Fuji Finepix F200EXR Review

Back in 2006, Fujifilm launched the FinePix F30, a six megapixel compact camera which quickly built itself a near-legendary reputation for its class-leading low-light capabilities and high-ISO image quality.

Since this release Fuji have wanted to maintain the lead that they had created. This is where the F200EXR comes into the picture.

Some people are starting to question the need to increase the sensor resolution but Fuji would very much like to reclaim the advantage in low light technology and this is something the everyday amateur photographer can benefit from. The Fuji Finepix F200EXR really does perform exceptionally and its worth every penny.

The basic specification is exactly what one would expect from a modern high-end digital compact. It has a 12-megapixel sensor, a 5x zoom lens equivalent to 28-140mm with optical image stabilisation, a three inch wide-view LCD monitor with 230k dot resolution, and a strong metal and plastic body of the same design as the F100fd, coloured a slightly metallic slate grey. It's quite large by compact camera standards, but the build quality is excellent and it certainly looks and feels like you're getting your money's worth.

 

The F200 is the first of the range to use the EXR technology. The sensor has 12 million light sensors but they have three different modes of operation to find the optimal picture clarity. In normal lighting conditions the camera will use the full 12 million CCD sensors to capture all of the fine details you require.

However in low-light situations it switches to a High ISO/Low Noise mode, in which adjacent pairs of photocells combine their output to produce effectively a 6-megapixel sensor with double the light sensitivity. This practice, known as “pixel binning”, has been around for a long time, but Fuji has combined it with a new mosaic colour filter designed so that adjacent photocell pairs share the same colour, which should result in better colour reproduction in pixel binned shots. In high-contrast situations the sensor splits, capturing two images simultaneously at different sensitivity settings. These are combined in the camera to produce a single image with greater dynamic range. These three different sensor modes can be manually selected in EXR mode, or can be chosen automatically by the camera’s exposure system.

Despite the size of the camera’s body the controls are quite small and fiddly, and the light-grey-on-dark-grey labelling can be a bit hard to make out in dim light. The zoom control is an easy-to-use rotary bezel around the shutter button, and although the zoom action is stepped it has 14 increments between minimum and maximum, allowing reasonably accurate framing. Other control options are also a concern. Fuji’s double menu system started off as a good idea, but has become more and more confusing over the years, with options split seemingly arbitrarily between the main menu and the function menu. The F200 is a prime example, mostly because the menu options change drastically depending on the shooting mode.

 

Fuji makes a great deal of the camera's low-light focusing abilities, and with good reason. I tried the camera both indoors and outdoors in a number of low-light situations (alright, they were parties) and I was unable to find any situation in which it wouldn't focus, apart from deliberately pointing it up into the featureless night sky. In any situation where there was actually something to photograph, the camera would focus on it quickly and accurately, with the help of its extremely bright AF assist lamp. Without question the F200 EXR has the best low light focusing ability that I've yet seen from a compact camera.

Of course the big question is; does the EXR sensor actually perform as advertised? Fujifilm claims that the F200 EXR has superior low-light image quality to the F31fd, and I'm happy to report that indeed it does, although to be honest the F31 was so good that there's not much in it. Shooting in the EXR High ISO/Low Noise setting, producing 6MP images, from 100 to 400 ISO it is effectively noise-free, and while there is some noise at 800 ISO it has a fine grain-like texture with accurate colour reproduction. 1600 ISO does show noticeable noise effects, but with none of the colour artefacts seen in other cameras at this sensitivity setting. Again, the noise texture resembles film grain, and isn't an unpleasant effect. While it doesn't produce results comparable with a larger DSLR sensor, the EXR sensor does have a clear advantage over conventional 12MP compact camera sensors in terms of image noise.

The F200EXR, our Verdict

The Fuji Finexpix F200EXR is well-made premium compact that represents a major technological breakthrough in terms of sensor design and performance, and a welcome return to form for Fuji's flagship compact series. It is capable of taking good quality pictures in virtually any light conditions, and has better high-ISO image quality and low-light focusing than any other compact on the market. It is expensive at the moment, although the price will almost certainly fall over the next few months. I hope you found our F200EXR Review useful, it really is an exceptional compact camera.

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