dan_k6 Posted April 19, 2008 Share Posted April 19, 2008 If anybody cares, Here is a brief review of this camera. I bought it from B&H after being on the waiting list. The camera is NOT made in Japan as some other are stating. It is made in China....and it feels it. Exterior is supposedly metal but it feels like plastic and it looks like its painted plastic. Camera is slow and the control wheel is way too sensitive. The battery/SD card compartment has a thin strip of metal that separates the two slots. You can permanently deform this piece and render the camera useless. My 2 year old Canon SD630 has molded compartments! Picture quality at ISO 100 is actually pretty good. ISO 400 with DR at 400% looks pretty good too (in good lighting of course) Camera indeed suffers from pink banding at as low as ISO 400 which pretty much renders this camera useless. Fuji needs to fix this. Actually I don't know how Fuji let this camera make it to production. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frans_waterlander Posted April 20, 2008 Share Posted April 20, 2008 Your attachment is one black rectangle without any detail. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fred_c1 Posted April 20, 2008 Share Posted April 20, 2008 Why don't you return it if you hate it so much?! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dan_k6 Posted April 20, 2008 Author Share Posted April 20, 2008 Frans, look extra close. There is a pink band along the left side. Fred, Relax! I'm just letting whoever is looking at this camera know that I to have a bad sample. If you know anything about this camera or read anything about the first samples, they have a pink banding issue at higher ISO's. I'm just sharing my experience. Don't take things so literally. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
berg_na Posted April 20, 2008 Share Posted April 20, 2008 There's no evidence of any banding along the left side of the attached file even after a large boost in brightness.<div></div> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frans_waterlander Posted April 20, 2008 Share Posted April 20, 2008 Daniel, Yes, now that you say it, I see the pinkish swath. How much of a problem this is with real pictures as compared to this "dark" image remains to be seen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bill_tuthill Posted April 20, 2008 Share Posted April 20, 2008 I got interested in this camera after I thought my Canon SD800IS had died. It turned out to be reduced capacity in its lithium battery, less than a year old, cough. This is the first serious Fujifilm F model with 28mm equivalent lens, my most important requirement. It lacks optical viewfinder, a highly touted feature of the SD800IS, although in practice it is difficult to do accurate framing with a ~60% viewfinder. I mostly take outdoor pictures. I'm not sure I can cope with an LCD only viewfinder. On the other hand, Fuji says the F100fd has wide dynamic range. The SD800IS really destroys highlights, which seems true of all Canon P&S models, and even their DSLRs without raw mode. One consideration not addressed is the control layout. The F100fd looks totally different from the F50fd. Reviewers have complained about Fuji's fiddly user interface. Whereas the SD800IS, and probably most Canon P&S models, have well designed user interfaces. The SD800IS buttons move too easily from jostling in transit, but when they are set correctly, they work according to expectation. Regarding pink banding: it doesn't look too bad to me. There are many more important issues in using a lowish-end digicam.<div></div> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frans_waterlander Posted April 20, 2008 Share Posted April 20, 2008 For such a high-contract subject (almost white water, very dark rocks) you probably need to reduce exposure using your camera's exposure compensation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fred_c1 Posted April 20, 2008 Share Posted April 20, 2008 >If you know anything about this camera or read anything about the first samples, they have a pink banding issue at higher ISO's. ... Don't take things so literally. Guess that's why you still bought the camera after knowing and reading such things about it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bill_tuthill Posted April 20, 2008 Share Posted April 20, 2008 I have my SD800IS permanently set on -.3 EV, Frans. Also an "ess" curve defined in GIMP and Photoshop. What sickens me most is wasting time bucket-filling white sky with blue selected from between tree branches. It's almost as time consuming as-- horrors-- scanning film! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frans_waterlander Posted April 21, 2008 Share Posted April 21, 2008 Bill, -.3EV is obviously not enough exposure reduction. If your camera has a histogram capability you should read up on Expose to the Right. You shouldn't have to make the corrections you are making. If the sky has details, but is too light to your liking then you should apply Shadows/Highlights or even better a density mask. An s-curve isn't going to do anything for overexposed areas; it makes matters only worse. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kari v Posted April 21, 2008 Share Posted April 21, 2008 Bill, that's an extremely contrasty scene. Use your histogram and dial in as much compensation as is needed. Also, you could try setting contrast and saturation to minus something to give you a bit more latitude. Don't expose for the shadows with a small sensor digital. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bill_tuthill Posted April 21, 2008 Share Posted April 21, 2008 Print film could easily handle this scene. Perhaps the F100fd can. Daniel, do you like the control layout? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
john_mccormack Posted April 23, 2008 Share Posted April 23, 2008 According to rumors on DPreview.com, FujiFilm will release a firmware fix for the pink band issue o/a May 8th. We will see. I remain skeptical that a firmware fix is the answer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phule Posted April 23, 2008 Share Posted April 23, 2008 [[Print film could easily handle this scene.]] And how would slide film handle the scene? You aimed the camera at the dark rocks that were in shadow and then are surprised that the camera exposed for them? I don't understand the problem here Bill. Were you expecting the camera to function in some other way? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
subbarayan_prasanna Posted May 5, 2008 Share Posted May 5, 2008 Perhaps you are expecting the camera to optimize every small area of the picture automatically! I don't think any camera can do that by itself. You would then need a matrix of algorithms working on fuzzy logic in each zone of the picture. Yes it is theoretically possible. But you need to build a Super Computer inside the camera! From the picture the green vegetal texture seems superb to me. It also graduates along the perspective beautifully. You could take a second look at that and try building up similar imaging in the rest of the picture. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
subbarayan_prasanna Posted May 5, 2008 Share Posted May 5, 2008 I am also a bit surprised that [bill] you took a single picture of the scene [especially with a digicam] and did not vary the inputs to try and get a satisfactory image. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bill_tuthill Posted May 6, 2008 Share Posted May 6, 2008 I did recompose. Why would I post my good picture in this thread? We're talking about the Fuji F100fd. I'm tired of being forced to account for camera shortcomings by always recomposing to avoid wide dynamic range. The F100fd might be the camera for me. Or the S5, if I could get a Sherpa to carry it around for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bill_tuthill Posted May 8, 2008 Share Posted May 8, 2008 This thread appears headed for the trashbin, but until then, here is <a href="http://www.fujifilm.com/products/digital/download/f100fd/fupd.html">Fuji's firmware update</a> to fix pink banding. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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