Fujifilm Finepix F810

Review Date: March 30th 2005

Features

The Fujifilm FinePix F810 has a 6.63 megapixel 1/1.7-inch CCD that delivers 6.3 million recorded pixels. There are five image sizes available in the Standard mode (4,048x3,040, 2,848x2,136, 2,048x1,536, 1,600x1,200, 640x480 pixels) and five in the Widescreen mode (3,968x2,232, 3,200x1,800, 2,304x1,296, 2,048x1,152, 768x432 pixels). The camera features a Fujinon 4x optical zoom lens that is equivalent to a 32.5-130 mm lens on a 35mm format camera. In macro mode the Fujifilm Finepix F810 can focus as close as 7.5 cm from the subject. The camera supports the xD-Picture Card format.

The Fujifilm FinePix F810 offers four different exposure modes (Programmed AE, Aperture Priority AE, Shutter Priority AE, Manual). The Fujifilm FinePix F810 has four Scene modes (Portrait, Landscape, Sports, Night Scene) plus a fully Automatic shooting mode. Exposure compensation of ± 2.0 in 1/3 EV stops is available. There are three exposure metering controls (64-zone TTL metering-multi, spot, average). There are four types of focusing available (Auto focus / AF Area Focus /AF Center Focus / Manual Focus). An AF assist illuminator is also available which is useful in low-light situations.

The aperture range is f2.8– f5.6 and the shutter speed range is 3 sec. – 1/2000 second depending on the shooting mode. There are 5 ISO speeds available, equivalent to ISO 80/100/200/400/800. There are 7 different White Balance settings to choose from (Automatic, Fine, Shade, Fluorescent light (Daylight), Fluorescent light (Warm White), Fluorescent light (Cool White), and Incandescent light) plus a Custom setting.

The Fujifilm FinePix F810 has a range of continuous shooting modes including Top 4, Final 4 and Long-Period shooting up to 40 frames at 1.6 frames/sec. There is also a self-timer which has a 10 second delay, and there are 3 special colour modes ( B&W / Chrome / Standard).

Images are recorded as JPEGs in a range of different quality and size settings. A RAW file format is also available. To compose your images, you can use both the LCD monitor, which has 100% scene coverage, or the traditional optical viewfinder, which offers approx. 77% coverage. The Fujifilm FinePix F810 Zoom has a 2.1 inch Widescreen colour TFT LCD monitor which has 174,000 pixels and is powered by the supplied proprietary NP–40 rechargeable battery or AC Power adapter (also supplied).

The Fujifilm FinePix F810 can record movies of 640x480 or 320x240 pixels at 30 frames/sec. with monaural sound. They are recorded in the Motion JPEG format, a type of AVI format that can be played back by QuickTime 3 or later. You can also record voice memos up to 30 seconds long in WAV format.

The built-in flash offers a range of different modes (Auto, Red-eye Reduction, Forced Flash, Suppressed Flash, Slow Synchro, Red-eye Reduction and Slow Synchro). The effective range is approx. 0.6 m – 4m at the wide-angle lens setting, and approx. 0.6m – 2.5m at the telephoto lens setting.

The video-output socket allows you to connect the camera to your television (PAL or NTSC) and the high-speed USB 2.0 port connects the camera to your computer via a USB cable. The Fujifilm FinePix F810 is PictBridge compatible, which is the industry standard for printing images from a digital camera without using a PC. The Fujifilm FinePix F810 dimensions are 109.5 (W) x 54.0 (H) x 29.0 (D) mm , and it weighs 200g without batteries and storage card fitted.

Finally, the box kit that I reviewed contains an 16MB xD-Picture Card, Li-ion rechargeable battery (NP-40), AC Power Adapter AC-5VW, hand strap, PictureCradle for automatic download and battery recharge, USB cable and an A/V cable. The supplied software CD includes FinePixViewer, ImageMixer VCD2 for FinePix, USB drivers and RAW File Converter LE. 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 6 images at the default 6M file quality setting.

PhotographyBLOG is a member of the DIWA organisation. Our test results for the Fujifilm FinePix F810 have been submitted to DIWA for comparison with test results for different samples of the same camera model supplied by other DIWA member sites.