FinePix F470

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As an entry level compact camera, the Fujifilm Finepix F470 is a decent, but not outstanding model. Its 6 megapixel sensor captures above average pictures, but combined with the quite standard feature set and plain design this camera doesn't stand out from the crowd.

Pros

  • Sharp pictures

Cons

  • Noise and chromatic aberration issues, Continuous shot mode slow

Bottom Line

A low end six megalpixel camera, the F470 is a decent but not outstanding model that fails to differentiate itself from the myriad of compacts on the market.

Would you buy this?

  • Price

    $ 399.00 (AUD)

Fujifilm has really just included the very basics on this camera. You are given ISO sensitivities up to 400, a 1.2 frame per second continuous shot mode and 3 colour options (black and white, regular and chrome). Throw in ten scene modes and at first glance it appears that is all there is. Delve a little deeper however, and you'll find one of the scene pre-sets is actually a manual mode, which also opens up whitebalance settings and exposure compensation. We can't understand why Fujifilm would stash those options in such an inaccessible place, it just makes it unnecessarily difficult, but we were thankful to find them. Even so, the feature set isn't impressive. We'd like to see a better continuous shot mode and some auto focus options, as well as all of these readily being available from the main menu.

The camera impressed a little more in our imaging tests, particularly with regards to sharpness, scoring 1394 in Imatest, which is an excellent result for a 6 megapixel sensor. This came through in our test shots, with a great level of clarity and minimal evidence of colour fringing. We were particularly impressed that such a low cost camera could produce such clear shots.

It did however suffer from noticeable chromatic aberration, scoring .148% in this test. We saw visible evidence of this in our indoors test shots, with blue and red haloing around certain contrasting areas towards the edges of our shots. It will be noticeable in most prints, even at smaller sizes, and detracts somewhat from the brilliant sharpness score.

The F470's colour results weren't as impressive as its sharpness results, scoring 9.5 in our colourcheck test. The average is around 8 for this test, so in terms of colour this camera is a little behind the pack. As usual it was reds and blues that were the main culprits, although all shades except the greyscale spectrum exhibited some signs of inaccuracy. The results were not outstanding, but for a camera at this price they were somewhat expected.

Our final test for image noise mirrored the colourcheck test, with the F470 achieving slightly less than impressive results. With a score of .70% at ISO 100, it was a little higher than we're used to seeing from cameras in this category. At this level it was slightly visible in our shots, but thankfully the noise produced was extremely small and fine, and not strong enough to have an impact unless the shots were enlarged. Furthermore at its highest setting of ISO 400, it scored just 1.15%, which is quite a good result and indicates this model scales well at higher sensitivities. We'd have no problem using it at these settings, which is great for low light or high speed photography.

The F470 carries a fairly standard design, with a silver plastic chassis and a slim, lightweight build. Tipping the scales at just 120 grams it is comfortable to use and easy to transport. We thought the aesthetic was fairly standard, although it does have a touch of minimalism about it. There is no function wheel, rather the shutter button has a simple switch to flip between video and photo modes, and the rest is taken care of by the menus.

One design element worth noting is the screen, which is a beautiful 60 frame per second, 115,000 colour 2.5 inch LCD. The refresh rate means the display is absolutely crystal clear. Most digital camera LCDs handle motion poorly, exhibiting slowdown and ghosting whenever you move the camera, but the F470's picture never faltered.

It exhibited fairly standard results in our speed tests, with a shutter lag of .09 of a second, a 2.2 second power-up time and about two seconds between shots. These results are all quite reasonable, and are on par with other cameras we've seen recently.

Overall the F470 is quite a good camera, but doesn't do enough to differentiate itself from the pack. Its images are sharp, but are let down by higher than normal levels of noise and chromatic aberration, and its feature set is uninspiring.

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