Fujifilm Finepix F30

[starlan]

For those who wanted to see some samples I found these in Flickr (they were taken in the Red Sea - great diving I hope to do soon . The EXIF states that the cam was set to Auto WB (im not sure why the user didnt use Manual WB or even the Underwater mode) anyways, the flash shots are very nice I think and the colors are great - though the non flash shots are too blue due to the non-use of manual wb or even the underwater mode. Still some nice captures and shows the potential the cam will have for flash shots (which is very promising) and nat light can be made a lot better than this user has done by using Underwater mode (for non hassle) and even better by utilizing Manual WB Some shots are really excellent though Like DSCF0333 (this http://www.flickr.com/photos/james_laver/239646297/) among others. - I did some tests with my housing that arrived this week in my pool and the manual WB is really great and makes a huge difference for natural light over the Underwater mode.

Heres the link:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/james_laver/

 

[Spoonbender]

I just got back from Wakatobi with The Bolter and I thought I'd share some of the pictures I took with the F30.

I'm happiest with the macro shots taken with the internal flash. I had no strobe, but I did OK with a few shots using manual white balance on the Auto/400 setting. (Too much noise at ISO-1600.)

Here are a few samples:

 

[pakman]

Nice spoonbender... I was just about to pick up a housing for my F30 as well. I wanted something to take along on my local dives as I'm too lazy to lug my DSLR kit... Out of curiousity, how did the AF handle underwater? Nice color in the 2nd shot above!

 

[Spoonbender]

Out of curiousity, how did the AF handle underwater?

I had no particular trouble with it - other than what you'd expect from a beginning photographer trying to shoot small and/or fast-moving subjects. (You'll notice most of the pictures I posted are of critters that were sitting still!) Underwater you can't hear the beep, but the little rectangle on the LCD changes to let you know that the AF has engaged. I used the high-speed shooting mode and did OK as long as I managed to keep my subject in frame.

Thanks - I am especially proud of that 2nd picture.

 

[pakman]

Well your shots look a lot better than the 1st time took my first point n shoot camera u/w...

BTW, I just picked up the F30 housing. That thing is tiny. I like the Fuji locking mechanism and the double O ring seal. Interesting that they designed the diffuser to allow the AF iluminator to shine thru. Well look forward to trying it out next weekend. Hopefully the viz won't be too bad...

 

[starlan]

These shots were posted in the DPreview forums, taken in the Nethelands in bad conditions using the Underwater mode and internal flash only, no post-processing applied according to the poster except for some sharpening. Always nice to have more samples from a relatively newish camera to demonstrate what it is capable of.

http://members.chello.nl/s.hoogwegt/

Here are some more taken in Underwater mode by a snorkeler in the Red Sea using one of those pouch housings, not the real housing.

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1012&message=20537570&q=red+sea&qf=m

Regards,
Sinan

 

[pakman]

Thanks for the links Sinan for the links... Given what poor conditions they must dive in Holland, I'd say those are pretty good!

Here are some of the pics I posted in the other thread as well as some new ones (some of them have been color adjusted, sharpened, cropped, and resized in photoshop...)

Just couldn't get a good focus lock on this guy with the anemone tentacles moving in the surge.

 

[starlan]

Very nice shots Pakman those look excellent to me and there is no way I would have known the first shot was ISO800 without looking at the Exif. Its amazing how much further P&S cams have come compared to something like 3 years ago (I could never get macro shots like that with my old cam). Now I just have to go diving sometime

 

[pakman]

thanks starlan, can't wait to try the camera in better viz and with some more patient subjects!

as for the ISO800, yes its pretty impressive. Even though its not fare to judge it based on a 600x450 resized pic above, the full resolution shots at ISO800 handle noise pretty well. Here is a 100% crop of that ISO800 pic with no photoshop adjustments (i.e. no sharpening, no noise reduction filter, and no color adjustment - not sure why the AWB made it so green when I was pretty close to the subject)

 

[pakman]

thought I'd resurrect this thread as I just got back from a trip to the Philippines and had a chance to play around with the F30 in better vis.

Not the most interesting subjects or composition, but just wanted to see how the F30 handled clearer water than murky green Hong Kong waters where I did my first test above...

Exposure time: 0.017 s (1/60)
Aperture: f/2.8
ISO equiv.: 800
Whitebalance: Auto

Exposure time: 0.017 s (1/60)
Aperture: f/4.5
ISO equiv.: 100

Exposure time: 0.017 s (1/60)
Aperture: f/4.5
ISO equiv.: 200
Whitebalance: Auto

Exposure time: 0.017 s (1/60)
Aperture: f/4.5
ISO equiv.: 200
Whitebalance: Auto

Exposure time: 0.011 s (1/90)
Aperture: f/5.0
ISO equiv.: 200
Whitebalance: Manual

Exposure time: 0.0080 s (1/125)
Aperture: f/5.0
ISO equiv.: 200
Whitebalance: Manual

**Only resized the photos. On the last two, I made slight level adjustment in photoshop CS2 as the F30 overexposed these shots.