Fujifilm Finepix F20 Review
Review Date: October 18th 2006
Author: Gavin Stoker
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Image Quality
All of the sample images in this Review were taken using
the 6M Fine mode, which gives an average image size of around
3Mb.
Noise
There are 6 ISO settings available on the Fujifilm Finepix
F20 which you can select at any time if the camera is in the
normal shooting mode. Here are some 100% crops which show
the noise levels for each ISO setting:
There is virtually no discernible noise at the slowest settings
of ISO 100 and 200, and ISO 400 also looks very clean. Noise
is starting to appear at ISO 800, bit it is still fairly well
controlled at ISO 1600. As you might expect, quite a lot of
detail is lost at the fastest speed of ISO 2000, with the
images having a "painted" feel, but they are still
perfectly useable for small print sizes.
Sharpening
Here are two 100% crops which have been Saved as Web - Quality
50 in Photoshop. The right-hand image has had some sharpening
applied in Photoshop. The out-of-the camera images are a little
soft and benefit from some further sharpening in a program
like Adobe Photoshop. Unfortunately you cannot change the
in-camera sharpening levels, so you will always have to do
some post-processing if you don't like the default results.
Chromatic Aberrations
The Fujifilm Finepix F20 suffered fairly badly from chromatic
aberrations in areas of high contrast, as shown in the examples
below, although it only occurred in over-exposed parts of
the image.
Macro
The Fujifilm Finepix F20 offers a Macro setting that allows
you to focus on a subject that is 5cms away from the camera.
The first image shows how close you can get to the subject
in Macro mode (in this case a compact flash card). The second
image is a 100% crop.
Flash
The flash settings on the Fujifilm Finepix F20 are Auto,
Red-eye Reduction, Forced Flash, Suppressed Flash, Slow Synchro.
and Red-eye Reduction + Slow Synchro. These shots of a white
coloured wall were taken at a distance of 1.5m.
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Auto Flash - Telephoto (108mm) |
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And here are some self-portraits. As you can see, neither
the Flash On setting and the Red-Eye Reduction option caused
any red-eye.
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Flash On (100% Crop) |
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Flash - Red-Eye Reduction (100%
Crop) |
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Night Shot
The Fujifilm Finepix F20 maximum shutter speed is 4 seconds,
which is not very good news if you're seriously interested
in night photography. The shot below was taken using a shutter
speed of 1/20th second, aperture of f/2.8 at ISO 200. I've
included a 100% crop of the image to show what the quality
is like.
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100% Crop |
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Overall Image Quality
As I commonly find with Fujifilm cameras, colours are by
default a little cool straight out of the camera, and I often
find myself preferring the more vivid results obtainable by
activating the chrome colour setting in ‘F’ mode. The colour
cast effect of tungsten lighting is also best removed via
an application of Levels in Photoshop. Though the Fujifim
Finepix F20 displays the common problem of purple fringing
evidenced between areas of high contrast, this is no worse
than its immediate competitors and only starts to become apparent
when viewing the images at 100%. Under bright conditions there
is some loss of highlight detail, though again this shouldn't
trouble the snapshot market at which the camera is pitched.
If the light isn't too challenging – an overcast day for example
– there's plenty of detail in evidence. In terms of ISO performance,
low light shots without flash start to visibly soften at ISO1600
when viewed at 100% (the effect nearer to a watercolour than
a photo). Obviously at full ISO2000 this is more pronounced.
Then again, if you don't intend to churn out poster-sized
hard copies it’s a trade off (against not getting the shot
at all) I’d be happy to live with. Arguably, if you are taking
portraiture, some smoothing of detail is not necessarily a
bad thing.
 PhotographyBLOG
is a member of the DIWA
organisation. Our test results for the Fujifilm Finepix F20
have been submitted to DIWA
for comparison with test results for different samples of
the same camera model supplied by other DIWA
member sites.
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