Fujifilm Finepix F470 Digital Camera First Thoughts Review

The Fujifilm FinePix F470 is an elegant ultra compact Point and Shoot digicam that reminds me of the iconic World War II era Minox spy camera. Like the Minox, the F470 is stylish, dependable, and tough as nails. But, unlike the world's most famous spy camera, this tiny digicam produces consistently excellent images and is intuitively easy to use.

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The FinePix F470 is a bit smaller (3.6"x 2.3" x 0.8" / 91.9mm x 58.1mm x 19.7mm) than an Altoids tin and features 6.0 megapixel resolution, a 3x optical zoom, a 2.5-inch (high resolution/rapid refresh rate) LCD screen, 16MB of on-board image storage, and decent battery life. The F470 was designed to make taking pictures as simple as pointing the camera at the subject and pushing the shutter button. For some shooters, the F470's exposure options (full auto mode, program mode, and 10 scene modes - Portrait, Sport, Landscape, Night scene, Beach and Snow, Sunset, Museum, Party, Close-Up, and Text) may seem limited, but I believe they are perfectly matched to the F470's target audience.

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The eminently pocketable and easy to use F470 performs like a champ in all outdoor settings, making it a natural choice for neophytes/beginners, casual photographers, snap-shooters, and weight/space conscious backpackers, mountain bikers, and rucksack travelers. Chromatic aberration (purple fringing) and noise are a bit higher than average, macro performance and dim/low light performance leave something to be desired, but overall the Spartan little F470 is a super picture taker.

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Check back in a few days for a full review of the Fujifilm Finepix F470.

Sample Images

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