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DPInterface Fujifilm FinePix F470 Review
Brad Soo - April 30th, 2006
The Fujifilm FinePix F470 is a stylish 6 megapixel entry-level camera which is priced below $250. What it lacks is a Fujifilm SuperCCD and uses a conventional CCD. So how will image quality turn up? Let's see.
Fujifilm F-series (entry-level) comparison
Let's see how much the Fujifilm F470 improved over last year's F460:
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*As of April 30th, 2006
Size and Weight
The Fujifilm FinePix F470 is a compact entry-level camera. So exactly how compact is it?:
(195.0) 103.0 x 51.8 x 40.2 mm (160 g) - Canon PowerShot A430
(197.6) 90.4 x 64.0 x 43.2 mm (180 g) - Canon PowerShot A530/A540
(177.2) 90.0 x 60.0 x 27.2 mm (137 g) - Casio Exilim Z110/Z120
(169.7) 91.9 x 58.1 x 19.7 mm (122 g) - Fujifilm FinePix F470
(188.3) 95.0 x 62.0 x 31.3 mm (140 g) - HP Photosmart M425/M525
(192.0) 91.0 x 66.0 x 35.0 mm (150 g) - Kodak EasyShare C533
(177.5) 91.0 x 60.5 x 26.0 mm (120 g) - Nikon Coolpix L2/L3
(185.0) 96.0 x 63.0 x 26.0 mm (130 g) - Olympus FE130/FE140
(194.9) 110.5 x 53.5 x 30.9 mm (138 g) - Panasonic Lumix LS2
(179.0) 87.0 x 60.0 x 32.0 mm (130 g) - Pentax Optio E10
(169.0) 89.0 x 57.0 x 23.0 mm (127 g) - Sony Cyber-shot W50
(188.7) 99.9 x 52.0 x 36.8 mm (133 g) - Sony Cyber-shot S600
The Fujifilm FinePix F470 is the slimmest and almost the lightest entry-level camera. It's pocketable and not a burden at all to bring along.
Open up the Box
The Fujifilm F470 includes a standard and simple package:
- Rechargeable NP-40N lithium-ion battery
- Battery charger
- Wrist strap
- USB cable
- A/V cable
- CD-ROM
- User's manual
Storage and Power
The Fujifilm FinePix F470 has 16 MB of internal memory; useful for an album or if you forgot your memory card. With images at the highest resolution, it can only hold 5 photos. The Fujifilm FinePix F470 uses xD-Picture cards and you'd wanna get at least a 256 MB card immediately. Thankfully, xD-Picture cards are getting lower in price and not as expensive as in the old days.
360 shots - Canon PowerShot A430
360 shots - Canon PowerShot A530/A540
180 shots - Casio Exilim Z110/Z120
200 shots - Fujifilm FinePix F470
N/A - HP Photosmart M425/M525
300 shots - Kodak EasyShare C533
325 shots - Nikon Coolpix L2/L3
N/A - Olympus FE130/FE140
390 shots - Panasonic Lumix LS2
300 shots - Pentax Optio E10
400 shots - Sony Cyber-shot W50
460 shots - Sony Cyber-shot S600
The Fujifilm FinePix F470 has one of the worst battery life ratings in its class - just 200 shots (CIPA Standard) with its lithium-ion batteries. A lot of those cameras use 2 AA batteries which result in better battery life.
Extras
The FinePix F470 has 2 accessories; namely an AC adapter and various camera cases.
Camera Tour
The Fujifilm FinePix F470 has a plain but stylish look. The lens is at the very right. The lens is equivalent to 35 - 105 mm and f2.8 - f4.9. Behind the lens is a traditional 1/2.5 inch CCD with 6 effective megapixels. Below the lens, next to the "6.0 megapixels", there's a microphone.
The flash is located in the middle at the top of the camera. The flash has a range of 70 cm to 4.6 m at wide-angle and up to 2.6 m at telephoto. In macro mode, the flash reduces its output to 30 cm - 80 cm.
There's a slight bump (grip) on the left. On the grip, next to the flash, it's not a remote control receiver but a self-timer light. Nope, there's no AF-assist beam here!
The FinePix F470's big LCD is 2.5 inches and has 115,000 pixels. It is not that sharp but brightens reasonably in low-light though not as much as Fujifilm cameras with SuperCCDs. Outdoors, things are just okay but expect to shade the LCD to reduce glare. One thing I dislike about LCDs on Fujifilm's budget cameras is that they don't cover the whole frame. This one shows just 97% of the frame when doing previews.
The zoom controller is located on the top right followed by a divot for your thumb beneath it. Placed nearby is a status light which blinks very quickly when the camera is busy. Then there's a dedicated playback button and the F-button. The F-button brings up the photo mode menu:
The Fujifilm FinePix F470's photo mode menu allows you to change image resolution, quality, ISO sensitivity and color modes. After that is a 5-way controller which you'll never miss on most digital cameras:
- Up - Brighten LCD/Delete photo
- Down - Self-timer
- Left - Macro
- Right - Flash (Auto, red-eye reduction, on, off, slow sync, slow sync with red-eye reduction)
The MENU/OK button brings up the menu to change settings and doubles as a confirm button. The DISP/BACK button toggles the info displayed on the LCD and also returns to the main menu from any submenu.
Up here (whoops, my old Canon S500 seems to have messed up white balance) is a power button and shutter button. There's a mode switch wrapped around the shutter button. I'd rather have a zoom lever up here and a mode switch at the back as switching modes is quite awkward. Anyway, here are the modes:
- Auto/program
- Scene position - Any scene modes for you? - Portrait, landscape, sport, night, beach & snow, sunset, museum, party, flower close-up, text
- Movie mode
The Fujifilm FinePix F470 features a speaker, tripod mount and battery/xD-Picture card slow down here. I wish the battery/card door had a lock - it's just too easy to open.
On the sides of the camera, there's many ports: DC-IN, USB 2.0 High-Speed and A/V Out plus a wrist strap mount.
Shooting
The Fujifilm FinePix F470 has quite a few scene modes - Portrait, landscape, sport, night, beach & snow, sunset, museum, party, flower close-up, text - and a few options to change:
- ISO (64, 100, 200, 400)
- White balance (6 presets: fine, shade, daylight, fluorescent warm, fluorescent cool, incandescent)
- Self-timer (10 seconds, 2 seconds)
- Color mode (Standard, vivid, monochrome)
There are 6 image sizes to choose from: 6 MP Fine, 6 MP Normal, 6 MP 3:2 format, 3 MP, 2 MP and VGA. Compression can only be selected for the highest resolution. I think the Fujifilm FinePix F470 is pretty easy to use - but then again, it's point-and-shoot.
Recording
The Fujifilm FinePix F470 has an excellent movie mode for a $250 camera. It can record VGA (640 x 480) movies at 30 FPS till the memory card is full. Sound is recorded A 256 MB xD-Picture card holds about 5 minutes of movie. If that's not enough, you can lower resolution to 320 x 240 at 30 FPS - A card of the same capacity will hold 8 minutes.
The video quality here was sharp and audio was clear.
Performance
The Fujifilm FinePix F470 starts up in 2 seconds and takes an average time of 1.7 seconds to focusing. Sometimes in low-light, the camera cannot even focus. The FinePix F470's competitors (namely the Canon A430, Panasonic LS2 and Sony S600) focus much faster and better.
The camera took 1 shot every 2 seconds and shutter lag is fairly noticeable at telephoto. The lens goes from wide-angle to telephoto in about 3 seconds. The minute you hit the power button again, the F470 shuts down in 2 seconds. The FinePix F470 takes 7 shots in a row at 1 FPS.
Image Quality
Now, lets check out image quality of the Fujifilm FinePix F470:
ISO 64 (f2.8, 1/6 sec)
ISO 100 (f2.8, 1/6 sec)
ISO 200 (f2.8, 1/13 sec)
ISO 400 (f2.8, 1/25 sec)
I think image quality here is fairly good, even at ISO 400. Considering the F470 doesn't have a SuperCCD, noise is still under control and the image is not very soft. There's very little color fringing here though. The Fujifilm F470 showed little barrel and pincushion distortion. All-in-all,the Fujifilm FinePix F470 has good photo quality.
Photo gallery
View photos in the Fujifilm FinePix F470 gallery.
Playback
As expected, the Fujifilm FinePix F470 has a fairly basic playback mode. You can rotate, crop photos, record sound memos and view photos in sets of 9 thumbnails. There's a simple auto play AKA slideshow feature which just goes from one photo to another in intervals.
Conclusion
The Fujifilm FinePix F470 is a 6 megapixel, 3x zoom entry-level camera. It's a good camera though its positives are on par with some other entry-level cameras: simple controls, compact size, big 2.5 inch LCD, movie mode and image quality.
If only its LCD covered 100% of the frame, if only it had better battery life and if only it was faster. I think that the FinePix F470 is good but not good enough. For the same price, the Sony W50 offers the same things but also has an LCD with 100% coverage, 80% better battery life, an AF-assist beam and is slightly faster.
What's hot:
- Simple, user friendly and very compact
- Powerful flash
- Useful but few scene modes
- Big LCD with average visibility
- Good movie mode
- Good image quality and fairly low noise
What's not:
- LCD is low in resolution and only covers 97% of the frame
- Below average battery life
- No AF-assist beam
- Slow, limited continuous shooting
- Slow performance
Recommended accessories:
- Extra rechargeable NP-40N lithium-ion battery
- 256 MB xD-Picture card
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