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39 of 40 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent quality in a beautiful package, 19 May 2005
The first things that strike one about the Finepix F810 are its unusual body shape -- a slightly elongated rectangular prism -- and the quality of the camera construction: it's a beautiful piece of engineering in a top-quality magnesium alloy case. Very little cheap plastic here. It feels nice in the hand, and while it is larger than many of the popular compact cameras of today (Pentax S5i etc.), that is a plus, since it has a substantial feel to it that is reassuring. Won't fit in a shirt pocket, but certainly in a jacket, trousers or handbag. There is an optional soft leather case available, and together they make an attractive luxury package.OK, so it looks very nice and feels very nice, but how does it work? Very well indeed! It can be used as a P&S camera, but you don't need to spend £300 for just a P&S, even if it does give you 12Mp photos. The F810 also gives experienced photographers almost complete control over their photographs, rather like an SLR, with fully manual control if desired, along with aperture and shutter speed priority, program [sic], and four dedicated "scene" modes. [It also takes movies, but I have no interest in using it for movies and so can't comment on this feature -- though other reviews speak favourably of it.] One unusual and attractive feature is the switchable "widescreen" (16:9) format: the large LCD screen shows it and the photos are recorded in that format, the same as a widescreen TV. Very neat.
Most importantly, this Fuji F810 takes superb photographs, quite remarkable considering that it is such a compact package. Best quality is achieved by using the 12Mp or 8Mp size (the Super CCD HR sensor carries 6.3Mp but the Fuji hexagonal pixel array and processing results in a 12Mp+ image), and if you really want to go to town you can record the images in RAW form, which are then converted to TIFF files through the Fuji software supplied. Colours are rich and natural; resolution is excellent, and you can easily print up to A3 size or bigger with stunning results. The unique "F" button also allows you to select "Chrome" colour saturation, which is supposed to mimic that of a transparency, like Velvia -- excellent for bringing out the colours on a dreary English day. Be aware that 12Mp images, and the RAW images, take up a lot of memory (around 16Mb for a RAW shot), and you will need to buy a "big" xD card to store your photos, at least 250Mb. When doing that, also buy a back-up battery. (By the way, the F810 comes with an elegant "cradle" which handles battery charging, USB connection to your computer -- which I hope is a Mac -- and video out connection to a TV: just sit the camera in the cradle. No dangling cables.) The menus are fairly easy to use, and a few days' use of the camera will make them familiar. (The only menu aspect I found odd is that the option for shooting in RAW mode is buried in the Set-up menu, but once you know it's there, finding it is no problem.) Control over aperture and shutter speed in record mode, and advancing through the images in playback mode is done by a knurled cylinder next to the screen -- an unusual and snazzy solution. The rest of the controls will be familiar to anyone who's ever used a digital camera, and are easily learned by a novice. It's not hard to see that I really like this camera. I did a lot of research before I bought it -- I am a long-term Olympus and Nikon user and this is my first Fuji. Perhaps what swung my decision, putting the Fuji ahead of the Nikon Coolpix 7900, was the build quality and the "feel" of the camera in use. I have not been disappointed. On the contrary, it has exceeded my expectations. I recommend it highly.
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