Back in NYC

Well, my short trip to Taiwan is over now, and I am back in New York City. First things first - I bought a new camera to replace the one that fell into the Pacific Ocean. I looked around some, but I enjoyed the low-light performance of the Fujifilm Finepix F-series so much that I ended up looking mostly there again. They no longer sell the old Fujifilm Finepix F20 which I lost (or the F30 or F31fd, which I wouldn't mind getting either), instead the latest in the F-series is the Finepix F100. The camera seemed to have received mixed reviews online, though the features sound nice: 28mm wide angle, 5x optical zoom, greater dynamic range, updated face detection, additional ISO sensitivity, etc. The F100fd is also compatible with SD cards (finally)!

However, I was still hesitant - the price point was much higher than where I usually bought at ($300+), and the battery life was shorter than the F20. Truth be told, I really just wanted another F20 - I had fond memories of that camera, its exceptional battery life, huge LCD screen, and excellent low-light capabilities (which should continue on in the F100).

And so when I actually bought the F100fd, I couldn't help but be a little disappointed. The improved dynamic range did not seem to make that big of a difference in high contrast shots, the battery life was noticeably shorter, and even the LCD screen seemed smaller (though I think it is actually bigger - the perception must be due to my romanticization of my lost F20). Plus, some of the photos seemed noisier than the F20 upon zoom - it was very apparent that there was no need for 12.0 MP, as the 6 MP or so from the F20 was just fine. The controls on the camera also seemed a bit weird - instead of using the traditional buttons to zoom in and out, there was a mechanical swivel that was very hard to control. In fact, when the swivel and the push button broke, I almost got a refund instead of a replacement. However, I kept with it, and the F100fd is slowly growing on me.