Fuji FinePix F11 review

Fuji's new camera, the F11, looks unremarkable almost to the point of blandness. Don't let first impressions fool you though, this is actually a very good little compact camera.

The F11 is easy enough to use and all the main shooting modes are accessed using a clickable ring around the main shutter-release button. The on-screen menu system isn't the simplest we've seen, but it didn't take too long to master.

Those who want to get a bit creative will be pleased with the inclusion of an extra manual control mode. Surprisingly, however, by default manual mode only gives you control over exposure compensation, colour balance and other 'fine' settings, and not shutter speed and aperture. A few steps further in the menu system, however, we managed to find an aperture and shutter speed priority switch, which gives you manual control over the settings. We were also slightly disappointed to find that the F11 doesn't have an optical viewfinder, so you'll have to use the 2.5in LCD screen, even when bright light restricts its usefulness.

Picture perfect

Unusually for a compact, the F11 has a very broad ISO range from 80 to 1,600. In bright conditions, you can use low ISO speeds to get the best possible picture quality. In poor lighting, you can use higher ISO settings to take pictures without a flash. At high ISO settings, however, most compacts produce grainy pictures that are full of digital 'noise'. The F11 doesn't have this problem and even at high ISO settings, it took accurate, good-looking photos. Images shot at ISO 1600 with the F11 are cleaner than those shot on some other compacts at ISO 400. Fuji has even created a natural light mode, accessible from the function ring around the shutter, which disables the flash and adjusts ISO sensitivity to compensate.

Image quality is generally good. Pictures are sharp, clean, well exposed and detailed. You can also use the camera's menu options to adjust the colour balance in your photos, which is essential as in auto mode colours have a slight blue cast. This actually suits some photos, depending on the effect you're after, but you can achieve more natural colours by switching to the shade or custom colours settings. As with many compact cameras, there's visible purple fringing around areas of high contrast - for instance, where a dark object stands outlined against a bright sky.

Plenty of power

Two things that people often overlook when buying a camera are its battery life and memory card. On paper, the F11's battery life is good, but not fantastic. However, the camera lasted without being charged for the several days of intensive testing that went into this review - we were impressed. It takes xD picture cards, which are very small, but more expensive than the more common SD format. A 64MB xD card came with the camera and while this sounds like a lot of storage, it only accommodates 21 shots at the camera's top quality setting.

The F11 doesn't have as many preset scene modes (portrait mode, landscape mode and so on) as some compacts. The casual snapper, however, will be more than happy with the reliable auto and natural light modes, while those who want to experiment with different effects will have to use the manual mode, the limitations of which we've already discussed.

If you want to do more than just point-and-shoot, but don't want the extra complication of an SLR camera, you'll find the F11 limited. On the other hand, it has a great ISO range and does an impressive job of minimising noise. It may not be pretty, but it takes good-looking photos with the minimum of hassle.