Digital Trends

Fujifilm FinePix F31fd April 4th, 2007 | by David Elrich

Features and Design

The F31fd is a very ordinary looking metallic  bodied digital camera. Not overly slim or standing out in any way, it won’t win any design awards or be seen on fashion runways. The camera measures 3.6 x 2.2 x 1.1 (WHD, in inches) and weighs 7 ounces with battery, strap and xD Picture Card. To its credit, it does have a nice solid heft and feel. The front features the 3x Fujinon zoom that translates to the usual 36-108mm focal length. When you power up, the lens emerges from the camera; power down and it retracts behind a built-in lens covering. Logos are fairly low-key and you’ll find the flash, mic and AF Assist lamp. There’s also a finger notch where Fujifilm wants you to hold the camera for stability; I didn’t use it that often. On the top is the shutter, a mode dial and a tiny power button (better keep your fingernails sharp for this one). The mode dial has settings such as Auto, Manual, aperture- and shutter-priority, movie mode, Natural Light (a favorite), and Picture Stabilization. Alas this is not true optical image stabilization but simply raises the shutter speed to reduce blur. It’s not the real deal but it is better than nothing.

The rear of the F31fd is dominated by a 2.5-inch screen rated a good 230K pixels. Along with the wide/tele toggle switch, four buttons surround the four-way controller with OK button. One is for playback, another adjusts the display, the third “F,” gives access to ISO (up to 3200), resolution and FinePix Color that lets you adjust color levels (standard, chrome or B&W). There’s a nice option for setting ISO. Although it does hit 3200, you can determine how high you want it to go in Auto--400, 800 or 1600. This is a well thought-out option since images shot at 3200 have tons of digital noise. The last button is Face Detection on/off.

The left side has a compartment for an A/V out and DC-in to charge the battery. The bottom has a plastic tripod mount and the door covering the battery compartment and the xD Picture card slot. I won’t go into my xD Picture card rant since Fujifilm has seen the light and will incorporate combo xD/SD card slots in future cameras such as the new F40fd.

The FinePix F31fd also has an unusual feature—IR Communication. With it you can beam images to any other device that’s compatible with the IrSimple system. You can also receive images from devices with IrSimpleShot. Now what would you do with such as a feature escapes me but I’m sure there must be a good reason to include it! Right?

The Fujifilm FinePix F31fd comes with a decent kit—camera, strap, battery, AC adaptor, 180-page owner’s manual and a CD ROM with the FinePix Viewer software for PC and Mac. This program lets you do basic editing and it’s more than enough to get you started. Once the battery was charged, we hit the streets.

Image Courtesy of Fujifilm