Fujifilm FinePix V10 - Easy Camera Review

Fujifilm released a fresh face for the digital camera market in March. The Fujifilm FinePix V10 starts its own line with a slim but square body and a unique game system. This model incorporates a 5.1-megapixel camera with a personal gaming device. Four games come in the camera, along with six scene modes and a movie mode. The swanky device retails for $349 and comes with a huge 3-inch LCD screen and a 3.4x optical zoom lens.

The V10 looks better than most other FinePix digital cameras. Its sturdy 3.3 x 2.5 x 0.9-inch metal body is slim, square, and highlighted by chrome panels that frame the front and back. The back of the camera is an eye-pleaser, too. A 3-inch LCD screen takes up much of the space; its 230,000 pixels of resolution make for a smooth view. The cool design has its imperfections, though: the enormous LCD screen leaves almost no room for control buttons. Thus, all the buttons are squashed in a horizontal row across the bottom of the camera; this makes handling a bit difficult.

A 3.4x optical zoom lens extends from the front of the Fujifilm FinePix V10. It doesn’t work while recording movies, which is unfortunate for those frequent moments when your subject moves! Another sad point is a lack of image stabilization; movies could look shaky. To its credit, the movie mode still records decent footage, as long as subjects aren’t standing in front of bright windows or otherwise backlit. The movie resolution is television-quality and the audio is decent too.

Still pictures can be taken with the following scene modes: Natural Light, Natural Light & With Flash, Portrait, Landscape, Sport, and Night. Many compact digital cameras offer more scene modes – some of the Casios have more than 30 now! – but the Fujifilm V10 is equipped with the basics. This model also has a Program mode that lets you choose a white balance preset, to avoid yellowish pictures in rough lighting, or an ISO setting from 64-1600 to keep pictures illuminated in dim places.

The Fujifilm FinePix V10 has four primitive games that will probably only impress people who don’t normally play them. Picture Puzzle scrambles an image and lets you reorganize it in Rubik’s cube fashion. The Maze game turns you into a chick searching desperately for your mother hen in a maze filled with strange white ghosts and little creatures that look like paper bags with red eyes. Your only solace comes from the digital image in the center of the maze; this is the ‘safe zone’ that the enemies cannot penetrate. Block Buster involves bouncing a ball all over the screen to smash blocks and reveal an image underneath. The Shooting Game is an Atari-like space game that ends when the mother-ship blows you to smithereens. Unfortunately, the short 170-shot battery life isn’t very complementary to the gaming modes.

Some very impressive features come with the Fujifilm FinePix V10. It can display images by date in the playback mode, making it easy to find that lost photo from three months ago on your xD-Picture memory card. The flash on the V10 is quite powerful, but still fires evenly and doesn’t blow out subjects’ foreheads into white planes. Combined with the wide ISO range, the accurate colors, and the image sensor’s clean, noise-free performance, this makes the Fuji V10 a stellar package for $349. It’s perfect for taking portraits or even shots for online auctions with its 3.5-inch macro mode. And when you’re not snapping beautiful pictures or checking them out on the huge LCD screen, the video games will keep your kids from fighting on that long road trip – as long as everyone gets a turn.

Fujifilm FinePix V10 - THE BOTTOM LINE.... Rating:

Likes

- Huge 3-inch LCD screen - Games to keep the kids busy - Powerful flash - ISO 80-1600 - Not as many blurry shots as other compact models

Dislikes

- Poor picture quality - No saved game scores to brag about - Tiny controls - 170-shot battery life

Fujifilm FinePix F10 Rating: 314.11	Kodak EasyShare V530 Rating: 294.68	Nikon Coolpix S5 Rating:	Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T5 Rating: 303.86	Casio Exilim EX-S600 Rating:
Better	Better	Better	Better	Better
- Larger 1/1.7-inch Super CCD with 6 megapixels -Incredibly low noise - Hardly any shutter lag - Battery life of 500 shots per charge - Can be found for about $300 now	- Lower retail price of $299 - 20 scene modes - Digital image stabilization - Optical zoom is functional in movie mode - Designated Print button - Included camera dock - Faster 2.5 fps burst mode for 5 shots	- 6 megapixels - Electronic vibration reduction system - Skinnier 3.7 x 2.3 x 0.8-inch measurements - Pictmotion mode merges slide shows with soundtracks - 13 scene modes - Easy one-touch Portrait button - Face-priority auto focus technology keeps faces in focus - Sleek, wavy design more comfortable to hold - Rotary selection button/ dial	- Skinnier body measurements of 3.7 x 2.4 x 0.8 inches - Sliding metal cover protects lens - 16:9 shooting mode - Battery lasts for 240 shots - 32 MB of internal memory	- 6 megapixels - Anti-Shake system - Longer 300-shot battery life - Comes with docking cradle - 34 shooting modes - Tiny bit of internal memory with 8.3 MB - Wide f/2.7 aperture - Manual white balance - Only 0.63 inches thick - Past Movie mode records 5 seconds prior to shutter release button being pressed
Equal	Equal	Equal	Equal	Equal
- ISO range extends to 1600 - Same Super CCD technology to keep noise low - Comes with 16 MB xD-Picture card - Has Natural Light mode - Same white balance modes - No "true" manual mode	- 5 megapixels - Thin and stylish, although a much more horizontal look - Different colored bodies offered: V530 comes in black, silver, red, and pink - Same 230k pixel screen resolution	- Same $349 price tag - Same sized 1/2.5-inch CCD - 230k pixel LCD screen resolution	- Trendy camera is offered in different colors of red, silver, black, and gold - 5.1 megapixels on 1/2.5-inch CCD - Same 230k pixels of screen resolution - "Manual" mode accesses exposure compensation and white balance, not shutter speed and aperture - Same $349 price tag	- Comes in cool colors: blue, orange, and silver - $349 retail price - Same sized CCD of 1/2.5 inches - ISO 1600 used in Anti-shake mode - 640 x 480 video at 30 fps
Worse	Worse	Worse	Worse	Worse
- Body isn's as attractive - 3x optical zoom lens - Smaller 2.5-inch LCD screen - Poor screen resolution with only 115,000 pixels - Noisy lens and focus system	- Smaller 2-inch LCD - 3x optical zoom lens - Green light shines continuously in movie mode - Performed poorly in color and low light tests - No covers on jacks and ports - Weak and uneven flash - Inaccurate colors	- 3x optical zoom lens - 2.5-inch LCD screen	- 3x optical zoom lens - 2.5-inch LCD screen - 64-400 ISO range - Performs poorly in low light - Focus isn't fast enough, resulting in lots of blurry pictures	- 2.2 inch LCD - 3x optical zoom - Macro mode doesn't shoot as close at 5.91 inches - Manual ISO range from 50-400 only - Horrible 85k pixel resolution on LCD