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Details at a glance
Megapixels: 6.3
Optical Zoom: 3x
LCD: 2.5 inch
Storage: xD
Internal: 10mb
Size: 92.7 X 56.7 X 27.8 mm
Weight: 155g
We clicked with
Face detection, ISO Range, Scenes especially the Natural & Flash mode, Intelligent Flash, Ease of Use
Shots in the dark
Infra Red communication
Links
Fujifilm F31fd product page
More Fujfilm information
www.fujifilm.co.uk
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Summary
Everything I said about the Fujifilm F30 holds true for the Fujifilm F31fd. See the review here F30. It's a smashing little camera. If you take lots of photos of people it will help you get the best focus for each person. The Fujifilm F31fd is perfect for getting that shot at the party with all your mates. It has a high ISO (can capture detail when it's dark, keeping it sharp), it will balance the background and it won't blow out their faces. It costs around £30 more than the Fujifilm. I think it's probably worth the extra.
I C U
The Fujifilm F31fd (fd = face detection) is so called because it has some nifty algorithm software that recognises faces. Apparently it recognises the triangulation between the eyes and mouth. To use the face detection mode you need to press a little button on the back of the camera. You can see it on the photos of the back below.
Because I'm a sad old granny who doesn't get to many parties, which is where this camera would be fun I had to bribe some of the lads from work with a bit of cake to help me with the testing of the face detection. Jamie took photos with the F31fd using it on auto and held it while I took photos of the LCD with my Nikon D80. I got David to cover up his eyes, nose or mouth to see how it did. Surprisingly we found it still worked with David's mouth completely covered up - the only time he's been known to be quiet!
But unsurprisingly not with their eyes covered.
Little Boxes
When the Fujifilm F31fd recognises a face it places a box round it on the LCD so you know that it's going to do its best to focus on that face. If there are several people in the picture then you will see up to 10 boxes round faces! I only had Ben, David and Marcus but you can see what it does below.
Zoom Zoom
When you use the Fujifilm F31fd to view the photos you've taken you can press the face detection button again and it will put a box round a face. If you press the button again it zooms in on the face, press it again and it will zoom to the next face and so on.
If you wish you can crop the photo in the camera once you have zoomed in to a face and save that as a portrait.
Here are some of the photos Jamie took with the Fujifilm F31fd. Note the good skin tones and balanced background.
Balancing Act
Colour rendition of skin tones is good in the F31fd and the clever face detection software helps you get the best focus and optimized exposure for the shot you are taking. The intelligent flash looks at how far from the camera the subject is and automatically adjusts the sensitivity and the flash to balance it. Sometimes it will choose quite high ISOs often using ISO 800. As in the photograph below.
When you zoom in on it you can see some noise but not as bad as you might expect at ISO 800. I printed it at 6in x 4in and was pleasantly surprised. There was a very slight softening effect but nothing that would worry you. You'll also notice that the background is nicely balanced too. I bet you've got photos where the subjects are exposed nicely but the background is horribly dark.
So if Granddad is on his knees wiping the floor and the grand children decide to take advantage of him and use him as a donkey you'll get a nicely exposed balding head and the look of fun on the kiddies faces with all the mess in your kitchen very nicely exposed thank you!
Red Eye
In the photo above there was some red eye but generally it's pretty good at avoiding it. If I'd used the redeye feature it would have been fine. Red eye reduction is enabled by pressing the rocker button on the back to the right once but I just grabbed the camera and shot this time.
Sharing the Fun
In playback mode you can send photographs to another Fujifilm digital camera that has IR capability or any other mobile device that has IR. I didn't have another IR capable camera so I tried it using my Sony Ericsson mobile and my HP IPAQ. The IPAQ recognised the camera as you'll see in the photograph below but I couldn't actually get it to communicate going either way (to the camera or from it).
If you can get it to work then it's a good way to share with your mates.
