Good for specific low light uses, not so outstanding for general purpose photography
Strengths:Fast startup. Minimal shutter lag. Nice LCD resolution with anti-glare screen. Battery lasts roughly 500 shots! Excellent video (in stereo). Best low light camera for "still life" pics.
Weaknesses:Flash recharging doesn't keep pace on a series of quick pics. Needs TRUE image stabilization. BAD redeye problem. Port cover doesn't move aside for connections — might eventually twist off and break!
Posted Dec 27, 2006 - To start off, I've been shooting digitally for about seven years. While I presently own Panasonic and Olympus cameras, I've also used the Fuji F10 and F20, Canon cameras, etc.
A unique F30 feature is the Natural Light + Flash mode. It takes a natural light picture first, followed by a typical flash shot (prepare to keep that hand steady until both pictures are complete!). Over the holidays, I took over 100 indoor photos. For one reason or another, I dumped almost all the natural light pics. If they turned out at all, there was usually a room lamp in the background that threw off the auto exposure. Second, auto white balance is better than some cameras, but walls and skin tones still take on a mustard or orange cast indoors (without flash). Flash-free images are also somewhat soft or fuzzy, though not as bad as the F10. Still, it was enough to convince me to turn back on the flash in order to obtain the maximum amount of indoor image detail. Without flash, when left to its own default settings, the camera will pick ISO 3200 for a watercolor effect. Of course, you can force it down to a more realistic ISO setting — say anything below 1,600 — which is still very impressive for a camera in this class. Unfortunately, don’t expect to ditch that tripod quite yet; otherwise, images taken in natural light will never appear as sharp and detailed as those taken with flash (or under adequate sunlight). That being said, you can obtain nice low light pics if you adjust the white balance, make sure all light sources are at your back, make use of the manual shutter settings, etc.
As you may have read, the F30, unlike the F10, offers "image stabilization" to help compensate for the length of time the shutter might otherwise stay open to let the small lens soak up all the low light. I did find it useful in some shooting situations. I obtained the best pics of a fireworks show by switching to the anti-blur mode (otherwise a tripod is necessary). Even so, out of 25 or so fireworks photos, only five were “print worthy”.
I also took the camera through some kiddie attractions at a theme park, and found that the F30, when left in Natural Light scene mode, is a particularly bad performer in challenging situations where the subject is relatively fixed but the photographer is moving. Low image noise, combined with the high ISO capability, makes for shots that are considerably better than competing cameras, but low light gains are offset by the tendency for the images to blur or lose detail under low light. Similarly, Fuji admitted that panning would cause motion blur in the F10 manual, and seemingly little has changed in this regard with the F30 — at least not when the subject is close to the lens. In fact, the F30 is the worst camera I’ve ever owned for capturing fish swimming in an aquarium. Consequently, out of roughly 300 “natural light” theme park photos, I felt only 25 were truly print worthy. Likewise, out of roughly 100 holiday photos I felt only half were “keepers” (and the majority were flash photos).
In general, the Fuji FinePix F30 is more reliable as a point-and-shoot (in full auto mode) than F10 because it is far less prone to exposure irregularities. Unfortunately, highlight clipping remains slightly above average. Highlights are even clipped near dusk under a winter sun. In one particular shot, white roller coaster tracks against a blue sky resulted in entire chunks of the track missing beyond, even, Photoshop recovery. By contrast, image details in the balance of the picture were outstanding enough to nearly cause me to overlook the blown highlights.
As for the notorious purple fringing, it remains an issue with the F30, just as it was for the F10/11. I see chromatic aberration in nearly every landscape shot I take, particularly when tree branches are in close proximity. A lesser known image quality issue is this: If something in your picture has a tight pattern it will produce a moiré effect (mostly on clothing, but also to a limited extent on buildings, roofs, etc). On the plus side, Macro works very well. Close-up flower pics, and the like, never looked so good.
BOTTOM LINE
YOUR user experience will vary. Potential buyers should also be aware of the digital camera manufacturing phenomena known as “sample variation”. To the Fuji’s credit, I’m shooting more “keepers” than I obtained with the F10. Even so, genuine image stabilization would offer bigger gains still. In my experience, image stabilization is particularly useful when you hold your arms out over your head to get the camera above a crowd, or in those situations where you are aiming the camera close to the ground to capture pets, flowers, or even children (because holding one’s arms above or below normal picture-taking form makes bracing/holding still difficult). I’ve tried both types of cameras, and for all-purpose shooting those with gyroscopic image stabilization seem to result in a greater percentage of useable images.
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Rated 
Excellent performing, well thought out little camera
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