Fuji F30 - mixed thoughts. (1 Viewer)

scampo · Apr 29, 2007

Tom Tarrant said:
Hi Steve,
Apologies for the late-reply (...and 'hijacking' this topic!)
Things are quite grim indeed, here in Brisbane the water-supply is around 15-20% and today I heard that a couple of towns in southern Queensland, Leyburn and Killarney (near where I go birding) are totally out of water (not even bore-water!) They've been shipping it in for the residents but it is becoming prohibitively expensive, and it looks like there will have to be resettlement. We are being told that this El Nino is over and we can expect above average rainfall....we shall see! There are now plans in Victoria and NSW to drain wetlands.
Tom

Let's hope it doesn't get as bad as having to drain those important wetlands - that would be terrible news for wildlife, I should think. We're having another dry spring here and the south-east of England is looking at risk. Despite the problems being abundantly clear over many years now, our government has still allowed massive increases in population through welcoming immigration. Ho-hum. Maybe they know something we don't?

NoSpringChicken · May 9, 2007

Sorry to revive an old thread but I have had my Fuji F30 for a few weeks now and have had time to form a few opinions about it.

Overall I am very impressed. The build quality is a lot better than I expected with a nice solid metal body. The controls seem to work well and the buttons are just about big enough to use easily. I think there is enough manual control for most situations, although a manual focussing mode might be useful.

The photographic performance is good, especially in poor light, although it does tend to over expose a bit in brighter conditions. Point and shoot shots show plenty of detail (I still don't know how they manage to stuff so many pixels into such a tiny body) although I can see what people mean by the 'water colour' effect from in-camera processing.

The lcd screen is big and bright but, lacking an optical viewfinder, I think the camera is virtually unusable in daylight without some sort of screen shade.

I wish there was some sort of user preferences setting as it is annoying having to remember what to reset after switching the camera off and having to re-arm the two second timer after each shot slows things down dreadfully. A filter thread would be a useful addition to provide alternative connection methods for digiscoping.

My main criticism of a tiny part of the camera is the stupid, fiddly, plastic cover for the USB/power connector port, which is just about the worst bit of design I have seen on anything – ever.

Overall a good value and rather gem-like little camera, which produces excellent results.

Ron

Feathered one · May 9, 2007

Thanks for your report Ron

You wrote
"My main criticism of a tiny part of the camera is the stupid, fiddly, plastic cover for the USB/power connector port, which is just about the worst bit of design I have seen on anything – ever"

The Nikon P5000 has the same type of cover !!!!

Malc

erniehatt · May 10, 2007

IN conclusion, if this little trapdoor is the only complaint, then I think the camera, is a winner. Ernie

NoSpringChicken · May 10, 2007

erniehatt said:
IN conclusion, if this little trapdoor is the only complaint, then I think the camera, is a winner. Ernie

I've just remembered another one. I would prefer a metal tripod mounting thread to the plastic one. I'm never sure how hard to tighten the screw.

Apart from those minor critisisms I really do think it's an excellent camera.

Ron

Harlequinduck · May 10, 2007

NoSpringChicken said:
I've just remembered another one. I would prefer a metal tripod mounting thread to the plastic one. I'm never sure how hard to tighten the screw.

Apart from those minor critisisms I really do think it's an excellent camera.

Ron

I've adapter the Fuji waterproof camera case into my system with great success and it has a stable metal tripod mounting plate.

fgourmet · Jun 4, 2007

Fuji 31fc to Swarovski DCA adapter

Hi Neil,

Would you care to give us some insight on your home made adapter to connect
the Fuji 31fc to the Swarovski DCA adapter ( you mentioned 52 mm thread in another one of your post).
I am using a Nikon CP990 and would like to update to a Fuji F30 or its replacement , the Fuji F31, more adapted to low light situations so it seems.

Michel

GarnockFocus · Jun 6, 2007

Thanks to all in this thread, I read it over a few days and eventually bought an F30, very pleased. My scope is a budget job Hawke Endurance 23-70x70, I have packed out the eypiece so the F30 is a perfect fit and it works a treat.

Thanks again folks

(Originally posted to wrong thread, doh!)

cheers

Neil · Jun 6, 2007

Sorry about the delay in replying. I'm travelling in the USA at the moment.
Here is the basic adapter (there is a shutter release for it as well which can be attached seperately ). The Sony adapter had a 52 mm thread. It had to be machined-out a little at the camera end to make it a perfect fit over the camera lens mount. Neil

fgourmet · Jun 7, 2007

Neil, thanks for the picture of you home made adapter. It gives me an incentive to try for something similar and home made.
I am a bit confused because it appears that the threading on the Sony adapter is toward the camera although the Fuji’s F30 and F31fd have no filter threading as I understand it. Well I will have to do some more research in this matter.

Yesterday one of the store I went to, had on display the F31fd and their last F30 ; but I am leaning toward the F31fd ( equivalent functions plus face detection , this last function being useless for digiscoping).

Hope you have a good trip and still bring back some great digiscoped pics
Michel

Neil · Jun 7, 2007

fgourmet said:
Neil, thanks for the picture of you home made adapter. It gives me an incentive to try for something similar and home made.
I am a bit confused because it appears that the threading on the Sony adapter is toward the camera although the Fuji’s F30 and F31fd have no filter threading as I understand it. Well I will have to do some more research in this matter.

Michel,
The adapter originally had a thread at front and back for the Sony camera but as you said we don't use the back thread.
I've been using the 8400 and A640 on my US trip and been getting some nice images. I'll post soon. Neil.

NoSpringChicken · Jun 12, 2007

Not the camera's fault but last week I was attempying to refine my digiscoping technique with the F30 by photographing some items indoors such as the ingredients list on medication packages in the next room. How sad!

As it was indoors I set the white point to incandescent and the ISO to 1800 so I didn't have to use the flash. Unfortunately I forgot to reset the values afterwards. This meant that all the photos I took at Minsmere on Sunday have a strong blue colour cast to them as, although I changed the ISO, I didn't notice the white point setting was wrong.

Fortunately the photos weren't that special anyway but it involves quite a bit of work in Photoshop now to make them acceptable. In future I will ensure the camera is always left on settings will ensure passable photos.

Ron

Edit. Here is a sample photo straight from the camera (left) and after a bit of tweaking (right)

Fuji F30 - mixed thoughts. (1 Viewer)

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