Fujifilm FinePix F70EXR [Review]

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Fujifilm FinePix F70EXR [Review]

Prasad Naik, Dec 10, 2009 1843 hrs IST

World's smallest camera to have a 10x optical zoom

Fairly compact despite having 10x zoom, good image details, natural colours, wide-angle lens, plenty of features and options, good auto modes, simple interface design

Unimpressive video quality, awkwardly placed flash, purple fringing in many of the images, focusing and zoom mechanism noise gets recorded in videos

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Design & Construction

The Fujifilm FinePix F70EXR is touted to be the world's smallest digital camera with a 10x optical zoom mechanism. This doesn't mean the camera is particularly small and it does not slip into your pocket as effortlessly as some of Sony's sleeker models do. But then these Sony cameras do not have a 10x optical zoom in them. The Canon SX120 IS, which also has a 10x zoom, and is priced similarly, is nearly twice as thick as the F70. The camera comes in two colour options - silver and gunmetal, both of which look good. The entire body is made of plastic, probably to save weight, but still feels fairly sturdy.

On the front side of the camera, the bulging lens mechanism is placed on the right, with the microphone at that bottom left and the light sensor on its top left. The flash, unfortunately, is placed on the left side, right where your middle finger would be when you hold the camera. Since the lens mechanism is fairly large, it seems Fujifilm engineers didn't have enough space to place the flash in its usual place, which is to the right. Below the flash is the sticker advertising the camera's features. However, it looks rather ugly and should be removed, as the camera would look better without it.

On the top are the power key and the shutter button with a zoom ring around it, all of which are comfortable to use. However, the zoom ring moved around a bit along with the shutter button and didn't feel as solid as the other buttons. On the right side is a flap covering the miniUSB port and beside it are the holes for attaching a lanyard. On the bottom is a provision for attaching the adaptor for tripod, loudspeaker and a flap that hides the rechargeable battery and SD card slot.

On the backside is the display, a dial for changing the camera modes, a five-way key for navigating the menu and four shortcut keys for accessing other functions. The mode changing dial is concave, so you can easily rest your right thumb on it while shooting. However, it also spins a bit too easily, so you need to be careful and not rotate it while shooting or you'll land in some other mode with different settings.