Fujifilm FinePix 2300

		Outdoor portrait: (786 k) The extreme tonal range of this image makes it a tough shot for many digicams, which is precisely why we set it up this way. (And deliberately don't use fill-flash on it.) The object is to hold highlight and shadow detail without producing a "flat" picture with muddy colors, and the Fuji FinePix 2300 performs quite well. We shot samples of this image with the automatic (787 k) and daylight (786 k) white balance settings, which produced very similar results. We chose the daylight setting for our main series, as the automatic setting produced a very slightly cooler image. Even with the warmer daylight white balance, overall color balance is slightly blue, particularly noticeable in the model's shirt and the white flowers. Skin tones are a slightly magenta, and the red flower in the bouquet is a little too bright (though not so bright that detail is lost entirely). The FinePix 2300 overall does an excellent job with the colors in this shot, particularly the always-difficult blue flowers. (These blues are hard for many digicams to reproduce correctly, and many digicams tend to produce purple tints, which the FinePix 2300 manages to avoid.) Resolution is moderate, with good detail visible throughout the image. Details are just a little soft, though the more defined edges are fairly sharp (such as the lines of the shirt collar and the green leaves against the white shirt). The shadow areas show good detail as well, with moderate noise. Our main image was taken with a +0.9 EV exposure adjustment, which gave us a good exposure in the shadow areas without losing too much detail in the highlights. The high contrast of this image tricks the camera slightly, though, as the overall image appears slightly dim despite the bright highlights. The table below shows the results of a range of exposure settings from zero to +1.5 EV. Exposure Compensation Settings: 0 EV 1/ 256 F/ 11 (808 k) 0.3 EV 1/ 208 F/ 11 (781 k) 0.6 EV 1/ 169 F/ 11 (787 k) 0.9 EV 1/ 724 F/ 4.8 (786 k) 1.2 EV 1/ 588 F/ 4.8 (786 k) 1.5 EV 1/ 478 F/ 4.8 (811 k)
		Closer portrait: (771 k) The FinePix 2300 has a little trouble with this tight portrait shot, as its fixed, wide angle lens produces a fair amount of distortion on the model's face and head. (Shorter focal length lenses tend to distort facial features in close-up shots like this and the availability of longer focal lengths is a key feature if you're going to be shooting close-up people shots.) We again shot with the daylight white balance setting, which still produced a slight bluish cast. Resolution is slightly higher in this close-up shot, with more visible details in the model's face and hair. Details around the bottom of the model's face and on her neck are slightly sharper than in the wider outdoor portrait, though the top of her head is a little soft. Detail is good in the shadow areas, with moderate noise. Our main shot was taken with a +0.3 EV exposure adjustment. The table below shows the results of a range of exposure settings from zero to +0.9 EV. Exposure Compensation Settings: 0 EV 1/ 158 F/ 11 (772 k) 0.3 EV 1/ 676 F/ 4.8 (771 k) 0.6 EV 1/ 549 F/ 4.8 (784 k) 0.9 EV 1/ 478 F/ 4.8 (781 k)
		Indoor Portrait, Flash: (816 k) The FinePix 2300's built-in flash is a but weak, but manages to illuminate the subject fairly well nonetheless. (We suspect the issue isn't flash strength, but rather that the flash was fooled by the model's bright white blouse, and the large, light-colored wall behind her.) We first shot with the flash in its normal mode (816 k), which produced a dim image. A magenta cast on the white wall background is a result of the household incandescent lighting, which is also present in the shadow areas of the model's white shirt. The flash is just strong enough to counteract the magenta cast on the model's face and most of the white shirt. A little cleanup in the image editing software could brighten the image and reduce the color cast. Next, we shot with the flash in the slow synchro (788 k) mode, which combines the flash with a slower shutter speed. The longer exposure allows more ambient light into the image, which unfortunately produces a very strong orange color cast from the incandescent lighting. The overall image is much brighter, but the flash isn't strong enough to counteract the orange cast on the model. (Here's a free Genotype for PhotoGenetics that brightens the 2300's flash exposure. - See the comment on PhotoGenetics in the next analysis section.)
		Indoor portrait, no flash: (750 k) 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 FinePix 2300's white balance system has some trouble with this difficult light source. We shot samples of this image with the automatic (795 k) and incandescent (782 k) white balance settings, neither of which produced an accurate white value or color balance. The automatic setting produced a very strong orange cast in response to the incandescent lighting. Alternatively, the incandescent setting resulted in a very warm color balance, with a bit of a magenta tint. The warm color cast gives the blue flowers a purplish tint, but the red flowers are very bright and vibrant. (This is another camera that would benefit greatly from the inexpensive PhotoGenetics program. Here's a free Genotype we created for it that dramatically improves the camera's color balance. Mac users click and hold the Genotype link to get a download dialog, Windows users right-click.) Resolution is moderate, with a nice amount of fine detail visible in the image. Details are also fairly sharp throughout. Noise is moderately high, with a somewhat large grain size. We chose an exposure adjustment of +0.3 EV for our main image, as anything brighter produced stark highlights on the model's right shoulder. The table below shows a range of exposures from zero to +1.2 EV. Exposure Compensation Settings: 0 EV 1/ 7 F/ 4.8 (789 k) 0.3 EV 1/ 6 F/ 4.8 (773 k) 0.6 EV 1/ 5 F/ 4.8 (781 k) 0.9 EV 1/ 4 F/ 4.8 (802 k) 1.2 EV 1/ 3 F/ 4.8 (784 k)
		House shot: (808 k) We shot this image with the automatic (800 k) and daylight (809 k) white balance settings, both of which produced warm results. The daylight setting produced a greenish cast, while the automatic setting produced a reddish color balance. Despite the reddish cast, we felt that the automatic setting produced more natural-looking results. Overall color looks good, though the warm cast produces slightly yellowish greens and a reddish white value. Resolution is pretty good, with a lot of fine detail visible in the bricks and shrubbery, as well as in the tree limbs above the roof. Details are reasonably sharp as well, even in the corners. In-camera sharpening shows up as about two pixels of a halo effect around the light and dark edges of the white trim along the roof line. Noise is moderate in the roof shingles and shadow areas. The overall image quality isn't in the top echelon of two megapixel cameras we've tested, but it's pretty darn good for a two megapixel camera selling as cheaply as the 2300. The table below shows our standard resolution and quality series. Resolution Series Large/Fine 1/ 20 F/ 4.8 (808 k) Large/Normal 1/ 21 F/ 4.8 (381 k) Large/Economy 1/ 20 F/ 4.8 (2024 k) Medium/Fine 1/ 20 F/ 4.8 (676 k) Medium/Normal 1/ 20 F/ 4.8 (312 k) Small/Normal 1/ 21 F/ 4.8 (98 k)
		Far-Field Test (793 k) 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. We shot this image with the automatic white balance setting, which produced a slightly blue color cast, most visible in the white trim. This shot is a strong test of detail, given the practically infinite range of fine detail in a natural scene like this, viewed from a distance. The FinePix 2300's resolution is moderate, with fairly good detail visible in the front shrubbery and house details, as well as in the tree branches above the roof. Details are slightly soft however, with increased softness in the corners of the frame. We also judge a camera's dynamic range in this shot, comparing how well the camera holds detail in both the shadow and highlight areas. The FinePix 2300 does lose subtle details in the bright white of the bay window on the front of the house. Alternatively, the shadow area under the porch fares quite well, as the brick pattern and porch light details are distinct and clear. Noise is moderate in the roof shingles and shadow areas. Overall, a good result from an inexpensive camera. The table below shows our standard resolution and quality series. Resolution Series Large/Fine 1/ 294 F/ 4.8 (793 k) Large/Normal 1/ 294 F/ 4.8 (374 k) Large/Economy 1/ 294 F/ 4.8 (188 k) Medium/Fine 1/ 294 F/ 4.8 (659 k) Medium/Normal 1/ 446 F/ 4.8 (302 k) Small/Normal 1/ 294 F/ 4.8 (75 k)
		Lens Zoom Range We've received a number of requests from readers to take shots showing the lens focal length range of those cameras with zoom lenses. The FinePix 2300 doesn't have an optical zoom lens, but the photos below show the field of view normally, and with the 1.3x and 2.5x digital telephoto enabled. In its digital zoom mode, the 2300 takes the approach of simply cropping the image down to a smaller file size, rather than trying to interpolate the resulting data back up to the full file size of the camera at maximum resolution. Thus, the result is identical to taking a normal exposure and cropping it on the computer in your imaging software. the 1.3x zoom setting results in an image size of 1280 x 960, while the 2.5x setting produces a 640x480 file. Wide Angle Shutter: 1/ 274 Aperture: F4.8 (786 k) 3x Telephoto Shutter: 1/ 315 Aperture: F4.8 (670 k) 3x Digital Zoom Shutter: 1/ 512 Aperture: F4.8 (83 k)
		Musicians Poster (781 k) For this test, we shot with the automatic (781 k) and daylight (780 k) white balance settings, this time choosing the daylight setting as the most accurate. The large amount of blue in the image often tricks digicams into overcompensating, but the FinePix 2300 is up to the challenge. The automatic setting produced a rather warm image, with a little too much red in the skin tones. The daylight setting resulted in a more accurate color balance, with slightly paler skin tones. Though the skin tones are a hint cool, we preferred them over the ruddy tones produced by the automatic white balance. The Oriental model's blue robe looks about right (this is a difficult blue for digicams to reproduce, so the FinePix 2300 performs well here). Resolution looks very good, with nearly all of the fine detail in the bird wings and silver threads of the model's robe visible. The subtle color gradations of the wings are fairly detailed as well. The violin strings are sharp and defined (though with slight pixelation along the diagonals), with only a hint of a moire pattern, as are the details of the flower garland and beaded necklaces. Corner softness is detectable in the image, with the strongest evidence along the right side. Noise is moderate throughout the image, mainly noticeable in the blue background and in the red vest
		Macro Shot (788 k) The FinePix performs pretty well in the macro category for a non-zoom camera, capturing a minimum area of just 3.66 x 2.75 inches (92.97 x 69.73 millimeters). Resolution is fairly high, with good detail visible throughout the image. Details are also fairly sharp, particularly on the coins and brooch. Corner softness is again evident, with the largest area of softness in the lower right corner. Color balance is a little warm, with a yellow cast. The FinePix 2300's built-in flash (813 k) does a pretty good job of throttling down for the macro area. The camera is not tricked by the shiny coin, and though the flash doesn't provide even coverage, it does illuminate the entire subject area reasonably well. (Tough for an onboard flash to do when shooting this close.)
		"Davebox" Test Target (751 k) We shot samples of this target using the automatic (751 k) and daylight (766 k) white balance settings, choosing the automatic setting as the most accurate. The daylight setting produced a slightly warm image, with a greenish cast in the mini-resolution target. The large blocks of the target look accurate with the automatic white balance setting, though the cyan and yellow blocks are a little weak. In contrast, the large red color block is very vibrant, and the large blue block "glows" slightly. The FinePix 2300 captures the subtle difference between the red and magenta color blocks on the middle, horizontal color chart (a common problem area for many digicams), reproducing both with an orange tint. Exposure is about right, as the subtle tonal variations of the Q60 chart are visible as far as the "B" range. The tonal gradations of the smaller, vertical gray scales also look good, though the two darkest blocks blend together. The shadow area of the charcoal briquettes shows nice detail, albeit with moderately high noise, and we also noticed good detail in the white gauze area (though some of the highlights are on the verge of washing out). As we've noticed throughout our testing, resolution is pretty good, with good detail in the box hinges, tape details, and silver disk. The black lines of the mini resolution target are also fairly sharp. Overall, the FinePix 2300 does a good job with this target.
		Low-Light Tests The FinePix 2300's full automatic exposure control and limited shutter speed range give it some trouble in our low-light test. We were only able to capture a usable image at the eight foot-candle (88 lux) light level, although it was still somewhat dimmer than we'd have preferred. The target was still fairly visible at the two foot-candle (22 lux) light level, becoming less visible with each lower light level. Noise is moderate at the eight foot-candle light level, increasing to a fairly high level at the 1/2 foot-candle (5.5 lux) light level. To put the FinePix 2300's low-light performance into perspective, an average city night scene under modern street lighting corresponds to a light level of about one foot-candle, so night exposures will generally require the built-in flash. The table below shows the best exposure we were able to obtain for 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 10EV 88lux 4fc 9EV 44lux 2fc 8EV 22lux 1fc 7EV 11lux 1/2fc 6EV 5.5lux ISO 100 764.1 KB 1/ 2 F4.8 807.3 KB 1/ 2 F4.8 783.1 KB 1/ 2 F4.8 788.3 KB 1/ 2 F4.8 783.0 KB 1/ 2 F4.8
		Flash Range Test In our testing, we found the FinePix 2300's flash brightest at eight feet from the test target. Intensity decreased with each additional foot of distance from the target, becoming very dim at the 14 foot distance. As flash power decreased, a bluish cast increased in the images. Overall, we'd rate the 2300's flash range as 8-9 feet, a bit less than the 9.8 feet claimed by Fuji. Below is our flash range series, with distances from eight to 14 feet from the target. 8 ft 1/ 64 F/ 4.8 (82 k) 9 ft 1/ 64 F/ 4.8 (82 k) 10 ft 1/ 64 F/ 4.8 (81 k) 11 ft 1/ 64 F/ 4.8 (82 k) 12 ft 1/ 64 F/ 4.8 (81 k) 13 ft 1/ 64 F/ 4.8 (78 k) 14 ft 1/ 64 F/ 4.8 (82 k)
		ISO-12233 (WG-18) Resolution Test (856 k) The FinePix 2300's performance on the resolution target was a little odd: It showed good detail as far out as 800 lines per picture height vertically, and 750 lines horizontally, and "extinction" occurred at between 850 and 950 lines, but strong aliasing was visible as far back as 500 lines. We'd rate the 2300's resolution as about 550 lines, but that's being a little more generous than we usually would, in light of how far the visible detail extends. Optical distortion on the FinePix 2300 is fairly low, as we measured an approximate 0.46 percent barrel distortion from its wide angle lens. Chromatic aberration is low, showing about three pixels of coloration on either side of the target lines, but with fairly subdued color. (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.) Corner softness is fairly pronounced in the lower righthand corner, but quite acceptable elsewhere. Resolution Series Large/Fine 1/ 26 F/ 4.8 (856 k) Large/Normal 1/ 26 F/ 4.8 (381 k) Large/Economy 1/ 26 F/ 4.8 (203 k) Medium/Fine 1/ 26 F/ 4.8 (625 k) Medium/Normal 1/ 26 F/ 4.8 (319 k) Small/Normal 1/ 26 F/ 4.8 (85 k)
		Viewfinder Accuracy/Flash Uniformity Our biggest criticism of the FinePix 2300 is its viewfinder: We found it very difficult to frame images with it, as it shows a great deal more of the subject area than what is actually captured by the camera. As you move your eye around the eyepiece, you can see all four sides of the viewfinder window's exterior edges. Thus, it was difficult for us to frame the target exactly. We lined up our standard lines of measurement in what we thought was the middle of the optical viewfinder (778 k), which resulted in an approximate 86 percent frame accuracy. This is about average for optical viewfinders, but the actual area of coverage could vary widely, depending on how far from the eyepiece your eye is positioned. The LCD monitor (784 k) produced much better results, with 94.67 percent frame accuracy. Since we generally like to see LCD monitors as close to 100 percent accuracy as possible, the 2300 performs very well in this respect. Flash distribution is a little uneven, with the strongest intensity in the center of the target and slight falloff around the edges and corners of the frame.