Fuji Finepix F480 Review

The Fuji Finepix F480 is one of the cheaper pocket sized cameras on the market. It is a straightforward, point and shoot camera. The Finepix F480 is aimed at anyone looking for a simple snapshot camera and does not want to pay a fortune for it. It has 8 megapixels and a 4x wide angle lens.

Outdoor 1 (Medium Zoom)
The Finepix F480 is already struggling with what should be quite a straightforward shot. The level of sharpness of the shot is below standard. The camera has also failed to cope with the glare from the sun.

Outdoor 2 (No Zoom)
This is an average effort when it comes to focusing. As I have noticed with other digital cameras with wide angle lenses it is difficult to produce a very sharp wide angle photo. Sun glare and purple fringing are other problems that are visible in this shot.

Outdoor 3 (Maximum Zoom)
Once again focusing is a bit of a struggle for the Finepix F480. This is especially the case as you move away from the centre of the photo.

Outdoor Portrait
Focusing improves a lot at closer range. The downside is a dull photo lacking in brightness and colour. The photo feels quite flat and lifeless.

Indoor Portrait with Flash
This is another photo where the camera has struggled with focusing. Although you are likely to be able to produce better photos than this one with the flash, you may find it a hit and miss affair.

Indoor Portrait without Flash
Without flash the photo is on the dark side. Noise is also creeping into the shot, reducing picture quality.

Colours
On the whole the colours produced in my test shots are fine. There were one or two shots with problems such as the outdoor portrait and the macro shot.

Macro
This is certainly not the sharpest macro shot I have ever seen. There is also a slight colour caste as the Finepix F480 has struggled with the lighting.

ISO 400
Fuji cameras have a good reputation for working in lowlight, but the Finepix F480 looks to be one of their weakest models. Plenty of noise is already showing at ISO 400. This leads to a lot of definition being lost from the photo.

ISO 800
Not surprisingly picture quality has disappeared by the time you crank the ISO level up to 800.

Overall
Based on my test shots this camera falls someway short of the required standard.

A single photo took 0.37 seconds. This is slightly longer than average. All other tests times were slow. These were five shots in 17.77 seconds, one shot with flash in 1.91 seconds and five shots with flash in 23.24 seconds.

You can compare this camera to other models by taking a look at the Shutter Lag Comparison Table.

The camera is available in black and silver. It has a metal body and is a fairly standard rectangular shape.

95.6 x 55.4 × 23mm

140g

Lithium Ion (NP40N). Both a battery and charger are supplied as standard.

Fuji have added 12mb of built in memory to the Finepix F480. I was able to take 12 shots before the memory was full. The camera is compatible with both SD and xD cards.

Click here to save money on SD cards.

Very Good. I found no real problems with the Finepix F480.

Easy to use

Picture quality - shutter delay

A couple of pocket sized cameras that are a bit more expensive, but offer better value for money are: Panasonic DMC FX10 and Canon IXUS 70.

At the end of the day it does not matter how cheap a camera is if it cannot take a decent picture. I really struggled with the Fuji Finepix F480 and although it carries a relatively low price tag I feel it does not offer good value for money.

Front View

Back View

Top View

Sample Menus

Although every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of the information on this site, please make sure you double check the feature set and specification at the point of purchase.

Fuji Finepix F480