"Picky Details" for the Fujifilm FinePix F410 digital camera
(Timing, Power, and Storage Info)
Timing
Since they're rarely reported on but very important to the picture-taking experience,
I measure both cycle times and shutter delay times for all the cameras I review,
using a test system I designed and built for the purpose. (Crystal-controlled,
with a resolution of 0.001 second.) Here are the numbers I collected for the
Fujifilm FinePix F410:
NOTE: My qualitative characterizations of camera performance below (that is, "reasonably fast," "about average," etc.) are meant to be relative to other cameras of similar price and general capabilities. Thus, the same shutter lag that's "very fast" for a low-end consumer camera might be characterized as "quite slow" if I encountered it on a professional model. The comments are also intended as only a quick reference: If performance specs are critical for you, rely on the absolute numbers to compare cameras, rather than my purely qualitative comments.
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(secs) |
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| Power On -> First shot |
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Time from power-up to first shot captured. Pretty fast.
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| Shutdown |
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Lens retracts before shutdown. About average.
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| Play to Record, first shot | |
Time until first shot is captured.
A bit slow. |
| Record to play |
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Time to display an image after capture. First number
is for maximum resolution, second is for minimum. The max-res time is
rather slow.
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| Shutter lag, full autofocus |
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First time is with lens at telephoto, second for wide angle. Both times are a good bit faster than average. |
| Shutter lag, prefocus |
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Time to capture, after half-pressing Shutter button.
Somewhat faster than average.
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| Cycle Time, max/min resolution |
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First number is for maximum resolution files, second number is time for minimum res. Both times are slower than average, as the F410 doesn't appear to make use of buffer memory to speed cycle time. (But at least things don't slow down further after a certain number of shots have been captured.) |
| Cycle Time, continuous mode | 0.30 (3.3 frames/sec) |
No difference in continuous mode cycle time for large or small files, but large images take 17.3 seconds to write to the memory card after a burst of four, vs 11.7 seconds for small ones. |
Based on the timing results above, normal-mode cycle times seem to be the
weak point of the F410, while shutter lag seems to be its strong suit. There
doesn't appear to be any buffer memory at play in normal shooting mode, puzzling
since the camera obviously has 4 frames of buffer memory that it uses in continuous
mode. While its long cycle time would normally rule out its use for sports
and other fast action shots, its "Final 4" continuous-capture mode
is incredibly useful, making it almost easy to capture critical moments. (Final
4 mode starts grabbing images at 3 frames per second as soon as you press
the shutter button, then saves the final four shots when you release the shutter
button. This compensates for your reaction time, by saving the last four images
before you realize that the moment you wanted to capture has passed.
- Sort of a poor man's time machine...)
Power
The F410 uses a small, flat LiIon cell (NP-60 form factor), but displays
excellent battery life given the compact scale of both the camera and battery.
- I still strongly recommend picking up a second battery when you buy the camera
though, as digicam batteries invariably run out at the worst possible time.
The table below shows the F410's actual power drain in various operating modes, and projected battery life, based on a 1035 mAh battery capacity:
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(@3.7 volts on the external power terminal) |
(3.7v, 1035mAh LiIon cell) |
| Capture Mode, w/LCD |
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| Capture Mode, no LCD |
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| Half-pressed shutter w/LCD |
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| Half-pressed w/o LCD |
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| Memory Write (transient) |
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| Flash Recharge (transient) |
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| Image Playback |
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This is unusually good battery life for a subcompact camera. Particularly welcome is the very low power consumption in record mode when the LCD is left turned off. This means you can leave the camera on and ready to shoot almost all day one one battery charge. - I do wish that the optical viewfinder was a bit more accurate, as that'd let you leave the LCD screen off all the time, really saving battery power. Still, battery life is much better than most other compact digicams I've tested..
As always though, I strongly advise purchasing a second battery along with
the camera, to avoid running out of juice at an inconvenient moment.
Storage Capacity
The FinePix F410 stores its photos on xD-Picture cards, and a 16 MB card
is packed with the camera. As always, I strongly recommend buying at
least a 32MB card, preferably a 64MB one, to give yourself extra space for extended
outings. (Particularly given the large size of the F410's maximum-resolution
images.) The chart below shows how many images can be stored on the included
16MB card at each size/quality setting, and the approximate amount of image
compression applied in each mode. (The more image compression that's applied,
the smaller the image files, but the lower quality the photos will be.)
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Resolution/Quality 16MB Memory Card |
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| 2,816 x 2,120 | Images (Avg size) |
10 1,488 KB |
| Approx. Compression |
12:1 | |
| 2,048 x 1,536 | Images (Avg size) |
790 KB |
| Approx. Compression |
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Images (Avg size) |
465 KB |
| Approx. Compression |
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Images (Avg size) |
128 KB |
| Approx. Compression |
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Download Speed
The F410 connects to a host computer via a USB interface. Downloading
files to my Sony VAIO desktop (2.4 GHz) running Windows XP, it came in at
695 KBytes/second. This is well at the upper range of digicams I've tested,
leading me to suspect that it may actually have a USB 2.0 interface on it,
vs the slower USB 1.1. (Cameras with slow USB interfaces run as low as 300
KB/s, cameras with fast ones run as high as 600 KB/s.)
F410 Test Images
F410 Specifications
F410 "Picky Details"
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