The FujiFilm F70EXR is a nifty little camera that does all the work for you to get that perfect shot.

EARLIER this year we tested out the F200, Fujifilm’s first camera to use the new Super CCD EXR technology and came away impressed with it. Now Fujifilm has followed up with the release its latest compact camera to use the EXR technology, the FinePix F70EXR.

The F70EXR (F70) is a remarkably thin 10-megapixel camera, measuring just 22.7mm thick. While it sticks to the conventional rectangular shape, the camera sports a nice dark metallic body accentuated by silver borders around the edges.

The camera is also small and lightweight and easily slips into a shirt pocket or bag.

The main highlight of the camera is possibly the F70’s versatile 10x optical zoom lens that covers both wide and telephoto ends of the spectrum. It provides a broad 27mm range that comes in useful while taking wide angle shots in tight quarters.

Given that most compact ­cameras usually need to resort to digital zooming to extend their reach, the F70’s ability to zoom at 270mm is a much added advantage for capturing far away subjects.

The camera feels nice to hold in the hand with a majority of the essential buttons and mode dial placed within easy reach on the right side of the camera.

Around the back you’ll find a 2.7in LCD screen for composing and reviewing pictures. It is sufficiently bright enough to be used outdoors without being washed out by glare.

One problem with the camera’s flash is that it is placed on the top right corner where you would normally place your fingers when gripping the camera. It is easy to forget how close the flash is to the edge that I would accidentally place my finger over the flash when attempting to take a picture.

Features

New to the F70 is the EXR Auto mode, an intelligent automatic scene feature introduced earlier this year in the FinePix F200. It acts as a full automatic mode that allows beginners to take decent photos without having to twiddle around with the settings.

The mode basically applies the appropriate camera settings to take a scene, so close-up shots will engage macro mode automatically and low light conditions will see the camera boost its ISO levels.

At your disposal are three special sensor modes that utilise the F70’s EXR sensor. Taking pictures of a breathtaking landscape will engage High Resolution (HR) mode which captures images at the highest ­resolution possible.

Both Low Noise Priority (SN) and D-Range Priority (DR) modes take lower resolution 6-megapixel shots but capture low noise photos in low light conditions and higher dynamic range respectively.

The resulting shots taken in SN mode were pretty decent and there was an effective reduction of the amount of noise captured. Despite the massive amount of noise reduction I was still able to make out fine detail like text in pictures.

FACE THIS: The F70's face detection feature easily detects faces in a frame and correctly exposes the shot to get a clear view of them.

DR mode effectively preserves details that would otherwise be blown out or under-exposed in pictures with lots of contrast lighting.

All in all, the megapixel trade off is a small price to pay considering the improved picture quality of photos plus the added ease of taking photos without having worry over the settings.

Despite this I still like to have a degree of control of my shots. Fortunately, the F70 comes with adjustable Program and Manual shooting modes so I could still make adjustments for, say, longer ­exposures during night shots or slower shutter speeds for added motion in pictures.

The F70 offers two new scene modes — Pro Focus and Pro-Low light — that attempt to mimic ­various camera effects such as having a sharp subject in front of defocused background by ­combining several shots to create one image with the desired effect.

The two modes work fine for the most part though you will lose a few megapixels of detail in the process. Pro Focus does a ­convincing job of blurring out a background to put emphasis on a subject while Pro-Low light does reduce some amount of noise in otherwise dark grainy pictures.

Performance

The F70 isn’t a particularly fast camera when it comes to switching it on to take a quick photo. There’s a slight two second delay as the camera boots up before you can begin taking pictures.

On the other hand, the camera’s autofocus is reasonably snappy when tracking subjects and ­bringing them into focus.

In terms of battery life, the F70 held up well for a full day of shooting and is capable of taking over 200 shots without any ­problems.

In terms of ISO performance, the camera produced noise-free images from ISO 100 - ISO 200. We began seeing traces of noise as early as ISO 400 though the level of noise was still acceptable. Noise was very much evident at ISO 800 and above, with great loss of detail and a ­general patchy look. The pictures were ­practically unusable at this stage.

I have to say I was quite impressed with the camera’s macro mode. I managed to capture some remarkably sharp and colourful close-up photos of flowers.

Night photography is actually possible with the F70 thanks to its manual shooting modes. However, the maximum shutter speed of eight seconds does limit you from taking longer exposed shots, so you are limited to a certain degree.

There were noticeable hints of purple fringing in images when we tested the camera out in broad daylight though it isn’t too heavy to the point it affects the overall image.

The camera also supports ­standard definition video-recording though the quality isn’t that great. Videos tended to look very grainy for indoor shots and a little washed out even when recording outdoors.

One benefit the camera enjoys is the ability to zoom in and out while recording. However, one downside to this is that camera’s autofocus takes a while to kick in leaving the video blur for a couple of seconds before returning into focus.

Conclusion

On the whole the Fujifilm FinePix F70EXR is very capable camera that’s packed with lots of different features. The RM1,099 price tag is certainly affordable considering it has a far reaching 10x optical zoom, not to mention a 27mm wide-angle lens and the added advantage of Fujifilm’s Super CCD EXR sensor technology.

Its EXR auto modes also allows beginners to start snapping pictures like the pros without needing to worry over the proper settings to use. Meanwhile, more experienced users can bank on the Program and Manual shooting modes to get more control over their shots.

The camera is generally good at taking outdoor shots and great at taking low noise photos in the dark. Complementing it is a great macro mode for taking nice close ups of objects.

What the camera is lacking in, however, is HD video recording. Simply said, videos recorded are poor in quality so you’d best stick to taking still photos with this one.

Overall the F70EXR delivers great performance for its price. So if you missed out on Fujifilm’s FinePix F200 before, you can give the FinePix F70EXR a shot.

Pros: Wide angle and long zoom lens; easy-to-use EXR auto modes; has Program and Manual shooting modes.

Cons: No HD video recording; purple fringing evident in some shots.