Fujifilm FinePix F200EXR 12MP Super CCD Digital Camera with 5x Wide Angle Dual Image Stabilized Optical Zoom
Review by Robert Holland "quiltchannel.com" : Great P&S, but not quite the greatest

I have an unaccountable attraction to small point and shoot cameras, even though I have pretensions to being more than a casual photographer. And when I do get my hands on a point and shoot, I want to test its limits. The limits of these cameras are generally poorer performance across the board compared with their big brother digital SLRs, but their attraction is of course their simplicity and small size. If made right, they should be the ideal street camera.

I recently acquired what is considered to be the best point and shoot available, the Panasonic LX-3, and I haven't been disappointed with it. It's super-fast lens and ability to shoot raw images make it hard to beat in this category. However it's not really a pocket camera, so the convenience factor is compromised. You really need to hang it around your neck.

The Fuji F200 EXR is truly a pocket camera, and so I find myself carrying it to more places. Its automatic lens cap nicely protects it without my having to worry about it, and it has a plethora of features. Some have complained that it is not very intuitive, and that the various automatic settings don't always result in the best possible images. I have found this to be true especially in interior shots without flash, notably these cameras' weakest area. The camera either pushes the ISO to a noisy 1600 level, or if I prevent this, the shots are often blurry. Moreover the color, especially in mixed light, can get a little wonky.

I have been spending a good deal of time with the EXR features, and agree with other reviewers that the total automatic setting under EXR is to be avoided. The camera just isn't that smart. However, if you give it a little help, and experiment with some of the specific EXR settings, most notably those designed to reduce noise, you can get some pretty good results, even at 1600. The 5X zoom is robust enough to pull in quite a bit, and the close-up macro capability is impressive. You can focus down to a couple of inches.

The non-HD video capability is only average -- good for those times when you don't have a better video camera with you, mostly for casual use.

This is a good $229 camera priced at $369. It needs at least one more generation before it's the camera it could be.

Fujifilm FinePix F200EXR 12MP Super CCD Digital Camera with 5x Wide Angle Dual Image Stabilized Optical Zoom
Review by D'Backs '98 : F200EXR is the right camera for me

I bought my F200EXR the other day and I love it! I am replacing my F10. I bought my F10 a few months before the F30 came out so I knd of missed the boat last time. I have friends who own the F30 and were always bragging about the low light capabilities. I shot the F200 downtown at different ISO's as well as on EXR Auto. The noise is considerably lower than my F10. I am very excited about the amount of detail in my photos even at 800 - 3200 ISO. My 8x10 prints look great. EXR mode does a good job but I usually like to adjust the ISO myself according to the situation.

I love the 5x wide angle lens. I travel quite a bit and this camera is the type of camera that I have been looking for. It allows me to be prepared for any situation that I might encounter. I highly recommend it!

Fujifilm FinePix F200EXR 12MP Super CCD Digital Camera with 5x Wide Angle Dual Image Stabilized Optical Zoom
Review by Burgmicester : Wonderful little digital with great features

The FujiFilm EXR200 has a ton of features and takes pictures with great ease. However, this is not your typical point and click camera. I have read some of the more expertise driven reviews and those more technical reviews were terrific in helping me to understand this camera before using it. This is particularly important with the EXR feature. As this camera has an almost unlimited ISO setting, it is important to put some limits on that. Otherwise, it does take pictures at very high ISO settings in an effort to maximize the resolution even though it might increase the graininess at the same time.

So I took the advice of the experts and re-set the ISO on 800 as a limit. That was very helpful as the pictures that were taken were not grainy at all. The camera has a terrific feature for those that were SLR photo-takers in the past. It shows all of the settings with the picture and saves them; I love this feature. Back to the ISO: It did take a while to figure out how to find and set that ISO feature. I'm still a little fuzzy on the screen walk-though to get to various settings and when they are applied. The instructions could be a little easier and that is the mark off giving this a "5" rating.

I took the camera on vacation with me and clicked away. I was mostly in the Auto mode (staying away from the EXR mode because of all of the discussion around it). I also used the double taking portrait mode (the camera will take two pictures within a second - one with flash and one without - if I understand this correctly). This feature is quite nice by the way. I also used the landscape mode quite a bit also.

The pictures are stunning. And since they are in full HD, they can be played back on a HDTV. We did this with relative ease - except that initially we did not realize that the 4:3 sizing was not automatic and had to be set at the TV level to get the proper sizing. But with a 52" screen, the pictures are spectacular.

Recently my daughter was in a dance recital and I decided to try out the full auto EXR mode. So I reset the ISO to unlimited and began to snap pictures of her dancing in the minimal stage lighting from a distance of 35 yards or so. And to my surprise the results were very good. Normally, I get a grainy photo in a blur and it is dark. With the EXR, the graininess was not too bad and the clarity was very good. Yes there were blurs when the action was too fast, but many times I got a very good solid picture with excellent lighting. Two additional settings were used on these pictures: "high iso and low noise" and "suppress flash".

One more feature observation: the purely "manual" mode is not quite as nice as I'd like. While it will allow you to set both the aperture and the speed, it does not allow an unlimited spread in those ranges. So the results are not as easy to obtain as with an older SLR manual camera.


That is the benefit of this camera and the downfall. There are so many settings, that the photographer might need more experience than a typical "point and click" picture taker to get the most out of this camera. But if you have any SLR background this is a terrific little camera. Even if you are not too experienced, just setting the ISO to 800 and using the auto shoot will give you very good pictures. But my sense with the price and features is that this is for someone with a little more experience than a typical point and shoot camera owner.

Fujifilm FinePix F200EXR 12MP Super CCD Digital Camera with 5x Wide Angle Dual Image Stabilized Optical Zoom
Review by B. Colonna : EXCEPTIONAL 'POINT & SHOOT' CAMERA

If you are looking for one digital camera that has virtually every feature you would need or want for typical "point and shoot' photography, the Fujifilm FinePix F200EXR is that camera. The camera is well designed, full of features, yet very compact.

What's in the box?
* 12 megapixel F200EXR camera.
* Li-Ion Battery
* Battery charger
* Camera cable with USB or RCA connectivity
* Wrist strap
* Basic instruction manual (three manuals, English, Spanish and French)
* FinePix Owner manual - on CD
* FinePix Viewer software - on CD.

While the camera does not ship with a SD card, typically you will find offers when buying digital cameras for free cards with the purchase of cameras.

The cameras basics include a 5x optical zoom, which is equivalent to a 28mm - 140mm focal length. There are point and shoots with longer focal lengths (the Panasonic TZ-5 is 280mm), but the F200EXR still has a decent optical zoom Unlike some of its competitors, the F200EXR gets its image stabilization from a sensor not the lens.

At 12 megapixel, this camera has more than enough resolution to satisfy most consumers. It has a great range of speed/sensitivity, being capable of ISO from 100 all the way up to 3200, as well as 6400 ISO when shooting at 6 MP, and 12800 at 3 MP. The camera sets itself between 400 and 3200 ISO in auto mode (400, 800, 1600, or 3200). In other manual modes, you can select 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600, 3200, 6400, and 12800).

As with any camera, I would advise that you set the auto mode for the lowest ISO to get the most noise-free photos, and then move to higher ISO setting when warranted (sports or activities where you are trying to photograph moving objects).

This camera sports a good size CCD sensor. The F200EXR's CCD is 1/1.6". In comparison, Panasonic's TZ-5 has a CCD of 2.33. That's a CCD almost 45% larger than the Panasonic, which is a nice camera in its own right. For those of you who don't delve that far into digital photography, here's a key point to keep in mind when choosing still or video equipment......in general, the bigger the sensor (the CCD) the better quality (less noise) you can anticipate in your photos. Don't obsess about CCD size - Naturally, lens quality, processor, and design all play a part, but all other things being equal, a good size sensor will help generate less noisy shots.

What is a CCD? Let me back up a step - In the old days, taking photographs was a chemical process - film, development chemicals, and mechanical camera parts. In today's digital age, most of this happens electronically, outside of maybe some mechanical camera components. Simply put, a CCD is a "charge coupled device". It converts light into electrons. The information is transported across the CCD and converted from analog to digital. This turns each pixel into a digital value. So why does it matter if the CCD is bigger? The bigger the sensor, the less `noise", therefore you capture more minute detail.

This camera is not the least expensive in its class. It is, however, in my opinion, one of the best. The face detection on this camera works very well, appearing to recognize the correct number of faces in a photo and not usually getting fooled.

The 3" LCD display is very bright and easy to view. Although like any camera, when you are in direct, very bright sunlight is becomes hard to see the viewfinder.

The flash is superb. It provides very good exposures, lighting the subject and backdrops nicely. Flash photos from the F200EXR produce very true to life colors, even contrast and natural results. I am yet to have any photos that appear washed out, "over exposed" or "under exposed". Even when used in macro mode, this flash is fantastic. Typically I disable a camera flash in macro mode and depend on natural or other artificial lighting. But this flash allows for a close-up focus with the flash enabled.

In normal modes, you can focus on subjects as close as 1.5 feet. The camera's macro mode will allow you to focus as close as 1.9 inches.

My lone complaint about the camera is that it does not truly have a "fully manual" mode. The manual mode is good and you change change shutter, aperature, and ISO. The aperture range is F3.3 to 9.0 but you are not able to randomly select any F stop and shutter speed, as you are limited to only the F stops the camera makes available for a particular ISO or shutter setting. This is just a minor issue; the camera produces great photos at any setting - I just like to be able to make manual settings as I choose.

I found the F200EXR delivered great photos in all three modes: High Resolution, High Sensitivity and Low Noise, and Wide Dynamic Range. High Resolution is just what it says - 12 million pixels and a lot of detail. I took some early evening photos of a lacrosse game using Pixel Fusion (High Sensitivity & Low Noise) mode. There was some slight noise, but considering the conditions, these action photos were very clear and crisp. These photos were slightly more vivid than those shot using other modes.

The EXR mode worked well for me. When in this mode, the camera recognized the subject matter (faces/portraits, sports/high speed subjects such as a lacrosse game, and some nighttime portraits) and made appropriate adjustments and delivered superb results.

Overall, this is not an inexpensive camera for its features, but I believe you get what you pay for. That's the case with the F200EXR. This is a very, very good product; it has exceptional face recognition and produces very natural result for portraits, especially under flash conditions. If most of your photo subjects are family, other people, etc. then I would highly recommend this camera.