The F700 appears to be the first of the 4th generation of Fuji's Super CCD cameras which boasts extended dynamic range as a result of combining two different sized photodetectors under each microlens - a brilliant concept in my view.
Since I'm looking for a second camera that I can literally carry everywhere (well, there'll be a few exceptions - no need to take it into the shower) I've been considering the smallest of the current crop of 3 to 5MP digicams and am struggling to make a decision.
The Minolta DiMage xt seems about the most compact considering it has an internal zoom and has a very fast start-up time. However, has no manual functions, produces slightly noisier images than the best of the 3MP P&S, and images have noticeably fuzzy corners.
Fuji's F700 is blazingly fast, has the benefit of a RAW mode as well as an interpolated 6MP resolution that one imagines might be equivalent to 4MP of a conventional array.
Looking at the 2 reviews I've come across (dcresource and Imaging Resource) as well as comments from individual owners of this camera, it's not all clear to me whether or not this new SR sensor really does deliver higher dynamic range than similar point & shoots that already have an established reputation, such as the Canon G3. I'm getting the impression that the 4MP G3 produces sharper images with noticeably less noise, although imaging-resource's resolution chart does look a bit sharper in the F700 shot.
It's a bit puzzling that Fuji has not done a better job at reducing noise, since noise is related to dynamic range. Not much point in delivering more detail in the highlights if the lowest ISO of 200 produces more than average noise, and not just in the shadows.
Perhaps the problem is, in manual mode ISO 200 is the lowest option. In automatic mode, the lowest ISO is 160, which should be less noisy, but the sample images for comparison purposes are all at ISO 200.
Anyone got experience with this camera?
