I am by no means an expert photographer, but do have a basic understanding. I have used various Fuji, Olympus and Canon compact digitals before buying this Fuji F480.
Different consumers have different needs from a camera. And various models have specific features/limitations. The best quality pictures are produced from full-sized cameras with full sized lenses but NOT necessarily huge pixel-counts; for the F480 and it's 8 megapixels to be shoe-horned into such a compact package is great.
But the resulting pictures don't half suffer!
I've been looking for years for a suitable wide-angle compact. I used Fuji's E510 & E550 which were pretty good but suffered from bad purple fringeing.
Then along came Canon's
IXUS 850 IS which looked the part. Reported reliability issues and norticeably blurry corners of pictures put me off that one.
Now, as well as Fuji's F480, Olympus have released the wide-angle FE-290 with near-identical looks and spec.
To get to the point -I've only had this F480 for a couple of days but I've managed to take some pretty apalling shots. Noise and purple fringeing seem to be out of control. An indoor auto flash pic taken in daytime with fair light produced the most astounding noise. At ISO 100 and using a tripod for an indoor shot without flash, the noise was reduced but still there.
When (if!) we get some sun I'll try a more varied selection of shots -but I'm expecting some pretty comical levels of chromatic abberation!
Exposure compensation is available in scene selection 'manual' only. So you can't apply it to any other scene type like 'image stabilisation'. I wouldn't be surprised if 'Image Stabilisation' mode simply boosts the ISO.
My Fuji E550 and Olympus C-480 ZOOM both had DEDICATED exposure compensation buttons which is a most excellent idea -it encourages true novices to make manual adjustments without fear.
This '480 though, despite it's technologically advanced features, doesn't really offer any control over them. And, from what I've seen so far, they definitely don't help you take good pictures.
The scene selection idea is not disimilar to cheap kitchen stereos offering modes like 'Jazz', 'Pop', 'Classical' etc. instead of proper tone controls. Result often being you can't get a pleasing output. Ditto this camera.
One scene selection is 'baby' and the dial even has a baby face icon on it. That should secure a few impulse purchases -but I don't see why 'portrait' mode wouldn't suffice in this situation. As it turns out, 'baby' supresses flash whereas 'portrait' doesn't. I'm none the wiser, really.
I'll update this if poss after I've taken a load more shots and tried some different modes.
Side picture of a stone clocktower facing the sun against blue sky did NOT produce any purple fringeing (right in middle of frame). But it was not sharp. This kind of pic should jump out at you and sunny side/shady side edges should be rock-hard(!) But it looked like the tower was made of felt it was so fuzzy. I am only exaggerating a bit.
Indoor 'portrait' pic with flash was nuts. Skin was horrible. Pastel yellow wall immediately behind subject was weird pinky colour. Cameras can get white balance wrong with indoor lighting, but I've never seen such odd results with the flash ON !
Park shot looked OK when not enlarged but detail lost on branch tips which seem to melt into the bright sky -despite whole pic being a bit UNDER exposed. Purple fringeing evident as expected but not too bad as leaves still on trees (appears as if sky behind tree is blue when actually white).
'Sunset' mode pics looked OK at first. Best of the bad bunch. Noise probably not noticeable on 4 x 6 print. But sky came out green in parts. Also terribly underexposed due to sun being in frame. This highlights(!) shortcoming of not allowing +/- exposure compensation in combination with scene modes. -Honestly, even the sunset icon on the camera has a pic of the setting sun, so one would have thought some over-exposure would be necessary. I expect a pic of sunset over sea would show the sea as being black.
I think you should get the message by now.
I am not against Fuji as a brand. In fact I have thoroughly enjoyed their 2Mp F401 for many years until the CCD chip died a few days ago. That took far superior pics than this offering does. And apart from the fringeing problem, the E510 and E550 were otherwise excellent cameras, and when the CCD chip on my E510 goofed, Fuji repaired the camera very quickly under warranty.
In the past I have tried a Canon Digital IXUS 500 which was compact and did actually take very good and sharp shots. I just didn't like the camera (for no particular reason) so got rid of it. Unless you REALLY want a wide-angle job, you could try something from Canon's current IXUS range (if it's still going) but not their A430 cos that can be a bit fuzzy/blotchy at times. If you want smaller, Olympus Miju's might be worth a look.
If wide is a MUST you could check-out the Ricoh Caplio R4 (or 5) or the Canon Powershot S80. They are bigger to carry but hey, you can't have it all, it seems. I'm not expecting too much from Olympus's FE-290 now as it's the same size as this Fuji duffer.
Must go now -I have to package my F480 to return it as 'unsuitable' -now THAT'S an understatement!
5p
5p
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Oct 29th, 2007
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