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Camera Review: FujiFilm FinePix F31FD15725837FujiFilmF31FDWhen you go to school to learn the craft of journalism, one of the first things you're taught is to not take anything that you write or photograph at face value. I can still see my professor saying "Look deeper, Mark... What is it that you really see?" I reminded myself about this fact after opening the box that the Fujifilm Finepix F31FD (Street $399) came in. To look at it, it almost looks out of date by today's sexy yet ever-so-slender point-and-shoot standards. I held it in my hand and thought, "What a clunker this is..." But like the ugly duckling, what really matters here is what's on the inside. And in this case, the Fuji is significantly ahead of many of the competing cameras on the market today. The F31FD is a 6.3MP camera that has multiple scene modes, shoots NTSC quality video, sports a very sharp Fujinon 3X (36-108mm f/2.8-5.0 35mm equivalent) lens, IR data transmission on the IR Simple standard, a 2.5 inch (230,000 pixel) LCD/Viewfinder screen and Real Photo Processor II and new Super CCD HR VI sensor. The camera also has a respectable range of manual controls as well. The good news though, is that these aren't even the best features. Facial Detection: The FD in the name stands for "Facial Detection." Fuji engineers originally developed this technology for its printing kiosks and have translated the technology to work in their camera line as well. By triangulating between the eyes and mouth and through mathematical computations, this system can acquire multiple targets at once, detecting up to ten faces in one frame and then configuring the optimal exposure and focus for all of them. The F31FD does this in an astounding .05 of a second, making it, according to Fujifilm's claims, the fastest facial recognition system in the world.

When you go to school to learn the craft of journalism, one of the first things you're taught is to not take anything that you write or photograph at face value. I can still see my professor saying "Look deeper, Mark... What is it that you really see?" I reminded myself about this fact after opening the box that the Fujifilm Finepix F31FD (Street $399) came in. To look at it, it almost looks out of date by today's sexy yet ever-so-slender point-and-shoot standards. I held it in my hand and thought, "What a clunker this is..." But like the ugly duckling, what really matters here is what's on the inside. And in this case, the Fuji is significantly ahead of many of the competing cameras on the market today.

The F31FD is a 6.3MP camera that has multiple scene modes, shoots NTSC quality video,  sports a very sharp Fujinon 3X (36-108mm f/2.8-5.0 35mm equivalent) lens, IR data transmission on the IR Simple standard, a 2.5 inch (230,000 pixel) LCD/Viewfinder screen and Real Photo Processor II and new Super CCD HR VI sensor. The camera also has a respectable range of manual controls as well. The good news though, is that these aren't even the best features.

Facial Detection

The FD in the name stands for "Facial Detection." Fuji engineers originally developed this technology for its printing kiosks and have translated the technology to work in their camera line as well. By triangulating between the eyes and mouth and through mathematical computations, this system can acquire multiple targets at once, detecting up to ten faces in one frame and then configuring the optimal exposure and focus for all of them. The F31FD does this in an astounding .05 of a second, making it, according to Fujifilm's claims, the fastest facial recognition system in the world.

The FD mode is simple to engage as well. By pressing the lower right button on the back of the camera, you're in full face detection mode. Press the button once again and it's turned off. No complex menu to navigate, which is nice. Even though the Fuji is a sleeper to look at, it is one of the most impressive "people" cameras we've seen in a long time and the facial recognition system is a major reason for this assessment.

Hands on Feel

The F31FD has a stout, almost chiseled look to it. The layout is minimalist -- nothing extra or fancy with simple buttons and modest styling. Yet for all its' plain-Jane attributes, it feels rock solid in your hands and has a weightiness that's missing in so many of today's point-and-shoot cameras. Its skin is a brushed finish that reflects silver highlights but has an old world pewter feel and color. This finish envelops the overly simple chrome buttons, but like the rest of the camera, they have a solid feel that's equally agreeable. The telescoping lens is embellished with a large brushed chrome band that's oversized in comparison to the rest of the camera, but repeats the minimalist design nicely.

I found the LCD screen to be more coarse and dark in comparison to other cameras. In bright sunlit situations, it was difficult to see fine detail, making framing the shot precisely a chore. The screen functioned very well indoors and in more dimly lit environments, however. The 230,000-pixel count for the monitor is adequate, but again, doesn't show the sharpness and detail available on comparable cameras.

Power

If you open the battery compartment, you'll also notice that the power cell is about twice the thickness of the common point-and-shoot fair. Fuji has smartly designed this in as a feature- giving the average shooter an amazing 580 available shots on one charge using the CIPA standard for battery life. Even the most ambitious shooters will have difficulty draining this much power in a single outing. I tried to wear the battery down and after almost 200 shots, the battery display didn't budge from the "full" indicator.

Low Light Shooting

Another feature that is surprisingly good is the F31FD's ability to shoot in low light situations. The camera uses Fuji's Super CCD sensor, which is geometrically different from standard CCD sensors. Rather than having a checkerboard pattern of square cells like those used in the common CCD chip, the F31FD uses octagonal shaped sensor cells that are arranged in a diagonal pattern. The end result is that these cells are physically larger and record a higher dynamic range than the typical CCD. This also translates to recording images at full sensor quality at very high ISO's such as 1600 and 3200 with comparatively little noise. To assist in the low light shooting, Fuji designed in an incredibly bright focus-assist light that beams outward 10-12 feet in normal conditions.

Video Recording

The video recording on the F31FD is straight forward. On the main mode dial, you simply switch to the movie camera icon and press the shutter and you're shooting video. Like many in this price range, there is no zooming when the camera is recording video and to change focal lengths means that you must stop recording, rack the zoom and press the shutter once again to being recording. With a 2GB xD card, the F31FD can record approximately 30 minutes of high quality video in AVI format. Unfortunately, one of the areas that the Finepix is lacking is any type of simple video editing in-camera. And while this isn't a major defect, it would be nice to have this ability simply because other cameras in this class do.

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