Fuji FinePix 2400 ZoomA two megapixel CCD, 3x zoom lens and USB make a fine, value-priced digital point & shoot from Fuji<<Reference: Datasheet :(Previous) | (Next): Print-Friendly Review Version>> FinePix 2400 Zoom Sample ImagesReview First Posted: 11/19/2000 |
| We've begun including links in our reviews to a Thumber-generated
index page for our test shots. The Thumber data includes a host of
information on the images, including shutter speed, ISO setting, compression
setting, etc. Rather than clutter the page below with *all* that detail,
we're posting the Thumber index so only those interested in the information
need wade through it! ;) |
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Outdoor portrait: (782k) Wow, very nice color! 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. The object is to hold highlight and shadow detail without producing a "flat" picture with muddy colors, and the Fujifilm FinePix 2400 Zoom's exposure and white balance systems do a great job. We shot samples of this image in both the automatic (784k) and daylight (789k) white balance modes, choosing the automatic setting for our main series (the daylight setting produced very similar results to the automatic setting, though just a touch cooler). Color balance looks great throughout the image, as the blue flowers and pants are quite accurate, and the skin tones seem pretty good as well. (These blues are very difficult for many digicams to reproduce correctly.) Skin tone also looks nice, as do the other colors in the flower bouquet (though the very bright, red flower shows a bit of a "glow" around it, particularly next to the blue flowers). Resolution looks good as well, with a nice amount of fine detail visible throughout the image. We noticed that the details of the face and hair appear slightly softer than those of the flower bouquet, possibly due to more subtle contrast in this area. The shadow areas show a fair amount of detail, but there's a moderately high level of noise throughout the image. Our main image was taken with a +0.6 EV exposure adjustment, which did the best job of adequately exposing the shadow areas without overexposing the highlights too much. The table below shows the results of a range of exposure settings from zero to +1.5 EV. Exposure Compensation Settings:
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Closer portrait: (767k) The F2400 Zoom does a nice job with this closer, portrait shot, without any visible distortion from its 3x lens. (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.) Continuing with the automatic white balance setting, we shot our main image with a +0.3 EV exposure adjustment. (This close-up shot generally requires less exposure compensation than the wider Outdoor Portrait.) Resolution looks slightly better in this shot, with more visible details around the model's face and in her hair (detail is also much sharper in this shot). Noise level remains moderate in the shadow areas. The table below shows the results of a range of exposure settings on the F2400 Zoom, from +0 to +1.3 EV. Exposure Compensation Settings:
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Indoor Portrait, Flash: (789k) The F2400 Zoom's built-in flash (789k) does a reasonably good job of illuminating the subject, though the overall color balance appears rather magenta. Despite the color cast, the subject is well lit, and the color balance of the face and flowers is not too far off. (It cleans up very nicely in Photoshop(tm), with a one-click "Auto Levels" operation, as see here.(553k) ) A moderate noise level is detectable throughout the image. We should also mention that the camera's exposure compensation adjustment is not available when shooting with the flash in normal mode, so we were unable to brighten the image manually. We next shot with the camera's slow synchronization flash mode, first with no exposure compensation, which produced this (794k) very orange, but slightly brighter, image. Increasing the exposure compensation (which is available with the slow synchronization mode) to +0.3 (795k) and +0.6 (791k) EV managed to brighten the image a great deal, but did nothing to decrease the bright orange cast. In fact, the increased brightness of the two settings makes the subject almost glow. |
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Indoor portrait, no flash: (792k) 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 F2400 Zoom's white balance system has a little trouble with this difficult light source. We tested both the automatic (783k) and incandescent (780k) white balance settings, choosing the incandescent setting for our main series. The automatic setting produced a very warm image with a slight orange cast. The incandescent setting also resulted in a slightly warm image, but the overall color balance was more accurate. Despite the warm cast, color balance looks reasonably good in the flowers and the model's face. We chose a +0.6 EV adjustment for our main shot, as anything beyond that overexposed the highlight areas. A moderate noise level is present throughout the entire image, but is more pronounced in the shadow areas. As with the indoor flash shot above though, we found that a simple Auto Levels operation in Photoshop cleaned up the image beautifully, as seen here.(620k) The table below shows a range of exposure adjustments from zero to +1.5 EV. Exposure Compensation Settings:
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House shot: (799k) NOTE that this is the "new" house shot, a much higher-resolution poster than we first used in our tests. To compare the image of the F2400 Zoom with previously tested cameras, here's a shot of the original house poster in the daylight (793k) white balance setting. We shot samples of this image with the automatic (305k) and daylight (307k) white balance modes, choosing the automatic setting as the most accurate overall. Color here in automatic mode is quite good. The daylight setting produced slightly warmer, yellowish results. Resolution looks quite good, with a nice amount of fine detail visible in the tree limbs, shrubbery, and house front. Resolution overall is very typical of 2 megapixel cameras we've tested. Though we can see a lot of detail, some areas appear a little indistinct, especially the details of the shrubbery in front of the house. We also noticed slightly increased softness in the corners of the image. Noise is moderate in the roof shingles and shadow areas throughout the image, with a relatively finely grained pattern. In-camera sharpening is barely noticeable, with just a pixel or so of the halo effect visible around the light and dark edges of the white trim along the roof line. The table below shows the full range of resolution and quality settings for the F2400 Zoom.
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Far-Field Test (658k) 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 samples of this image with both the automatic (71k) and daylight (71k) white balance modes, choosing the automatic setting as the most accurate (the daylight setting produced almost identical results). Color balance looks pretty good throughout the image, though the greens and reds appear undersaturated. (Some of this could be the late-fall sun angle and lighting.) The whole image is just a little dim, as the 2400's exposure system seems to be trying to hold more detail in the bright white highlights on the front of the house, at the cost of a slightly darker image overall. This shot is a strong test of detail, given the practically infinite range of fine detail viewable from a distance. Resolution looks very good, with a lot of fine detail visible in the tree branches against the sky, as well as in the shrubbery in front of the house and the house front details. The overall image looks a little softer than the House test above, possibly due to a lower contrast, but corner softness isn't as noticeable as in the House shot. 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 F2400 Zoom has a reasonably good dynamic range, though it loses all but the boldest details in the bright bay window area. Still, the dark shadow areas of the woods and that beneath the cherry tree show plenty of detail. A moderate amount of noise is visible in the image, mainly in the roof shingles and shadow areas, but also perceptible throughout the entire image. The table below shows the full resolution and quality series.
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Lens Zoom Range In response to reader requests, we now routinely take photos showing the range of each camera's zoom lens. The shots here show you the field of view with the lens at full wide angle and at full, 3x telephoto. At full wide angle, the F2400 Zoom presents a nice, wide field of view, with just a little barrel distortion noticeable along the curb of the street. Detail is just a little soft with the wide angle shot. The 3x telephoto zooms in reasonably close and produces a much sharper image.
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Musicians Poster (781k) We shot samples of this target using the automatic (296k) and daylight (295k) white balance settings, choosing the automatic setting as the most accurate overall, although it was pretty much a tossup. The daylight setting produced slightly warmer results, giving the skin tones a ruddy appearance, while the automatic setting was just a little cool overall. Other than the slightly cool cast, color balance is good throughout the image. The skin tones look reasonably accurate, as does the Oriental model's blue robe, which is a common problem area for many digicams. Resolution looks good, with nearly all of the fine detail visible in the bird wings and silver threads on the blue robe, including the subtle color gradations on the wings (though the color variations on the wings of the smaller, white bird are more elusive). The flower garland, violin strings, and beaded necklaces also show a fair amount of detail, with a nice level of crispness. A moderate amount of fine grained noise permeates the entire image, though some of it may be coming from the actual poster. Below is our standard resolution and quality series. Resolution/Quality series
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Macro Shot (750k) The F2400 Zoom performs moderately well in the macro category, capturing a minimum area of 3.97 x 2.98 inches (100.88 x 15.66mm), although a fair bit of barrel distortion is evident. (Note how the top and bottom of the bill appear to bulge outward.) Color balance appears slightly warm and magenta, but detail and resolution look great. The brooch appears just a bit soft, possibly due to a limited depth of field at such close range. (Depth of field is always very shallow under macro shooting conditions.) The F2400 Zoom's built-in flash (757k) does a good job of throttling down for the macro area, with just a little reflection from the shiny coin and a little drop-off around the edges and corners. However, color balance appears more accurate with the flash exposure. |
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"Davebox" Test Target (787k) We shot samples of this target using the automatic (298k) and daylight (302k) white balance settings, again choosing the automatic setting for our main series, as the daylight setting produced a warmer color balance. The large cyan, magenta, and yellow color blocks look reasonably accurate, though a little undersaturated. We also noticed that the large, Kelly green square looks a little weak. The F2400 Zoom just barely distinguishes between the red and magenta color blocks on the middle, horizontal color chart, a problem area for some digicams. Exposure looks good, as the subtle tonal variations of the Q60 chart are completely visible up to the "B" range (this is another common problem area for digicams). Likewise, the tonal gradations of the vertical grayscale are nearly all distinguishable, though the last couple of blocks towards the black end of the range blend together somewhat. The shadow area of the briquettes shows a nice level of detail, as does the white gauze area. A moderately low noise level is present throughout the image, mostly noticeable in the black areas and shadows. Again we noticed that while a lot of detail is visible, the entire image appears a little soft. Other than the slight undersaturation though, a very good performance overall. Below is our standard resolution and quality series. Resolution/Quality series
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Low-Light Tests As we expected, the F2400 Zoom do particularly well in the low-light category, thanks to its maximum exposure time of only 1/2 second, and ISO of 100. We only obtained bright, useable images at light levels as low as about 4 foot-candles (44 lux), and marginal ones to 2 foot-candles (22 lux). one foot candle (11 lux). Beyond that, the image became very dim, with only the reflection in the silver lid visible at the 1/16 foot candle (0.67 lux) level. Noise is moderate, but not too bad. To put the F2400 Zoom'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. 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.
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Flash Range Test (This test was added in August 1999, so cameras tested before that time won't have comparison pictures available. As we go forward though, all the new models will have similar tests available). Fujifilm rates the F2400 Zoom's flash as effective from 7.9 inches to 9.8 feet (0.2 to 3.0 meters). In our testing, we found the F2400 Zoom's flash effective all the way out to 14 feet, though the intensity decreases markedly between 10 and 11 feet. Intensity continues to decrease from 12 to 14 feet, but with a more subtle shift. We'd therefore say that Fuji's 9.8 foot rating is pretty accurate. Below is our flash range series, with distances from eight to 14 feet from the target.
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ISO-12233 (WG-18) Resolution Test (843k) In our resolution test, the FinePix 2400 Zoom showed fairly typical resolution for a 2 megapixel camera, although aliasing at relatively low spatial frequencies kept us from rating it more highly. Based on the onset of aliasing (visible "jaggies" in the test pattern's lines), we rate the 2400's resolution at between 550 and 600 lines per picture height in both the horizontal and vertical directions, although the image is somewhat clearer horizontally. (Perhaps 600 lines horizontally and 550 vertically?) Detail is clearly visible in both directions all the way to 700-750 lines, although the aliasing becomes more pronounced. Resolution Series, Telephoto
Resolution Series, Wide Angle
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Viewfinder Accuracy/Flash Uniformity We found the F2400 Zoom's optical viewfinder to be rather tight at both the wide angle (368k) and telephoto (365k) settings, showing only about 77 percent of the final image area at all three resolution sizes. The F2400 Zoom's LCD monitor was more accurate, showing approximately 96 percent of the final image area at both wide angle (161k) and telephoto,(359k) again at all three sizes. (slightly more accurate at wide angle, at 96.8 percent than at telephoto, which we measured at 95.7 percent.) We generally like to see LCD monitors as close to 100 percent accuracy as possible, so the F2400 Zoom comes close to the mark. Optical distortion on the F2400 Zoom is moderate, as we measured approximately 0.80 percent barrel distortion at the wide angle end, and a 0.35 percent pincushion distortion at the telephoto end. Chromatic aberration is also moderate, showing about two or three pixels of coloration on each side of the black 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.) There is also some "coma" visible as a ghostly fringe at the inner edges of the black target elements in the extreme corners. Flash distribution looks pretty even throughout the center of the target at the wide angle end, with a little falloff occurring in the corners. As usual, flash coverage is very even at the telephoto end of the lens' range. |
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