Fuji F200EXR reviewed

[996GT2]

DPReview Link


No obvious noise advantage over the LX3...perhaps even slightly worse. This, combined with the F200's much slower lens, basically rules out the F200 as a low-light competitor to the LX3:

The LX3 and F200 have very similarly sized sensors so it's reasonable to assume that each photosite on the slightly lower resolution LX3 is slightly larger (which matters if you compare at the pixel level, as we do). However, in its SN mode, the F200 groups the information from pairs of photosites together to give a much larger effective photosite. However, if you look at the results, the higher resolution of the LX3 is clearly offering a greater benefit than the theoretical decrease in noise offered by the larger, combined photosites of the F200 EXR. The text on the globe crop is undoubtedly clearer in the LX3's output, for instance. Downsizing the LX3 output (using Photoshop's Bicubic sharper algorithm that applies sharpening to compensate for the softening that is brought about by downsizing) produces results that are unquestionably superior to the F200's. The Panasonic is an expensive camera, of course, but it goes to show that a well-sorted large sensor (by compact camera standards - tiny in DSLR terms) is enough can match the F200's technological cleverness. The extra money spent on the LX3 also buys a fast (albeit less flexible), lens that can allow over 1 stop more light in, allowing the use of a lower ISO setting in any given lighting conditions.

At ISO 1600 the differences between the two cameras are reduced but there's still no obvious advantage to the F200's EXR technology over the LX3's well-sorted conventional CCD.

Even compared to the old F31fd, the F200EXR can't quite match in terms of high ISO performance:

The F31fd was, for a long time, probably the best performing compact camera we'd encountered for shooting at ISO 800. Fujifilm promised the F200 EXR would improve on that performance, but doesn't appear to have quite delivered the goods. The F31fd is clearly producing a cleaner image and one that does a slightly better job of retaining fine detail. There's not a lot in it, though, so we'll now look at how the F200 EXR stacks up against a modern camera.

 

[ElFenix]

bicubic sampling isn't geometrically correct. the resampling algorithm in lightroom is better.

 

[Aharami]

glad to see the f31fd still beats this camera.

 

[extra]

LoL, when the test photos came out and this camera was announced someone here made a thread. I wrote that it wasn't that great and that I didn't think it was any better or as good as the lx3 image quality (in reference to the high iso performance, etc)....Everyone seemed to think I was nuts and "oh they look way better"

Hmphhh.. lx3 ftw

 

[996GT2]

Originally posted by: extra
LoL, when the test photos came out and this camera was announced someone here made a thread. I wrote that it wasn't that great and that I didn't think it was any better or as good as the lx3 image quality (in reference to the high iso performance, etc)....Everyone seemed to think I was nuts and "oh they look way better"

Hmphhh.. lx3 ftw

I also noted in that same thread that the LX3 automatically has a 1-1.5 stop low light performance advantage by nature of its lens. A point and shoot with a small sensor will have a large DoF no matter what aperture the picture is taken at, so with an LX3 you can be shooting f/2-f/2.8 all the time.

This means F31 prices won't be falling anytime soon, heh.

 

[randomlinh]

Originally posted by: Aharami
glad to see the f31fd still beats this camera.

I'm not. the f31d is how old now? why can't we have improved on it by now. by anyone really, not necessarily fuji.

I'm still waiting for a $500 DP2. is that so much to ask for?

 

[Aharami]

Originally posted by: randomlinh

Originally posted by: Aharami
glad to see the f31fd still beats this camera.

I'm not. the f31d is how old now? why can't we have improved on it by now. by anyone really, not necessarily fuji.

I'm still waiting for a $500 DP2. is that so much to ask for?

IMO, it's gonna be very hard to do unless they go down in mpixel count by a few
i'm a firm believer that 6-8 mpixel is enough for these small chip cameras. I dunno what Im gonna do when my f31fd dies. Can hardly find anything under 10mp now

 

[Flipped Gazelle]

Originally posted by: Aharami
glad to see the f31fd still beats this camera.

How is that good? That indicates lack of progress.

I'm disappointed in Fuji. I had the S6000fd (superzoom w/ the F31 sensor) and it was a great camera, better overall IQ than comparable Canon/Panny offerings, although it lacked IS.

The one thing the new F200 has going for it are the EXR modes. DPReview likes them a lot, and they look very good to me. Also, DPReview remarked that the F200's dynamic range is, "amongst the best we've ever seen". I would much prefer a lighter touch with the in-camera noise reduction.

 

[randomlinh]

Originally posted by: Aharami

Originally posted by: randomlinh

Originally posted by: Aharami
glad to see the f31fd still beats this camera.

I'm not. the f31d is how old now? why can't we have improved on it by now. by anyone really, not necessarily fuji.

I'm still waiting for a $500 DP2. is that so much to ask for?

IMO, it's gonna be very hard to do unless they go down in mpixel count by a few
i'm a firm believer that 6-8 mpixel is enough for these small chip cameras. I dunno what Im gonna do when my f31fd dies. Can hardly find anything under 10mp now

agreed. We're cramming way too many pixels in there before we can figure out a way to compensate for it. At least well.

Partially why I want to buy an LX3 since Panasonic kept it at 10MP (still more than I'd need, but having single digits would hurt marketing too much likely).

 

[Zenmervolt]

Originally posted by: Flipped Gazelle
I would much prefer a lighter touch with the in-camera noise reduction.

This. Honestly, I think that accounts for most (all?) of the difference between the new Fuji and the LX3 in the comparison tests. The LX3 images either have more sharpening or less software noise reduction. I think that if Fuji turned down the luminance noise reduction a bit the F200 would give a better account of itself at higher ISOs.

ZV