Fuji Finepix Z100 fd Review

The Fuji Finepix Z100 fd is an attractive, pocket sized digital camera. Where it differs from many other similar sized models is with a longer than standard 5x zoom lens. This helps you get that bit closer in for a shot. The Finepix Z100 fd has 8 megapixels. In terms of features this is a typical point and shoot camera. The emphasis is on ease of use and snapshot photography.

Outdoor 1 (Medium Zoom)
This is a about par for the course. The sharpness of the photo is about average. The Finepix Z100 fd struggles a little with sun glare and detail is lost from parts of the boats and in the white, wooden slats under the roof of the building.

There is plenty of colour in the picture and the sky shows up a deeper shade of blue than some of the other cameras I tested at the same time.

Outdoor 2 (No Zoom)
This photo is a tough test for the lens with many parts of the scene being somewhat distant. Focusing is once again in line with expectations. The colours in the shot are vivid. I can also detect some purple fringing showing on the boat on the left hand side of the picture.

Outdoor 3 (Maximum Zoom)
With the lens zoomed into its full capacity focusing is good in the centre of the photo, but does slip as you move out towards the edges of the shot. The glare of the sun is also noticeable. This causes a particular problem with the floats hanging on the side of the boat.

Outdoor Portrait
I like the sharpness of the picture. As the picture was taken in the shade I have used the shady white balance setting. This has contributed to the picture having a slightly overcooked look, giving the shot an orangey glow. With white balance left as auto the photo had looked a bit lifeless.

Indoor Portrait without Flash
This is a good effort compared with other cameras. Without flash the camera automatically boosts the ISO setting. This leads to some noise creeping into the picture, but it still suggests that as long as the lighting is acceptable you can take more natural shots without flash. I would suggest experimenting with the camera before you take any important shots, so you build up an understanding of the type of lighting the camera is able to operate in.

Indoor Portrait with Flash
With the flash on the Finepix Z100 fd produces a very bright picture. It still manages to retain just enough colour. When selecting the flash setting to use I would suggest red eye with added automatic red eye removal is the best one for indoor portraits.

Colours
The colours produced by the Finepix Z100 fd are quite strong. The only time this concerned me was with the outdoor portrait. In other instances I liked the added zest the colours added to the shot.

Macro
Again this is a shot roughly in line with what I would expect to produce. It is sharp enough and clear enough. The only downside is that there is a slight blue tint to the picture. This should not pose a problem for close up shots taken in natural light.

ISO 400
At this level picture quality stands up well when compared to other cameras. Noise does show in the picture, but the level of detail remains impressive.

ISO 1600
Even at ISO 1600 picture quality is good enough to make it worth printing a photo. The colours hold together well enough although purple fringing starts to become evident.

Overall
There are not many pocket sized cameras with a 5x optical zoom lens to compare this one against. Picture quality may not be perfect, but you should be able to take decent shots with the Finepix Z100 fd.

A single photo took 0.33 seconds. Five photos took 11.19 seconds. These are average times. It is good to see that turning the flash on has a minimal effect. This increases the times to 0.48 seconds for a single shot and 12.75 seconds for five.

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

I like the way the Finepix Z100 FD looks. Although it has a fairly simple design I like the way the lens cover slides diagonally. This is minor point, but it makes the camera a little different to others. The camera is available in four colours; brown, silver, pink and black and white.

92 x 55.7 × 19.8mm

138g

Lithium ion (NP-45). A battery and charger are supplied as standard.

I was able to store 31 photos before the 54mb of built in memory became full. The Finepix Z100 fd is also compatible with xD and SD cards.

Click here to save money on memory cards.

Very Good - There is nothing especially frightening about this camera. It is a pretty straightforward model.

Ease of use - choice of colours - large internal memory - good at higher ISO settings

Nothing really stands out as a serious problem

Before you rush out and buy this camera, a couple of cameras with similar specifications I like are the Sony DSC T200 and Samsung Digimax NV11.

This is a fairly standard pocket sized digital camera. The main attraction is likely to be the extra capacity of the zoom when compared to other digital cameras. I also think that this is an attractive camera too.

Front View

Top View

Back 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 Z100 fd