A few months ago, I started a thread here on LL asking for suggestions on what ultra-compact digicam to buy (to carry with me all the time, to be available when I don't have my full camera bag with me). I settled on the upcoming Fujifilm F11 as the perfect pocket camera for me. However, when I sent Fujifilm an email asking when it would be available, they replied that it *won't* be available in the U.S., and directed me to the U.K. Fujifilm web site for more information on the camera.

So, my questions:

If I mail-order one from the U.K., will there be any compatibility problems? My primary concern with this would be whether the battery charger would work (as long as I have the right plug adapter, which I presume I can find somewhere...where?). Any other compatibility problems I should know about?

Can any of the U.K. folks here at LL suggest a reputable U.K. camera store on the web (that hopefully will ship overseas)?

Just out of curiousity, does anyone have any idea why Fujifilm would decide sell a camera in some parts of the world but not here? Especially since its predecessor the F10 was highly regarded, and so it would likely have plenty of sales?

Lisa

What is different about the F11? I heard the image quality was identical. More control? (Cause this thing gives you absolutely none.)

If you mean what's different between the F10 & the F11, the big difference is that the F11 allows you to adjust shutter speed & aperture, which I consider very important. (I think the LCD is a little better, too.)

Lisa

P.S. Lovely sunset image, by the way! Taken with an F10, I presume?

I also saw on a Japanese web site a comparison of ISO 1600 images, and they have improved high ISO performance quite a bit with the F11.

I too want one of these for my pocket camera. The F10 is getting hard to find, and I would like a pocket cam that gives me at least a little control. Why they aren't bringing this to the US market is quite a big mystery to me. Maybe Fuji has something else in mind for the US that they will announce shortly. I think they have raised the high ISO bar for small detectors considerably.

One thing that bothers me a little is that the F10/11 with their high ISO natural light modes provide a great way to take stealthy street shots, but to do this effectively, it should have a swivelling LCD so you don't have to hold the thing out in front of your face conspicuously. Being able to hold the camera at waist level and look down into it would be very nice.

Steve W

Actually the bigger issue is that you hold it away from your body by its corner. This is not the easiest thing to do with any kind of a steady hand.

You can fake out the apeture and shutter speed control with its limited set of modes. So if you want a high shutter speed use the little running dude mode, etc.

And that image is a good example of why I bought it. I was looking at the sun going down and remembered that I had a camera in my pocket. Went a few blocks to to the Minnesota and click.

DarkPenguin (or any other F10 owners): Any chance the F10 has exposure compensation, or is that too much to ask for?

Lisa

Two thing you would need to know about the battery charger is whether it can handle your regional current. That would seem likely as most battery chargers are universal. The second would be if the cable meets the code for the region.

Fuji probably limits the market because they believe it is not economically viable in all regions. This is probably desided by past sales performance of previous models. Good reputaions do not always translate into good sales.

It has EC. I would recommend always dialing it to at least -1/3 or so even when you think you don't need it.

Thanks. Between that and the choice of "idiot modes", I can probably get a reasonable approximation of the shutter speed and aperture I want.

Now I need to look into the battery charger compatibility issues for the F11. If that doesn't work, though, I can settle for the F10.

Thanks for your comments, all.

Lisa

ebay? should be someone in Taiwan willing to sell.

Uh, one of my requirements is a manual and menu system in English.

If I went the overseas-F11 route, I'd get a U.K. one to be on the safe side language-wise.

Lisa

Lisa,

You can relax because good things are about to happen. Either the price of the F10 will halve shorly or the F11 will be announced for the US within 2 weeks or Fuji will announce an even cooler camera for much less money within 2 weeks.

How do I know?

Because I just went out and bought an F10. Major announcements/happenings/price drops always occur shortly after I buy something!!

LOL,

Steve-- I'll let you know how I like the camera.

I'm curious what you think of their noise reduction. It is very aggressive.

I've used the F10 for over a week now, and I'm quite impressed. I compared ISO 800 shots from my Konica Minolta A2 (2/3 8MP) with the F10 (1/1.7 6.3MP). Now the A2's sensor is a quite a noisy little bugger, so my comparision included the use of Neatimage.

My conclusion is that I am very impressed with the F10's internal processing and for ISO 800 and below, Neatimage would not improve its images. Of course, the use of Neatimage is required for ISO 100 and above with the A2.

Here's a comparison image. These are 100% crops from a large scene. I used auto WB for each camera and adjusted the optical zoom to give pretty close to the same overall scene view. I used about the same USM for each final image. In addition to the F10 knocking the socks off the A2, the auto WB on the Fuji got the color much closer too. In my opinion, the F10's processing preserves details very well.

Here's my comparison image:



Steve W

One more thing to know is that the EC of the F10 is limited to -2/+2 stops, and that it has to be accessed by the menus. I remember finding this to be too limitative in some cases where I was trying to overlay 2 exposures (one for a completelt not burned sky required more than -2 stops).

If I recall correctly (my F10 died in a rain storm in August), that setting is only persistent as long as the camera is on, meaning that it is not possible to set a permanent -1/3 exposure compensation. I could be wrong though, this is to be checked.

Overall I loved the camera, but I would probably buy an E900 instead of the F11 if it were for sales in Japan... which is currently not the case. I am not sure about Fuji's marketing strategy in different markets...

Regards,
Bernard

Just checked mine. It is still set to -2/3's.

My mistake then.

Regards,
Bernard

That is in manual (ha!) mode. I'm not sure about automagic or sp.