Sample Pictures for the Fuji FinePix A101 digital camera

Overall impression: Good color, decent resolution. Not up to the standard of higher-end 2 megapixel models but very good for a true "entry level" camera. If you want an inexpensive camera that takes decent pictures, this one is a good deal.

	Outdoor Portrait: (582 k) Overall good color, and accurate saturation. A good job! The extreme tonal range of this image makes this a tough shot for many digicams, which is precisely why we set it up this way. The object is to hold highlight and shadow detail without producing a "flat" picture with muddy colors, and the Fuji FinePix A101 did a good job. We adjusted the exposure +0.3 EV here to brighten things a bit (typical for this shot) Color is good, but a tad reddish overall. To view the entire exposure series from zero to +0.7 EV, see files A11OUTDP0.HTM through A11OUTDP2.HTM on our thumbnail page.
	Closer Portrait: (570 k) Good detail, but too much distortion from the wide angle lens. Results are similar to the wider shot above, though the A101's fixed focal length lens distorts the model's features. (Longer lenses are better for close-up shots like this one.) Color is similar to the portrait above, with a warm cast. Slightly more fine detail is visible in the model's face and hair, and details remain fairly sharp. The shadow areas again show good detail with low noise. Our main shot was taken without an exposure adjustment, as anything brighter lost too much highlight detail. See files A11FACAP0.HTM through A11FACAP1.HTM on our thumbnail page to view the entire exposure series (from zero to +0.3 EV).
	Indoor Portrait, Flash: (580 k) Normal Flash Slow Synchro Flash   Good color, but slightly low intensity. (Nice that it doesn't wash out the model's shirt though.) The A101's flash illuminated the subject well, though the overall light level is just slightly dim. Despite the low intensity, overall color looks good and vibrant. The bright incandescent room lighting results in a pinkish-orangish cast, which also affects the white value of the model's shirt, but the color is quite well balanced overall. Shooting in the Slow Synchro (591 k) flash mode greatly intensifies the orange cast, as the longer exposure allows more of the room light in.
	Indoor Portrait, No Flash: (589 k) Auto White Balance Incandescent White Balance A rough time with incandescent lighting, strong color casts. Not a great choice for indoor shots under incandescent lights. This shot is always a very tough test of a camera's white balance capability, given the strong, yellowish color cast of the household incandescent bulbs used for the lighting, and the A101's white balance system had trouble with this difficult light source. Both the Incandescent (589 k) and Auto (597 k) white balance settings produced similar, warm images with pinkish casts. We chose the Incandescent setting for our main series, and an exposure compensation adjustment of +0.7 EV for our main shot. The warm cast intensifies the purplish cast on the blue flowers, and increases the magenta cast in the model's skin and white shirt. (We do wish manufacturers could manage to deal with incandescent lighting well & consistently though.) To view the entire exposure series from zero to +1.0 EV, see files A11INTP0.HTM through A11INTP3.HTM on our thumbnail page.
	House Shot: (618 k) Auto White Balance Daylight White Balance Good color, though details are a bit soft. (Not bad for a 1.3 megapixel camera though.) We chose the Auto (618 k) white balance setting for our main selection, due to the greenish cast produced by the Daylight (613 k) setting. Though the Auto shot is slightly warm, the overall color balance looks more natural. Resolution is moderate, with reasonably good detail in the tree limbs above the roof and in the house front details. Corner softness is evident in all four corners, and the remaining details throughout the frame are a hint soft.
	Far-Field Test (634 k) Moderate detail, good color, has a hard time with the strong highlights. This image is shot at infinity to test far-field lens performance. NOTE that this image cannot be directly compared to the other "house" shot, which is a poster, shot in the studio. The rendering of detail in the poster will be very different than in this shot, and color values (and even the presence or absence of leaves on the trees!) will vary in this subject as the seasons progress. In general though, you can evaluate detail in the bricks, shingles and window detail, and in the tree branches against the sky. Compression artifacts are most likely to show in the trim along the edge of the roof, in the bricks, or in the relatively "flat" areas in the windows. This is our ultimate "resolution shot," given the infinite range of detail in a natural scene like this. The A101 captures a moderate amount of detail throughout the frame, though details are soft. The fine foliage details in front of and above the house are very soft, but the linear details of the house front are clearer. The bright sunlight tricks the A101 into losing practically all of the detail in the white bay window area, showing a slightly limited dynamic range. The shadow area above the front door shows only slightly stronger detail, with the brick pattern nearly visible.
	Lens Zoom Range Fixed focal length lens, reasonable digital zoom. We've received a number of requests from readers to take shots showing the lens focal length range of those cameras with zoom lenses. Thus, we're happy to present you here with the following series of shots, showing the field of view with the lens at full wide angle and at full 2x digital telephoto. The A101's lens is equivalent to a 36mm lens on a 35mm film camera, a moderate wide angle. Following are the results at each zoom setting.   Wide Angle 1/ 194 F/ 9.5 (124 k) 2x Digital Telephoto 1/ 388 F/ 9.5 (130 k)
	Musicians Poster (636 k) Auto White Balance Daylight White Balance Good color from the daylight white balance setting. For this test, we shot with the Auto (636 k) and Daylight (635 k) white balance settings, choosing the Daylight setting as the most accurate. Auto white balance produced a very warm image, possibly in response to the large amount of blue in the composition. The Oriental model's blue robe looks about right, though the darker parts of the robe have a purple tint. (This is a tough blue for many digicams to get right.) Resolution is moderate, with good detail visible throughout the frame, particularly noticeable in the embroidery of the blue robe.
	Macro Shot (634 k) Standard Macro Shot Macro with Flash About average macro coverage, but some barrel distortion when shooting this close. Flash throttles down well. The A101 performs about average in the macro category, capturing a minimum area of 3.6 x 2.7 inches (91 x 68 millimeters). Resolution is moderately high, with good detail throughout the frame. Color looks good, though the overall color balance is slightly warm. Corner softness is also visible in all four corners from the wide angle lens setting, as well as some barrel distortion. The A101's flash (633 k) did a good job illuminating the macro area, throttling down just enough, though lighting is uneven with a hot spot on the large coin.
	"Davebox" Test Target (596 k) Auto White Balance Daylight White Balance Good color overall. We shot samples of this target using the Auto (596 k) and Daylight (596 k) white balance settings, and noticed similar results in each shot. Both resulted in a slightly warm cast. The Daylight setting appeared just a hint warmer, so we chose the Auto setting for our main shot. Exposure looks good, with a strong tonal distribution on the Q60 chart. The large color blocks have good saturation and color is nearly accurate, despite the warm cast. Detail is limited in the shadow area of the charcoal briquettes, with low noise.
	Low-Light Tests Not sensitive enough for even well-lit city streets at night. The A101's full automatic exposure control limited its low-light shooting capability a great deal. The camera captured bright, clear images at light levels only as low as eight foot-candles (88 lux), which is about three EV stops brighter than average city street lighting at night. Color looks good, however, though the overall color balance is slightly magenta. Images have low noise levels as well. The table below shows the best exposure we were able to obtain for each of a range of illumination levels. Images in this table (like all of our sample photos) are untouched, exactly as they came from the camera. 8fc 88lux 4fc 44lux 2fc 22lux 1fc 11lux 1/2fc 5.5lux 1/4fc 2.7lux 1/8fc 1.3lux 1/16fc 0.67lx 592.9 KB 1/ 2 secs F/ 4.6 618.5 KB 1/ 2 secs F/ 4.6 590.1 KB 1/ 2 secs F/ 4.6 718.7 KB 1/ 2 secs F/ 4.6 627.1 KB 1/ 2 secs F/ 4.6 293.2 KB 1/ 2 secs F/ 4.6 280.2 KB 1/ 2 secs F/ 4.6 283.8 KB 1/ 2 secs F/ 4.6
	Flash Range Test Good flash intensity to about 10 feet. In our testing, the A101's flash was brightest at eight feet from the target, with good intensity to about 10 feet from the target. From the 11-foot distance on, intensity decreased gradually with each foot. Flash power was very dim at the 14 foot distance. Below is our flash range series, with distances from eight to 14 feet from the target. 123.7 KB 1/ 64 secs F/ 4.6 121.6 KB 1/ 64 secs F/ 4.6 121.9 KB S1/ 64 secs F/ 4.6 123.3 KB 1/ 64 secs F/ 4.6 123.0 KB 1/ 64 secs F/ 4.6 123.9 KB 1/ 64 secs F/ 4.6 122.7 KB 1/ 64 secs F/ 4.6
	ISO-12233 (WG-18) Resolution Test (612 k) About average for a 1.3 megapixel camera. Strong detail to 700 lines/picture height, lots of artifacts before that though. The A101 performed moderately well on our "laboratory" resolution test chart for its two-megapixel class. It started showing artifacts in the test patterns at resolutions as low as 500 lines per picture height, in both horizontal and vertical directions. We found "strong detail" out to at least 700 lines, although there were very strong artifacts in the horizontal direction starting at 200. "Extinction" of the target patterns occurred at about 800 lines. Optical distortion on the A101 is a fair bit lower than average for a wide-angle lens, where we measured only two pixels of pincushion distortion. Chromatic aberration is a bit high, showing about five or six pixels of coloration on either side of the target lines. (This distortion is visible as a very slight colored fringe around the objects at the edges of the field of view on the resolution target.) The most prominent optical problem we saw was the rather pronounced softness in the extreme corners, but this didn't extend very far at all into the image area (though it did aggravate the chromatic aberration). Resolution Series, Wide Angle Large / Fine 1/ 128 F/ 4.6 (612 k) Large / Normal 1/ 128 F/ 4.6 (341 k) Large / Economy 1/ 128 F/ 4.6 (174 k) Small / Normal 1/ 128 F/ 4.6 (135 k)
	Viewfinder Accuracy/Flash Uniformity Good accuracy in both the optical viewfinder and LCD monitor. The A101's optical viewfinder was only a little tight, showing approximately 92 percent frame accuracy. The LCD monitor fared a little better, showing approximately 96 percent of the image area. Given that we generally prefer LCD monitors to be as close to 100 percent accuracy as possible, the A101's LCD monitor does pretty well here. We're also quite pleased with the optical viewfinder's performance. One note here is that there is a significant amount of extra space when looking through the optical viewfinder. We found that framing the target in the very center produced these nearly accurate results. Flash distribution is fairly even, with slight falloff at the corners and edges of the frame.   Wide Angle (Optical) 1/ 64 F/ 4.6 (615 k) Wide Angle (LCD) 1/ 64 F/ 4.6 (603 k)