Review 3 of 5
Summary:
I'm the contrarian on this camera. Other than the lens -- which is superb and yields amazing photos -- I do not get why people rave about it.
The AF frequently doesn't focus on what you want it to; it often did not lock on what it was supposed to. Unlike an SLR or a mechanical rangefinder, you have no way of knowing it, other than looking at the distance readout and estimating distances. This was a very irritating aspect of this camera.
It was nice of them to include an on-board flash; the problem was that the flash was appalling. In all the time I owned the camera, I never got a good flash picture. Was it a TTL flash? Who the hell knows, because the manual was so awful, it didn't tell you.
Nor did it tell you how to get the best out of the metering. Was it centered-weighted, total average, or what? Again, who knows?
The camera was oriented for portrait taking (long side (6) up and down, short side (4.5) left to right). This was inevitable when you think about the design of a 645 roll film point-and-shoot camera, but it is a pity when you think about how well this camera suited landscape work. What made it worse was that when you flipped the camera to take a horizontal shot, you had to flip 90 degrees in the opposite direction from the one which most photographers are accustomed to (right hand on bottom, rather than top), or you obscure the meter and mess up the exposure (to their credit, they added a second shutter release to make this operation easier).
So, what should they have done with this camera? Kept the package -- which is a near ideal size and weight -- but make it a MECHANICAL rangefinder (like their 670 and 690). They should improve the metering and the flash. If they had, they might have produced the ultimate MF camera to take hiking.
Because of these shortcomings, I sold the camera and bought a Plaubel Makina. Though it has proved fussy in other ways, it fulfilled my requirements: small, convenient package/big negative.
But, as I say, I'm in the minority on this one. Most people love it. And, truth be told, I look at some of the photos I took with this camera, and some of my favorites are among them, and at those moments, I miss it a bit. Strengths:
Superb, superb lens; lightweight and small; price is fairly reasonable for what you get (if what you got worked better) Weaknesses:
autofocus is erratic; metering is hopeless; portrait orientation is unfortunate, given its special appropriateness as a landscape camera; flash is hopeless; instruction manual is hopeless Similar Products Used:
wide range of 35mm and medium format cameras Customer Service:
not used; I have generally found Fuji difficult to communicate with, compared with other camera companies
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