Fuji FinePix F470 Digital Camera Review
By Richard Baguley
Reviewed.com Editorial Staff
Published on December 28, 2006
Available for less than $200, the Fujifilm FinePix F470 is a budget 6-megapixel camera aimed at beginners and those who want point-and-shoot simplicity more than trendy features.
The F470 is a simply designed, compact camera. At just 5 ounces and 0.8 inches thick, it easily slips into a shirt pocket. The shiny camera cover may look cool, but it makes it a little hard to hold onto - there isn’t anywhere for the fingers to firmly grip, and the shiny surface can get slippery. Less attractive cameras like the Canon A540 and the Nikon L2 have better hand grips and are still compact.
The controls on the rear and top of the Fuji F470 are well laid out. In keeping with the simple design of the camera, there are only a handful of controls, and they are easy to use and well labeled. The on-screen menu is also designed well, with a live preview behind the text to show the effect of changing the settings. Some of the more commonly used settings (such as image size, ISO and the FinePix Color mode) can be quickly accessed from the “F” menu button.
The images that the F470 captured had acceptable sharpness - while they were nowhere near as sharp as other, more expensive cameras, there is sufficient detail to produce attractive 5x7-inch prints. The color was also acceptable. Most colors were reasonably close to the real thing. There was a certain amount of noise in the images, but this wasn’t noticeable and was comparable with other cameras. The maximum ISO setting of 400 is a little low, though, so the Fuji F470 won’t be good for shooting in low light without the flash. The Canon A540 has a top ISO of 800 and the Fuji F10 extends to 1600, so the F470's offerings look meager in comparison.
The autofocus system had problems in low light too. It struggled to find the right focus point, swimming to and fro within the range. The autofocus mechanism was noisy too; it made an irritating chirruping noise while focusing. Likewise, the zoom mechanism was noisy and rather slow, taking several seconds to zoom in. The 2.5-inch LCD screen is a reasonable size, but it has a low resolution of 115,000 pixels - too few to show fine details in images and to check focus on images. The Fuji F10 has a smoother LCD with 230,000 pixels.
A reasonable selection of 10 Scene modes is provided, with the usual suspects (Portrait, Landscape, etc.) present. There are no fully Manual modes, although there is some control over the white balance settings, ISO, and exposure compensation. The Canon A540 provides a plethora of exposure modes from Automatic to Manual that please just about anybody.
The FinePix F470’s Movie mode shoots at either 640 x 480 or 320 x 240 pixels, both with mono sound from the small built-in microphone. The videos have smooth movement, but the audio is not particularly good. The files are saved in Motion JPEG format, so they are compatible with most video editing programs. For capturing a series of still images, the F470 can capture a maximum of 5 images at once, at a speed of around 2 frames per second. That’s rather on the slow side - it would be too slow to catch a touchdown or even a speedy toddler.
Although the F470 is a low-cost camera, it is lacking the features of many other digital cameras in its price category. Panasonic cameras have image stabilization, while Canons offer better manual controls and interesting color effects. While the Fujifilm FinePix F470 is inexpensive, there are better cameras available if you spend a bit more.For a more in-depth review, visit the Fuji FinePix F470 Review at our partner DigitalCameraInfo.com
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