Reviews
Fujifilm
FinePix F450
How did they make it this small?
How
small, exactly, is Fujifilm's little FinePix F450 digital camera?
Look at the picture to the right. That is actual size. 2.9 x 2.5
x 0.8 inches. Next to it, the vaunted Sony Cybershot T1 seems
a bit wide in the beam, and perhaps a bit overweight as well.
Some of Casio's little Exilims are a bit thinner, but they don't
have the FinePix 450's powerful optical zoom. In fact, they don't
have one at all.
The FinePix
F450 is one of those little marvels that you immediately like.
It's a neat, beautifully crafted little metal box that looks and
feels right in every respect. It is cleanly designed down to the
last detail. It feels very solid, heavy even, in your hand though
it weighs just over five ounces. There are only a few controls÷all
nicely designed and clearly labeled÷but you instinctively know
that they'll do the job. It is that kind of a camera. You can't
help having very high expectations after you take it out of the
box. You want to like it, and for it to do well.
Mostly, the
F450 fills those expectations. It's a 5.2 megapixel camera, so
you have plenty of resolution to work with. It has an impressive
3.4X optical zoom. Multiply that with a very workable 4.1X digital
zoom and you can get stuff real close to you. 13.8 times closer.
As is shown on the picture below, the zoom lens does motor out
quite bit. The Sony T1's doesn't because it uses an ingenious
ãaround the cornerä mechanism. Okay, so the F450 isn't totally
perfect. But the lens recesses flush into the housing when the
camera is turned off.
Using
the FinePix 450 is simple. Despite its small size it has a serious
demeanor to it and you half expect some sophisticated manual controls
lurking in some menus. Not so. The F450 is really a point & shoot.
There are a few things you can do in manual mode, but it's not
much more than exposure compensation and white balance setting.
Fujifilm designed this little camera to be pulled out of a shirtpocket,
ready to roll any time.
When you start
using the F450 you go through an initial phase of slight frustration.
That's because those cleanly laid out controls are not always
quite as obvious as you'd want. The playback-movie-camera slider
is obvious enough, but what does a ãFä button do? Time to read
the manual! Likewise, there isn't one of those ubiquitous 5-way
navigation discs. For that you use tiny left and right buttons
and a small up/down switch. You don't press on that for an ãenterä
though. That's via another small button. On/off is a large chrome
flap on the front. It looks more like a design element and it
is not obvious which is ãonä and which is ãoff.ä I am nitpicking
here, but a bit more of the old ãform follows functionä would
have been easier on the neocortex (that's the part of your brain
that has to learn and memorize non-obvious stuff). Using a camera
as tiny as the F450 requires a bit of adapting as well. To hands
used to holding a standard camera, one so small seems in constant
danger of being dropped. However, all controls are in the proper
place, so you get used to it quickly.
The
F450 uses the xD-Picture Card format and comes with a 16MB card.
Power is via a NP30 rechargeable Li-Ion pack that's good for about
150 pictures between recharges. The pack is held in place with
a small plastic retainer. All cameras should have one of those.
Another thing that few cameras come with: a handy cradle for playback
and audio-video out via a special cable that comes with the camera.
Even though
the F450 is tiny, it has a large 2.0-inch LCD. This follows Sony's
lead with the T1 (which has an even larger 2.5-inch display).
Small cameras do not need to have tiny displays. Unfortunately,
while the F450's LCD is large, it really isn't very legible outdoors.
I am getting tired of not being able to see what's going on on
a digital camera LCD outdoors!
Another thing
that's missing is Fujifilm's impressive SuperCCD technology. The
450 has a standard CCD sensor. That's unfortunate as the CCD seems
to be the weakest link in the picture-taking part of this camera.
Pictures are good, but not always as sharp as I expected.
The FinePix
F450 is a very good camera that's just short of great. Definitely
woth having.
ö Kirk Linsky
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