Fujifilm FinePix F770 EXR

Full review

Fujifilm’s FinePix F770 EXR is the second ‘travellers’ zoom’ camera to be released, following hot on the heels of the FinePix F550 EXR. Aside from some minor adjustments to the body design, the only significant change in the new model is the increase of the zoom range from 15x to 20x, mainly at the telephoto end of the scale. No lens speed is lost through this extension.

Angled view of the FinePix F770 EXR with the zoom lens partly extended. (Source: Fujifilm.)

Like the F550, the F770 includes P, A, S and M shooting modes plus support for raw file capture and Full HD movie recording. It also comes with a built-in GPS sensor. 3D stills capture has been added, with stereo pairs recorded in MPO format and the monitor includes a new Monitor Sunlight Mode for easier viewing in bright outdoor lighting.

The ‘travellers’ camera’ market is becoming increasingly crowded as more manufacturers follow the lead set by Panasonic several years ago. Interestingly, the F770 EXR has the largest sensoramong the most popular models, and it’s one of the most feature rich, as you can see in the comparison table below.

	Fujifilm F770 EXR	Panasonic TZ30	Canon SX260 HS	Sony HX20V
Sensor size	6.4 x 4.8 mm	6.08 x 4.56 mm	6.17 x 4.55 mm
Resolution (effective)	16MP	14.1MP	12.1MP	18.2MP
Image processor	EXR	Venus Engine FHD	DIGIC 5	BIONZ
Monitor	3-inch, approx. 460K dots			3-inch, approx. 921K dots
Touch screen	No	Yes	No
P/A/S/M modes	Yes			P & M only
Raw support	Yes	No
Max. ISO at full resolution	ISO 3200	ISO 6400	ISO 3200	ISO 12800
Max. ISO at reduced resolution	ISO 12800	n.a.
Stabilisation	CMOS shift type + ISO boost	POWER O.I.S.	Optical
35mm equiv. coverage	25-500mm	24-480 mm	25-500mm
Aperture range	f/3.5-5.3	f/3.3-f/6.4	f/3.5-6.8	f/3.5-5.8
Min. focus	5 cm	3 cm	5 cm	1 cm
Digital zoom	up to  3.4x	up to 4x		2x
Shutter speeds	8 – 1/2000 sec.	15 – 1/2,000 sec.	15 – 1/3200 sec.	30 – 1/1600 sec
Max. burst speed	8 frames/second	10 frames/second	10.3 frames/second	10 frames/second
Movie formats	MOV / H.264	AVCHD, MP4, QuickTime Motion JPEG	MOV / H.264	AVCHD, MP4
Movie resolution	1920 x 1080,1280 x 720, VGA, QVGA			1920 x 1080, 1440 x 1080,1280 x 720, VGA
High-speed movies	Yes			No
3D capture	Yes		No	Yes
Flash range (Auto ISO)	15 cm – 3.7 m		50cm ““3.5m	40 cm – 7.1 m
Battery capacity	300 shots/charge	260 shots/charge	230 shots/charge	320 shots/charge
Dimensions (wxhxd)	105.1 x 63.3 x 36.0 mm	104.9 x 58.9 x 28.2 mm	106.3 x 61.0 x 32.7 mm	106.6 x 61.9 x 34.6 mm
Weight (body only)	213 grams	184 grams	231 grams	221 grams
RRP	AUD$449		AUD$499

Build and Ergonomics
 The F770 is slightly larger and heavier than its predecessor, reflecting its deeper, more comfortable grip. Like the F550, its body is made mainly from aluminium, with a coloured coating that comes in black, red, blue, gold or silver.

Front view of the FinePix F770 EXR in black with the lens in the wide position. (Source: Fujifilm.)

Changes to the body design in the new model are largely cosmetic, although the holes for the stereo microphones have been moved from next to the AF-assist LED to below the lens. This move marginally improves the quality of the recorded sound because it makes the mics less likely to be covered by a finger as they were on the F550.

The new 20x zoom lens consists of 14 elements in 11 groups and covers a focal length range equivalent to 25-500mm on a 35mm camera. It extends to about 45mm in front of the camera with the tele position, where the maximum aperture is f/5.3 and the minimum aperture is f/16.

Rear view of the FinePix F770 EXR. (Source: Fujifilm.)

The rear panel of the camera is almost identical to the F550’s, although the EXR position on the mode dial is no longer emphasised in orange. An additional Fn button has been added to the top panel and the On/Off switch is smaller and oval-shaped. The shutter button and surrounding zoom lever push further forward than they did on the F550.

Top view of the FinePix F770 EXR. (Source: Fujifilm.)

As in the previous model, the built-in flash tucks into the front of the top panel near the left hand edge. It pops up automatically if the camera detects low light levels when one of the auto modes is selected and is raised by pressing a button on the side panel when you’re in the P, A, S or M modes.

The battery and card share a compartment in the base of the camera on the side of the finger grip. It opens forward but is very cramped and it is quite difficult to extricate the memory card. A metal-lined tripod socket is located beside this compartment, slightly off the camera’s optical axis.

Shooting Modes
The F770 EXR provides a similar range of adjustments to its predecessor, most of which are covered in our review of that camera. It also suffers from the same restrictions.

You can only access the full range of shutter speed settings in the Manual mode. In the S mode, the longest exposure is one second, whereas you can extend that to eight seconds in the Manual mode, although only at ISO 100. Maximum exposure times are reduced as ISO is increased.

The aperture range is also restricted, with only three settings available for any focal length. At the wide position, the largest aperture is f/3.5 and the smallest is f/10, while at full 15x zoom the largest aperture is f/5.3 and the smallest is f/16.

A new Intelligent Digital Zoom function resizes the optical image data and applies EXR processing to sharpen image edges and reduce noise. This function supports 2x magnification, while the regular digital zoom setting provides up to 3.4x.

Improvements
The built-in GPS system has been improved in several ways. Improved sensitivity makes it faster to acquire satellites than its predecessor, taking less than a minute as long as it can ‘see’ the sky.  

You can choose between two settings in the F-mode menu: Permanently On (where GPS data continues to be updated even when the camera is switched off) and When Switched On (which updates GPS data only when the camera is switched on). The first drains the battery faster but displays data sooner when the camera is switched on.

In both modes, the location data are displayed on the monitor as either a place name (if available) or as latitude and longitude. You can also add a location directly to an image, based on a point of interest, using a database of approx. 1,000,000 places worldwide, pre-loaded in the camera.

On-board GPS calculates and displays the distance from your present location to the place where a tagged photo was taken. You can also search for and select images according to the editable place names in their GPS tags.

GPS track logs can be recorded to a file on the memory card for viewing in MyFinePix Studio. You can also use the GPS to synchronise the camera clock to the time provided by the satellites. Adjustments are available for daylight saving differences.

Outdoor viewing has been marginally improved with the new Monitor Sunlight Mode, which can be switched on with the Fn button. But it’s no substitute for a decent viewfinder in bright, glary conditions.

The EXR Auto mode has been enhanced with a new Motion Detection capability. It is pre-programmed with 58 scene types and automatically selects the exposure and white balance settings that match the detected type. Noise-reduction and dynamic range processing are applied, where required.

Face Detection has been added to the Tracking AF modes with a new  Face Tracking AF setting that locks onto and tracks human subjects. All the user needs to do is keep the subject in frame. This setting is also available in movie mode.

The ability to record 3D stereo pairs is new and the F770 has a two-shot system with a display overlay of the first shot taken that can be used as a guide for taking the second shot from a different angle. Images are saved as MPO files. Multiple exposures are also available, allowing users to combine two different exposures in a single frame.

Sensor and Image Processing
 Although Fujifilm claims to have improved the sensor in the new model, form a practical viewpoint nothing much has changed. In most shooting modes, the F770 EXR provides three image sizes with two compression levels for 4:3 and 16:9 aspect ratio still images.

Raw shooting has to be accessed via the setup menu and RAF.RAW files can be recorded with or without JPEGs. Typical file sizes are shown in the table below.

Image size	Pixels	File size
		Fine	Normal
RAW	4608 x 3456	28.44MB
RAW+JPEG (L/Fine)	4608 x 3456	36.57MB
L 4:3	4608 x 3456	7.1MB	4.4MB
L 3:2	4608 x 3072	6.3MB	3.9MB
L 16:9	4608 x 2592	5.3MB	3.3MB
M 4:3	3264 x 2448	4.5MB	2.2MB
M 3:2	3264 x 2176	3.9MB	2.0MB
M 16:9	3264 x 1840	3.3MB	1.7MB
S 4:3	2304 x 1728	2.2MB	1.1MB
S 3:2	2304 x 1536	2.0MB	1.0MB
S16:9	1920 x 1080	1.2MB	0.8MB
Motion Panorama 360 degrees (H)	11520 x 1080	6.92MB
Motion Panorama 360 degrees (V)	11520 x 1624	10.45MB
Motion Panorama180 degrees (H)	5760 x 1080	3.46MB
Motion Panorama180 degrees (V)	5760 x 1624	5.17MB
Motion Panorama120 degrees (H)	3840 x 1080	2.32MB
Motion Panorama120 degrees (V)	3840 x 1624	3.46MB

Movie settings are the same as the F550’s, as shown in the table below. Pressing the one-touch movie record button initiates video recording and soundtracks are captured in stereo when the Full HD movie mode (1080p/30fps) is selected in the shooting menu but monaurally for VGA video clips.

Aspect ratio	Frame size  (pixels)	Frame rate	Recording time/8GB card
16:9	1920 x 1080	30 frames/sec.	76 minutes
	1280 x 720		99 minutes
4:3	640 x 480		232 minutes
	HS 640 x 480	80 frames/sec.	172 minutes
	HS 320 x 240	160 frames/sec.	345 minutes
	HS 320 x 112	320 frames/sec.	172 minutes

Playback and Software
The supplied MyFinePix Studio now supports photo and video sharing online and the camera lets users tag images for uploading to Facebook or YouTube accounts. When the camera is connected to a PC, the marked images are uploaded to the designated site. You can also create a Photobook folder where tagged images will be stored and organised and use this folder when you want to select images for printing, both online and in suitably-equipped retail stores.

Up to 100 pictures can be viewed at a time in a 10×10 array of micro thumbnails. You can also search pictures by Date, Face, Favourite Rank, Scene, Type of Data, Upload Mark and GPS Location Name. Close-ups of detected faces will be shown in slideshow style.

Otherwise, the playback settings in the F770 are the same as those provided in the F550. The bundled software consists of My FinePix Studio Version 3.2 and FinePix Viewer Ver. 3.6, both of which include raw file converters and are Windows-only. An owner’s manual in PDF format is provided in multiple languages on the CD.

Performance
Nothing much has changed performance-wise, even though Fujifilm claims to have reworked the image sensor in the new camera and the lens isn’t the same as in the F550. With each photosite measuring less than 1.4 microns, the processor still has to work hard to extract image data and present it in a usable form.

Images straight from the camera were usually a little sharper than we found with shots from the F550. Digital zoom shots tended to be artefact-affected but gave the appearance of being sharp. The on-board stabilisation was as good as the F550’s.

Exposure metering was also similar to the F550’s and the camera had the same tendency to produce blown-out highlights in bright conditions, even with dynamic range correction enabled. Overcast conditions produced shots with a natural-looking exposure balance, suggesting the camera is biased for northern hemisphere use.

Colour rendition was good, although Imatest showed increased saturation in warmer hues and slight colour shifts in skin hues. However, the camera reproduced traditionally difficult hues like purples very well.

Close-ups were generally very good, although the camera has great difficulty focusing in Macro mode at medium-to-long focal lengths. However, it will focus to 1 cm from subjects when the lens is at the wide position.

Distortion was slight enough throughout the zoom range to be negligible as was vignetting. The lens was flare-prone when pointed towards a bright light source, but handled backlighting better than many digicams.

The autofocusing system showed less tendency to hunt than we found with the HS30 EXR. It was also a little faster in low light levels, particularly at shorter focal lengths. Hunting was more common with close-ups and affected all focal length positions.

Imatest showed resolution to be slightly below expectations for a 16-megapixel camera  with both RAF.RAW and JPEG files. Even using Adobe Camera Raw to process the latter failed to bring the top resolution to within a megapixel of expectations. JPEG files were somewhat lower, as shown in the graph below, which shows results across the ISO range supported at full resolution.

 
 Tests across the focal length and aperture ranges of the lens showed edge softening was slightly less than we found with the F550 EXR but still of concern at the widest apertures, where resolution was highest. The graph below shows the results of analysis of JPEG files at the focal length and aperture settings we were able to test.

The results of the lateral chromatic aberration tests were almost identical to those from the F550. At shorter focal lengths it was mostly negligible, moving into the ‘low’ band around the 31mm focal length. Once again, the smallest aperture settings showed the effect more than the two wider apertures. In the graph of our Imatest results  below, the red line separates ‘negligible’ and ‘low’ CA, while the green line marks the border between ‘low’ and ‘moderate’ CA.

 
 Low light performance was slightly better than the F550 EXR. Little noise was visible in eight-second exposures at ISO 100 but from ISO 400 on, noise became progressively more visible and at ISO 3200 slight softening could be seen. (The longest exposure available at this setting was 1/2 second.) Shots taken at ISO 6400 were only usable at credit card size.

Flash exposures fared somewhat better than long exposures in available light. Shots taken between ISO 100 and ISO 400 sensitivity settings using a focal length of 28mm were under-exposed, the ISO 100 and ISO 200 shots being almost unusable. Normal exposure levels weren’t reached until the ISO 800 setting.

Slight softening was evident at ISO 6400 but shots were usable for snapshot prints. Shots taken with the ISO 12800 setting were noticeably softer.
 The review camera failed to remove the orange cast from shots taken under incandescent lighting in the auto white balance mode but came close to producing neutral colours in shots taken under fluorescent lighting with the same setting. Both presets over-corrected very slightly, the various fluorescent lighting settings imparting slightly different colour casts. Manual measurement counteracted both colour casts.

Video quality was good at all resolution settings, although the slightly restricted dynamic range of the sensor meant highlights in clips were frequently blown out. The high-speed modes delivered impressive results with minimal blurring of subjects enabling accurate motion analysis to be carried out.

There was more stereo presence in the movie sound tracks but the microphones tended to pick up the sound of the zoom motor and, to a lesser degree, the autofocusing motor.  Some clarity was lost in recordings of voices when subjects were a couple of metres from the camera.

Our timing tests were carried out with an 8GB SanDisk Extreme III SDHC card, which was also used for all video recordings.  The review camera took just over two seconds to power-up ready for shooting, which is slow for its class.

Shot-to shot times were slightly faster than we measured with the F550, averaging 1.1 seconds without flash and 3.4 seconds with. It took 3.5 seconds on average to process each JPEG file, 6.9 seconds for a RAF.RAW and 9.3 seconds for a RAW+JPEG pair.

Continuous shooting was limited to eight JPEG frames per burst at full resolution, after which capture stalled.  Bursts were restricted to five  raw frames or RAW+JPEG pairs.

Regardless of whether JPEGs or raw files were recorded, the measured frame rate was four frames/second, which is slower than specified for the camera. It took 2.9 seconds to process a burst of four JPEGs, 23.9 seconds for five RAF.RAW files and 29.3 seconds for five RAW+JPEG pairs.

In summary

Buy this camera if:
– You’re looking for a pocketable camera that includes manual shooting modes and raw file capture. 
– You want to take extreme close-ups.
– You’d like a digicam that can record widescreen Full HD video clips with stereo soundtracks. 
– You want to record high-speed video clips for motion analysis.

 Don’t buy this camera if:
 - You want the same range of adjustments for aperture and shutter speed settings as you get with an interchangeable lens camera.
– You require an optical viewfinder.
– You need fast autofocusing in poorly-lit places.

SPECS

Image sensor: 6.4 x 4.8 mm EXR CMOS sensor with 16.0 megapixels effective
 Image processor: EXR
 Lens: Fujinon 4.6-92mm f/3.5-5.3 zoom lens (25-500mm in 35 mm format) 
 Zoom ratio: 20x optical, up to  3.4x digital
 Image formats: Stills – JPEG  (DCF / Exif 2.3) RAF.RAW. RAW+JPEG; Movies – MOV / H.264; 3D – MPO
Image Sizes: Stills – 4:3 aspect: 4608 x 3456, 3264 x 2448,  2304 x 1728; 3:2 aspect: 4608 x 3072, 3264 x 2176, 2304 x 1536; 16:9 aspect: 4608 x 2592, 3264 x 1840, 1920 x 1080; Motion Panorama: 360 °: Vertical 11520 x 1624, Horizontal 11520 x 1080; 180 °: Vertical 5760 x 1624, Horizontal 5760 x 1080; 120 °: Vertical 3840 x 1624, Horizontal 3840 x 1080; Movies – 1920 x 1080, 1280 x 720, 640 x 480 at 30 fps with stereo sound; 640 x 480 at 80 fps, 320 x 240 at 160 fps, 320 x 112 at 320 fps
 Shutter speed range: (Auto mode) 1/4 sec. to 1/2000 sec., (All other modes) 8 sec. to 1/2000 sec.
Self-timer: 2 or 10 seconds delay, Auto release / Auto release (Dog, Cat)
Image Stabilisation: CMOS shift type + ISO boost
Exposure Compensation: +/-2.0EV in 1/3EV steps
Bracketing: AE Bracketing : +/-1/3EV, +/-2/3EV, +/-1EV; Film Simulation Bracketing: PROVIA / STANDARD, Velvia / VIVID, ASTIA / SOFT; Dynamic Range Bracketing : 100% / 200% / 400%
 Focus system/range: TTL Contrast-based AF with Single AF / Continuous AF (EXR AUTO, Movie) modes; Centre, Multi, Tracking frame selection; range: 45 cm to infinity; macro to 5 cm
Exposure metering/control: TTL 256-zone metering with Multi, Spot and Average modes
Shooting modes: Auto, EXR, P, S, A, M, SP (Natural Light, Natural Light & with Flash, Portrait, Portrait enhancer, Dog, Cat, Landscape, Sport, Night, Night (Tripod), Fireworks, Sunset, Snow, Beach, Underwater, Party, Flower, Text), Adv.
ISO range: Auto, ISO 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600, 3200; ISO 6400 and ISO 12800 at reduced image sizes 
White balance: Auto, Fine, Shade, Fluorescent light (Daylight), Fluorescent light (Warm White), Fluorescent light (Cool White), Incandescent light, Underwater, Custom
Flash modes/range (ISO auto): Auto, Forced Flash, Suppressed Flash, Slow Synchro.; red-eye reduction available; range: approx. 15 cm – 3.7 m
Sequence shooting: Max. 8 fps at full 16-megapixel resolution or 11 fps at 8-megapixel for up toshots
Storage Media: Approx. 30MB internal memory plus expansion slot for SD, SDHC, SDXC (UHS-I) cards
Viewfinder: No
 LCD monitor: 3.0-inch TFT colour LCD monitor with approx. 460,000 dots
Power supply: Li-ion battery NP-50A (included); CIPArated for approx. 300 shots/charge; CP-50 with AC power adapter AC-5VX (sold separately)
Dimensions (wxhxd): 105.1 x 63.3 x 36.0 mm
Weight: Approx. 213 grams (without battery and memory card)

TESTS

 JPEG files:

 
 RAF.RAW files converted with Adobe Camera Raw.

 

 

SAMPLES

Auto white balance with incandescent lighting.

Auto white balance with fluorescent lighting.

 Distortion at 4.6mm.

4.6mm focal length, ISO 400, 1/30 second at f/7.1.

 

92mm focal length, ISO 400, 1/34 second at f/5.3.
 
 

2x digital zoom; ISO 640, 1/60 second at f/5.3.

Macro setting; 4.6mm focal length, ISO 640, 1/125 second at f/3.5.

8-second exposure at ISO 100, 4.6mm focal length, f/3.6.

2-second exposure at ISO 400, 4.6mm focal length, f/3.6.

 

1/2-second exposure at ISO 3200, 4.6mm focal length, f/3.6.
 
 

1/2-second exposure at ISO 6400, 4.6mm focal length, f/3.6.

1/4-second exposure at ISO 12800, 4.6mm focal length, f/3.6.

Flash exposure at ISO 400; 28mm focal length, 1/60 second at f/5.4.

Flash exposure at ISO 3200; 28mm focal length, 1/60 second at f/5.4.

Flash exposure at ISO 6400; 28mm focal length, 1/60 second at f/5.4.

Flash exposure at ISO 12800; 28mm focal length, 1/60 second at f/5.4.

Close-up of a subject with a difficult to reproduce colour; 4.6mm focal length, ISO 100, 1/58 second at f/3.5.

 

Flare with strong backlighting; 17mm focal length, ISO 400, 1/400 second at f/4.9.
 
 

 84mm focal length, ISO 250, 1/125 second at f/5.8.
 
 

Still frame from Full HD video clip at 1080p.
 
 

Still frame from HD video clip at 720p
 
 

Still frame from VGA  video clip recorded at 30 fps.
 
 

Still frame from VGA  video clip recorded at 80 fps.
 
 

Still frame from QVGA video clip recorded at 160 frames/second.
 
 

Still frame from 320 x 112-pixel video clip recorded at 320 frames/second.

Rating

RRP: AUD$449; US$379.95

• Build: 9.0
• Ease of use: 8.5
• Autofocusing: 8.5
• Image quality JPEG: 8.0
• Image quality Raw: 8.3
• Video quality: 8.5

Buy