1fastcat
Registered
Recently used my new Fuji F11 for several dives in St. Lucia and thought I would post my initial impressions:
First - this is not a super slim "credit card" style camera. It is roughly the same size as my old Canon SD200. The case feels extremely robust and it uses a metal self-retracting lens cover.
Controls and menu navigation are simple and intuitive.
The underwater housing seems very robust, and is a piece of cake to operate every control.
Since I was completely new to the camera, I took all photos on "auto" mode and quickly learned to also set it to "flash" everytime mode. Even without the flash, the camera has excellent low light capability, but it doesn't illuminate color. Backscatter was minimal to non existent in the vast majority of shots.
Visibility with the shots was approximately 60', with overhead cloud cover.
Battery life was amazing - I took 258 shots, 5 movies over 12 days. still had 2/3 battery power showing on camera.
Above water shots are by far the best quality I have experienced. No barrel distortion, pincushioning or purple fringing noticed in any of my shots.
Low light was superb, as I took numerous dawn/sunset shots, as well as full night shots of Rodney Bay with New Year's fireworks with outstanding results. Even on the plane we took a almost dark sunset shot at altitude and it came out with excellent color replication.
The only major gripe with the camera is the docking/charging set-up has got to be the worst design ever. You have to use a portal adapter to charge or download the photos. It is clumsy and bulky. I understand that Fuji has streamlined versions as an accessory item, but they could really take a lesson from Canon with the bundled wall-mount battery charger.
First - this is not a super slim "credit card" style camera. It is roughly the same size as my old Canon SD200. The case feels extremely robust and it uses a metal self-retracting lens cover.
Controls and menu navigation are simple and intuitive.
The underwater housing seems very robust, and is a piece of cake to operate every control.
Since I was completely new to the camera, I took all photos on "auto" mode and quickly learned to also set it to "flash" everytime mode. Even without the flash, the camera has excellent low light capability, but it doesn't illuminate color. Backscatter was minimal to non existent in the vast majority of shots.
Visibility with the shots was approximately 60', with overhead cloud cover.
Battery life was amazing - I took 258 shots, 5 movies over 12 days. still had 2/3 battery power showing on camera.
Above water shots are by far the best quality I have experienced. No barrel distortion, pincushioning or purple fringing noticed in any of my shots.
Low light was superb, as I took numerous dawn/sunset shots, as well as full night shots of Rodney Bay with New Year's fireworks with outstanding results. Even on the plane we took a almost dark sunset shot at altitude and it came out with excellent color replication.
The only major gripe with the camera is the docking/charging set-up has got to be the worst design ever. You have to use a portal adapter to charge or download the photos. It is clumsy and bulky. I understand that Fuji has streamlined versions as an accessory item, but they could really take a lesson from Canon with the bundled wall-mount battery charger.
