Finepix F700 has a 3.1 megapixel CCD that delivers more than six million recorded pixels. There are four image sizes available (2,832 x 2,128, 2,048 x 1,536, 1,600 x 1,200 and 1,280 x 960). The camera features a newly-designed, ultra-sharp Super EBC Fujifilmnon 3X zoom lens that is equivalent to a 35–105mm lens on a 35mm format camera. The Fujifilm Finepix F700 only supports the xD-Picture Card format.

This camera offers a full range of selectable exposure modes, with aperture-priority, shutter-speed priority and manual, as well as a number of scene modes (Portrait, Landscape, Sports, Night Scene). The Fujifilm Finepix F700 Zoom has 3 exposure metering modes (TTL 64-zone metering-multi, spot, average) and there are 4 different types of focusing available (Autofocus, AF Area Focus, AF (Centre) Focus and Manual Focus). The aperture range is f2.8 – f8 and the shutter speed range is 3 sec. – 1 / 2000 sec.

ISO speeds range from 160 to 1600, but unfortunately 160 is only available in Auto mode and 1600 is only available when the camera is set to record 1M files, and not for the larger file sizes. There are 7 different White Balance settings to choose from (Automatic, Manual (Fine, Shade, Fluorescent light (Daylight), Fluorescent light (Warm White), Fluorescent light (Cool White), Incandescent light), plus a Custom setting.

The Fujifilm Finepix F700 Zoom has a continuous shooting mode with various options. You can take 5 frames at up to 0.2 second intervals and choose to keep either the first 5 or last 5 frames of the sequence. Long-period continuous takes up to 40 shots at up to 1.8 frames per second, but only using the 1M quality setting.

The built-in flash offers a range of different modes; Auto, Red-eye Reduction, Forced Flash, Suppressed Flash, Slow Synchro, Red-eye Reduction & Slow Synchro.

Images are recorded as JPEGs in a range of different quality and size settings, and there is also a RAW format available. To compose your images, you can use both the LCD monitor and the traditional optical viewfinder. The Fujifilm Finepix F700 Zoom has a 1.8 inch colour TFT LCD monitor which has 134,000 pixels, and is powered by a proprietary rechargeable lithium-ion battery, which takes 3 hours to fully charge.

The Fujifilm Finepix F700 Zoom can record movies at 2 different settings; 640x480 pixels at 30 frames per second and 320x240 pixels at 30 frames per second. Both settings are recorded in the Motion JPEG format, a type of AVI format that can handle images and sound as a single file, and can be played back by QuickTime 3 or later. As well as recording movies with sound, the Fujifilm Finepix F700 Zoom also doubles up as a voice recorder, allowing you to record 30-second long voice memos in the WAV format.

The F700 zoom dimensions are 108 (W) x 54 (H) x 28mm (D) and Max. depth: 32mm, and it weighs 170g without batteries and storage card fitted.

Finally, the box kit that I reviewed is fairly generous. Inside is a 16Mb xD-Picture Card, USB cable, AV cable, one lithium-ion rechargeable battery, AC power adaptor, hand strap, PictureCradle, manuals and a CD-ROM containing various software. You will need to invest in a few more xD-Picture Cards to store your images on, as the supplied 16Mb can only store approximately 19 images at the 3M file quality setting.