Fujifilm 16MP F770EXR 20x SuperZoom

Fujifilm announced the FinePix F770EXR and F750EXR compact SuperZoom cameras. The FinePix F770EXR features a 20x optical zoom lens (25-500mm) , a 16 Megapixels EXR-CMOS sensor, enhanced GPS functionality and stylish design touches. Fujifilm claims that the EXR-CMOS sensor displays a 30% reduction in digital noise over the previous version at high ISO settings. Different mode settings are available such as the High Resolution (HR) Priority for the best picture quality, Wide Dynamic Range (DR) Priority for scenes with high contrast or High Sensitivity and Low Noise (SN) Priority for low light photos, or simply selecting the EXR AUTO mode.

In addition to the 20x optical zoom, the F770EXR also comes with Intelligent Digital Zoom which effectively doubles the focal range to 1000mm. It can power on in 1.5 seconds and the AF speed is 0.16 seconds. The F770EXR also supports RAW file format and has continuous shooting at up to 11 fps (Image size M only) as well as 1080p Full HD movie recording at 30 fps with stereo sound. There is a High Speed movies mode that can record at 320 fps and all movie modes now come with Face Tracking Auto Focus. The F770EXR comes with GPS, while the F750EXR is basically the same camera without the GPS functions. The FinePix F770EXR is available in black, red, blue and white finishes. 

Here's the summary of review by TrustedReviews, giving the camera a value rating of 8 out of 10:"Autofocus is impressively quick, with the camera finding focus almost instantaneously in good light and only slowing down slightly in more subdued conditions. The front of the camera also gets a bright white LED AF assist light that can help to illuminate nearby subjects in really dark conditions. And of course, there's a built-in flash to call on too. While AF speed is pretty good, it's a shame that the available AF modes are limited to Centre, Multi, Continuous and Tracking - a user-defined spot AF focus option would certainly make the camera more flexible. Perhaps that's something that will come with next year's model. Image quality is, on the whole, very good indeed. 

Used at lower ISO settings and in good light, the F770EXR delivers punchy, vibrant images with good levels of edge-to-edge sharpness and plenty of fine detail. The camera's built-in image stabilisation technology does its job well too, helping you to achieve sharp images even when shooting handheld at its telephoto extremes. Of course, this being a Fuji camera there are a choice of five Film Simulation colour modes, some of which are named after old Fuji 35mm film stock: Standard, Velvia (vibrant), Astia (soft/muted), Black and White and Sepia. We shot all of our sample images using the Standard setting, which was still able to produce pleasingly vibrant images. 

Metering is generally very accurate, although as with most compacts the F770EXR's metering module tends to favour whatever's inside the focusing area - even when the camera is set to Multi-point metering mode. This means that in high-contrast scenes a small bit of movement can make a big difference to the result - especially if you are using the camera in Single-point AF mode. That's not a criticism by any means, although it is something to watch out for nonetheless. Automatic white balance is generally on the money, although when quickly switching between artificial and natural light it can sometimes take some time for the camera to adjust.While the lowest sensitivity settings of ISO 100 and 200 produce good results, image quality does deteriorate once you go beyond these two settings. 

ISO 400 produces quite a bit more noise than ISO 200, although at regular image sizes this really shouldn't be much of a problem. At ISO 800, however, fine detail begins to take on a smudged appearance, especially in darker parts of the image. By ISO 1600 this has become much more pronounced, with noise becoming much more visible even at regular image sizes. Beyond this things quickly go downhill, with ISO 3200 visibly noisy at all image sizes and the top two settings of ISO 6400 and 12,800 producing very poor image quality indeed and best avoided altogether. The Fujifilm FinePix F770EXR is a generously featured travel zoom that delivers good image quality, especially at lower sensitivity settings. 

The ability to capture Raw image files is a big bonus too, and something that elevates the F770EXR above its main travel zoom competitors. In addition, the F770EXR's flexible EXR shooting modes, one-touch panoramic image creation and High-Speed movie recording options are all useful tools that give the camera an extra dimension. Last but not least, the F770EXR is also quite a bit cheaper than its main travel zoom rivals, which makes it very good value too. So, if a small compact with a big zoom is top of your shopping list then the Fujifilm F770EXR is definitely worth a closer look."

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