I bought a new camera!

I dabble in photography, and the Fuji F200EXR is one of the few cameras released within the last few years that has got me excited.

It's not about the features, though the Fuji F200 EXR has got them in spades. It's also not a all singing, all dancing D-SLR - it's "only" a humble point and shoot. Nope, the thing that got me excited is the new Fuji EXR sensor, which promises better dynamic range, superior noise control and consequently, better looking images.

For far too long, the marketing for digital cameras have followed the "megapixel" path. It's an easy concept for consumers to grasp; the higher the megapixels, the "better" the camera must be. That's true to a point. What those marketers don't tell you that cramming more pixels into those tiny sensors found in P & S cameras yield rapidly diminishing marginal benefits.

It isn't rocket science. More pixels in a small sensor means ever smaller pixels. That has unfavourable implications for light sensitivity, noise, and overall image quality. Pumping up the megapixel count has always struck me as a "lazy" way to sell cameras. It's about time for other innovations to come up to drive digital photography forward.

This is the marketing blurb from Fuji:

Faced with a market driven by the demand for higher pixel counts, yet conscious that high concentrations of pixels on small sensors can produce diminishing quality returns, Fujifilm engineers had a radical rethink about sensor technology. Why not make a sensor that can flex its behaviour according to the scene to be photographed? Why not give full resolution when bright light allows, but use the pixels in a different way when the light is not ideal? The FinePix F200EXR offers 3 switchable modes in one sensor:

High Resolution mode, which deploys all twelve million pixels, and is designed to offer the finest detail of intricate subjects when light is full and even;

High Sensitivity and Low Noise mode, which caps two adjacent pixels together to produce 6 million large photodiodes, which are big enough to absorb light in the darkest of conditions, to produce low-light shots of extraordinary quality with minimal noise and grain; and

Wide Dynamic Range mode, which captures different exposures with two sets of six million pixels, which, when combined, gives an excellent level of detail in highlights that would otherwise be lost.

In EXR Mode, the photographer can choose which sensor setting is preferable for the subject to be photographed by choosing High Resolution Priority (HR) to maximise resolution, High ISO and Low Noise Priority (SN) for high quality low-light work or D-Range Priority (DR) for the best detail with contrasty subjects.

Sounds fancy. So how does it work in practice? I set the camera to "full auto" and went about taking some photos. The images below are all straight from the camera with no adjustments whatsoever, save for resizing, cropping and minor sharpening:



F9.0 @ 1/90s
ISO 100
EXR Auto - Landscape mode

A super high contrast screen taken at noon. Such a scene would trip up most cameras and would even pose a challenge to the sophisticated matrix metering of top-end D-SLR's. There is still nice detail in the shadows - check out the road tile pattern in the right foreground.


F3.3 @ 1/180s
ISO 100
EXR Auto - Landscape mode

Very clean, sharp and well exposed. Pleasing, vibrant colours.


F5.1 @ 1/480s
ISO 100
EXR Auto - Landscape mode

The 5x optical zoom don't reach very far at all. The bird does not fill the frame. However, exposure was spot on, and the bird was well exposed despite the dark waters and the light coloured steps. Both the dark and light areas still retain excellent detail, and is a testament to the wide dynamic range of the new sensor.


F 5.1 1/480s
ISO 100
EXR Auto - Landscape mode

No biggie. With 12 megapixels to play with, you can afford to crop and still get nice quality pictures. This is a close up crop of the bird picture above.


F3.3 @ 1/100s
ISO 1600 (!)
Program mode

This is a snap shot of the mad-cap circus that is the annual IT-Show (2009) held in Suntec City, Singapore. I must draw your attention to the ISO set by the camera for this picture. ISO 1600!! Holy smokes, most P&S cameras can't take very good pictures above ISO 400. The more adventurous ones that offered ISO 1600 usually result in a blurry, splotchy mess, more akin to abstract water-colour paintings than photographs.

The photo is a little on the dark side, but the noise, though visible is not too objectionable. It's a perfectly serviceable and usable photograph. Note that the picture was taken handheld without the use of flash. This does bode well for the low light performance of the new Fuji sensor.


F3.@ 3 1/60s
ISO 400
Program mode

A remarkably clean picture at ISO 400. Remarkably clean for a Point & Shoot, that is. There is only a hint of noise, and it's only visible in the dark areas of the photo. An excellent performance.

Thus far I am impressed. Now that Fuji has thrown down the gauntlet, let's hope other camera manufacturers get off their asses and come up with better innovations. Good times for digital photographers.

The album to the larger sized pictures can be found here.