Fujifilm FinePix F200 EXR's photos shown off

We were fairly hopeful that Fujifilm's recently revealed 12 megapixel FinePix F200 EXR point and shoot would produce some great looking shots. Well, the fine folks over at Impress Watch have gotten their hands on one and taken it for a spin. In case you've forgotten, the camera is Fuji's first offering to boast its new 1/1.6-inch Super CCD EXR sensor, and it's got a 3-inch LCD, a 28-mm wide-angle 5x zoom lens, and is capable of 640 x 480 AVI video recording. The photos we're seeing are very crisp and detailed, with excellent color and very low noise. Though we won't know until we see for ourselves (still no word on pricing or availability for this one), we're preliminarily impressed. Check a few more after the break -- hit the read for full comparison shots with explanations.

[Tom Robertson @ Feb 5th 2009 12:26PM]

Yes they do look very sharp. How much are they?

[Nerd Ferguson @ Feb 5th 2009 12:27PM]

"Though we won't know until we see for ourselves (still no word on pricing or availability for this one)"

[fieldcar @ Feb 5th 2009 12:51PM]

I heard $400... forgot source.

[fieldcar @ Feb 5th 2009 12:54PM]

yep, $399
http://www.slashgear.com/fujifilm-finepix-f200exr-features-super-ccd-exr-image-sensor-0433037/

[Tarnation @ Feb 5th 2009 12:28PM]

Because I always wanted a picture of some scaffolding and a wall.

[a ham sandwich @ Feb 5th 2009 12:30PM]

the first two shots looks amazing. the third one looks pretty typical i think. either way, im definitely impressed for a point and shoot!

[chrisk1590 @ Feb 5th 2009 12:33PM]

It doesn't seem much better than other cameras. If you downsample an image by half, it's bound to look less noisy because it averages out a lot of the single-pixel noise to make it look smoother. If you save the ISO 1600 images from EXR mode and regular mode at the same size (like Windows Picture Viewer) they look pretty much the same. EXR mode has just a tiny bit less noise but really they're about the same. I don't really understand the hype about this.

[chrisk1590 @ Feb 5th 2009 12:34PM]

and view them at the same size*

[L @ Feb 5th 2009 5:22PM]

I've been looking for a replacement point-and-shoot for my falling-apart Finepix F30 and I haven't seen any other P&S match that 3-year-old camera's image quality, much less beat it significantly enough for me to want to upgrade... except for this one.

Sure, noise is negligible when you downsize the image or make 4x6" prints, but a lot of the time, I've had to crop down photos to compensate for the limited zoom in my Fuji (though the 5x in this new one should help a LOT), so it's incredibly helpful to have low-noise photos in those cases. Unfortunately, it follows in the footsteps of the F100fd with no aperture and shutter priority modes... which would've made this camera great for someone who WANTS a DSLR but really only has the time/patience for a P&S.

And as other commenters have noted, the shots aren't thaaat tough. Though I'm impressed with how much they've cleaned up some weaknesses that were in past F-series Fujis (chroma fringing and crazy aberrations in areas like the bare trees). Would definitely need to see some more challenging shots.

[iv @ Feb 5th 2009 6:36PM]

@L : Stick with the F31: http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/fujifilmf50fd/page6.asp - newer models (i.e. f100+) don't improve the image.

[why not the LS2LS7? @ Feb 5th 2009 12:38PM]

There's nothing special about the noise levels in those photos. At ISO 100, other compact P&Ses produce very similar noise levels at similar resolutions.

Also, why is coke zero called coke zero zero over there? Maybe it's caffeine free? I could get into that.

[martin @ Feb 5th 2009 12:54PM]

coke zero is sugar free like pepsi max, tastes crap though

[Michael R Johnson @ Feb 5th 2009 12:59PM]

It's a cross-promotion for "Casino Royale" the James Bond movie.

[fieldcar @ Feb 5th 2009 12:59PM]

I'm on a sugar free diet, so no normal soda for me, and coke zero tastes MUCH better than diet coke.

[bluemoose67 @ Feb 5th 2009 1:05PM]

It says 'zero zero 7', presumably a James Bond tie-in ?

[YpoCaramel @ Feb 5th 2009 1:28PM]

Eh, daylight shooting has never been the point of the F-series. Its low-night, ISO400+ shooting that we want to know about.

[Jorvay @ Feb 5th 2009 2:42PM]

My understanding is that Coke Zero is the european Diet Coke. North American Diet Coke doesn't meet EU food standards. So now we in North America have Diet Coke and Coke Zero (aka euro diet coke). I don't know quite why. Maybe they hoped that Coke Zero would take off and they could drop Diet Coke and go back to a single recipe world wide?

[Alex @ Feb 5th 2009 3:45PM]

Martin is wrong. Coke Zero is BETTER than usual Coca-cola/Diet Coke because it tastes the most like Pepsi Max, which is nicer than any type of Coke.

What is this? Soft-drinks flame wars?

I'm a Pepsi fanboy.

[Plothole @ Feb 5th 2009 4:18PM]

All I know is that Diet Coke and Coke Zero are both potentially fatal for those allergic to aspartame.

[why not the LS2LS7? @ Feb 5th 2009 4:58PM]

You don't mean allergic.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phenylketonuria

[Plothole @ Feb 5th 2009 6:25PM]

Actually what I meant is the light headed state my mother is left in after consuming Aspartame.

[EricR @ Feb 5th 2009 12:42PM]

I have the Fujifilm s2000hd and I have really enjoyed the quality and richness of the pictures it takes -- they look similar to these.

[Mike @ Feb 5th 2009 1:00PM]

WOW

[revaaron @ Feb 5th 2009 1:00PM]

I just ordered a olympus tough-8000. if I wanted good photos, I would use one of my SLRs.
a p&s for me is something to use when a picture is better than no picture.
hence underwater and snow camera.

[Jean-Luc @ Feb 5th 2009 1:23PM]

$400's not too bad for that res and 5X (I assume optical) zoom.

[Kelmon @ Feb 5th 2009 1:49PM]

Any chance of a replacement for the excellent S5 Pro?

[Geir @ Feb 5th 2009 4:41PM]

http://finepix.wordpress.com/2007/11/18/fujifilm-finepix-s6-pro-specifications-revealed/ ;-)

[Kelmon @ Feb 6th 2009 7:04AM]

Some people just have too much time on their hands. I am rather ashamed to say that I actually believed the electrical shock feature up until the point where it suggested that Fujifilm Support would have the ability to electrocute users who bad-mouthed their product...

[Mark @ Feb 5th 2009 4:02PM]

Apparently I'm not a photography enthusiast, so why do they call it a 1/1.6-inch sensor instead of a 5/8" sensor?

[Plothole @ Feb 5th 2009 4:11PM]

It makes it easier to compare with sensors of different sizes. (eg. 1/1.8", 1/2.3")

[el-emeno @ Feb 6th 2009 2:21AM]

That would be so much easier with a decimal. This is a 0.625" chip. A decimal in a fraction is unnecessarily confusing.

[DaveZatz @ Feb 5th 2009 2:57PM]

Agree with the prior commenters. All these pics at 100 ISO don't tell us much. How about 400? Or 800? Let us see the low light capabilities and noise levels.

[rrgg @ Feb 5th 2009 3:47PM]

The winter photos at Fuji's site look pretty nice.

I'd love to find some night and low light shots. Fuji stop teasing us!

[??? @ Feb 5th 2009 3:57PM]

Second that. You can't just get a bunch of easy indoor/daylight shots and call it quality.

[invincible @ Feb 5th 2009 4:07PM]

Useless fact: Knowing to take photos at the right time of day (or having control of the lights in a studio) helps make your photos better regardless of what camera is being used.

[Plothole @ Feb 5th 2009 4:13PM]

Yes, but depending your subject those may not be an option.

[mango @ Feb 5th 2009 4:18PM]

how do they blur the background in the first picture?!

I have the casio ex-fh20 the super slow motion camera...really cool camera. but I really want to know how to blur the background...and focus on something in the foreground.

[e-mail] thanks!

[nbcdnzr @ Feb 5th 2009 6:49PM]

The blurring you see is what is usually referred to as 'depth of field'. To get a nice DoF you need a fast lens (low aperture). So seeing this in the shots is a sign of the quality of the lens. It should be said though that these kind of effects can also easily be done in photoshop.

[el-emeno @ Feb 6th 2009 3:23AM]

Aperture is an important element, but it's not the only one. Another factor is how close the camera is to the foreground vs. the background. The closer you get to your foreground (think macro), the more obvious the focus fall-off will be. A second factor is the focal length of the lens (where it's zoomed to), though I can't remember how that works exactly -- I think the longer the lens, the more exaggerated the effect? And the size of the sensor has a bearing on this too. Most sensors in P&S cameras are too small to give a very narrow depth of field in most cases (thus everything's in focus), but this particular one is approaching a useful size, apparently.

[Jeff @ Feb 5th 2009 5:27PM]

The photos posted here are quite useless - they're resized WAY down, so obviously any noise or other imperfections would be hidden. Don't judge on that.

Click the "read" link, though, and you'll see full size images available for download. And they do look good indeed - better than any other compact cam I've seen. *Not* as good as an SLR, though - I'd say about midway between a typical compact and an SLR in terms of detail and noise.

Also, that first photo has some *clearly* blown highlights. So the dynamic range appears to be about typical for a compact cam.

Worth a premium over other compacts? Yeah. Worth $400? Probably not.

[Wwhat @ Feb 5th 2009 9:49PM]

The blue of the (clear well lighted sky) is a bit noisy IMHO, and sharpness is lower-standard for a p-and-s, so count me underwhelmed.