Little Big Camera: The Fuji F30

Every once in a while, I come across a camera that's somehow more than the sum of its parts. The Minolta Dimage 7i, the Konica-Minolta Dimage Xg, the Canon AE-1, and the Canon EOS-5D all impressed me in this way, while highly regarded cameras like the Rollei AF-M 35, Sony DSC-V3, Canon A-1, and Olympus XA didn't. They may not be perfect, but there's something about them that jells; they ask to be picked up and handled, and really start to shine when going into action. The characteristic all these cameras share is a feeling that they've been designed around some particular, fairly well-defined mission, with real attention paid to the way they're going to be used. Many also have some single killer feature that puts them above the competition -- the lens on the D7i, the sensor on the 5D. The Fujifilm FinePix F30 is one of these cameras.

The Fuji F30's main claim to fame is its SuperCCD HR sensor, which pushes the ISO envelope for small-sensor digicams. The F30 is entirely capable of handheld shooting in conditions usually reserved for dSLR's with bright lenses.

The F30 is the third iteration of Fujifilm's high-end ultra-compact incorporating the six-megapixel "SuperCCD HR" sensor. It shows: the F30 is a very refined little camera, and more to the point, most of the refinements are highly useful rather than just chrome. The battery seems to last forever, the LCD is bright, sharp, clear, and usable even in direct bright sunlight, lag times are short, and the automation (auto-exposure, auto-white balance, auto-focus) works like magic. The camera is designed to be a fast, fluid, and simple take-anywhere camera, designed to get results in as wide a range of conditions as possible. It feels streamlined and simple and consequently very fluid and fast to use -- even if a some of this fluidity comes at the cost of a somewhat reduced feature set.

Passage avec Cuisto et Vélo. The F30 is the first compact digital camera with which I would've even bothered to try to shoot this one.