If you are planning to buy PNS (point and shoot ) DC, read this

PhotographyBlog reviewed the Fujifilm FinePix F30. They rated the camera 4.5/5 and wrote:
“The Fujifilm Finepix F30 produced images of excellent quality during the review period. The 6 megapixel images are a little soft straight out of the camera and ideally require some further sharpening in an application like Adobe Photoshop. Unfortunately there are no in-camera sharpening options. The Fujifilm Finepix F30 struggledl with chromatic aberrations, which purple fringing effects appearing in very high contrast situations. Macro performance is above average, allowing you to focus as close as 5 cms away from the subject. The built-in flash worked well indoors with no red-eye and good overall exposure. The night photograph was very good too, with the maximum shutter speed of 15 seconds offering lots of scope for creative night photography.”

CamerasUK reviewed the Fujifilm FinePix F30 and wrote:
“There are no real problems when it comes to ease of use. I do find the menu system a bit over busy, but that aside it is not particularly difficult to find your way around. Everything seems to be in the right place. There are quite a few buttons on the back of the camera, but a quick read through the manual should set you on the right lines…A rechargeable lithium ion battery (NP-95) is used to power the camera. Fuji supplies both a battery and charger with the Finepix F30. Fuji estimates that you should be able to take around 500 shots before the battery needs to be recharged.”

DigicamReview reviewed the Fujifilm FinePix F30 and wrote:
“Colours are very good and in a very wide range of situations the camera will take sharp, detailed pictures with good exposure. In particular, the camera is probably great for daylight outdoor sporting events where fast photography is essential. The challenges that this camera will face that most others will fail at will be low light situations where you don’t particularly want to use the flash. Even for these situations it has a scene mode that allows you to try and see what a photo would be like without the flash, and yet not lose the benefits of flash photography. Having additonal manual controls will let you try new ideas out and the image quality settings are high enough for A4 prints of your images. The camera was generally competent and fast at focusing and the focus assist lamp seems to be used alot less than previously, and is much less irritating. There is a good range of image sizes but few compression options. The camera doesn’t give you many options to customise images in-camera - there are no sharpness or contrast controls for example. Purple fringing is slighly higher than average. (8.5/10)”

Dpreview reviewed the Fujifilm FinePix F30 and wrote:
“To sum up, the F30 is far and away the best low light compact camera on the market today, bar none. It’s the perfect ’social’ camera for the DSLR owner who doesn’t want to lug all his or her gear to parties, and it is - in expert hands - capable of superb results in any light. I would even go as far as to suggest - funds permitting - getting one for low light work even if you already own a camera you use for daylight shooting… So then, Highly Recommended unless you rarely shoot indoors or at night…”

Photoxels reviewed the Fujifilm FinePix F30 and wrote:
“The Fujifilm FinePix F30 is unmistakably built with quality in mind. From the moment you pick it up to your first pictures, you gain a sense that it has been well thought out in construction and design. Controls are logically placed and intuitive to use, with only a few niggles that should not detract from either the capability of this camera or the enjoyment of its user. A beautiful high-resolution LCD monitor, incredible low-light capability, high performance, compact and light..”

Steve’sDigicams reviewed the Fujifilm FinePix F30 and wrote:
“Image quality was very good for a 6-megapixel model in this price range. All of our samples were sharp and showed good color balance and saturation. The exposure system did well in most lighting situations, however it did tend to overexpose the sky on very sunny days. When shooting in marginal lighting, you’ll be happy the F30 features an AF-assist lamp, which will allow you to focus on subjects in complete darkness. Its flash also has a powerful range of approx. 21.3 feet using ISO Auto. This is due to the camera’s ability to us ISO speeds as high as 3200! Overall, I found this flash worked very well for your typical indoor people photos as well as a fill flash for outdoor portraits.”

Megapixel reviewed the Fujifilm FinePix F30 and wrote:
“In use, the F30 is a quick camera. Fast to start, fast to focus and fast to decide the exposure, and fast to save photos.Indeed, the only time the camera shows some hesitation is when, for one reason or another, it has trouble auto focusing. While the F30 is equipped with an AF assist lamp, it only works when the camera is used indoors, but is ineffective when the camera is set to Macro mode, or when capturing photos at night of a distant subject. And with the latter, an infinity focus setting would have been a useful feature.”

DigitalCameraInfo reviewed the Fujifilm FinePix F30 and wrote:
“The new F30 performed very well, earning an amazing 11.71 overall manual ISO noise score. This is better than the F10’s 11.42, which is still an incredible score. Both digital cameras’ low noise results are unprecedented in the market as many compact models still have random speckles of noise creeping into even the brightest of images. The F30 improves upon the lower end of the F10’s ISO range, but the F10 and F30 have about the same level of noise at the higher ISO 1600. The F30 adds the higher ISO 3200 and the noise level remains on a steady curve. Overall, the Fujifilm FinePix F30 performed very impressively.”

DigitalCameraReview reviewed the Fujifilm FinePix F30 and wrote:
“Startup times, focusing speeds, and shot-to-shot cycle times were very good. I was initially concerned about the speed to read/write from the xD-Picture memory card due to many comments I read on various forums from users complaining about the speed of xD-Picture media as compared to other types of media. In a sense, this discussion does not mean much because the F30 does not accept any other type of media, so if you want the F30 you are going to have to use xD-Picture media. On the other hand, I purchased a “high speed” (Type H) 1GB card, and the speed seemed to be about the same as other cameras I have used, and it was not noticably faster or slower.”

ComputerActive reviewed the Fujifilm FinePix F30 and wrote:
“Though not as slender as its own Z2, the build quality of the F30 is high, with champagne-coloured metal faceplate and a solid feel. It’s fast to power up and, so long as the previous image has been committed to memory, there’s no discernable shutter delay. And so to the images, which are pin sharp straight out of the camera. Colours err on the side of being naturalistic – even slightly muted - rather than vivid, though these can be boosted by switching to our preferred ‘chrome’ setting.”

ePhotozine reviewed the Fujifilm FinePix F30 and wrote:
“Noise levels are very low up to ISO400. At ISO800 a little more luminance noise shows, but it’s still very acceptable. By ISO1600 the noise levels have increased to noticeable levels, but still very low by comparison. The ‘landmark’ sensitivity of ISO3200 produces acceptable quality with very little chroma noise. I did notice that the colour tends to shift slightly at the maximum sensitivity, but not enough to cause any major problems and the noise that is present is fine, randomly arranged and not brightly coloured, giving a wonderful film-like appearance.”

CNET reviewed the Fujifilm FinePix F30 and wrote:
“With a short shutter lag, average wake-up and shot-to-shot times, and a disappointing standard burst mode, the Fujifilm FinePix F30’s performance lands on the better side of average when measured against its competitors….Images from the Fujifilm FinePix F30 were pleasing overall, with well-saturated and accurate colors. Our test images were sharp, though the automatic white balance turned in noticeably warm images under our lab’s tungsten lights.”

DigitalCameraInfo had their hands on the new Fujifilm Finepix F30 and wrote:
“With its flat body, there aren’t too many features to aid in handling. The F30 manages to squeeze in a few, however. On the front there is a polished wavy finger grip. The grip is skinnier than most fingers, so it is more of a highlight than a functional grip. The better feature is on the back. There are rubber bumps below the zoom toggle that really do grab and keep thumbs in place. There is no protrusion for a right-hand grip, so long periods of shooting could be uncomfortable. The Fujifilm F30 has decent handling for a compact model, though. “