The very first thing that struck me about the Finepix F100fd was that having 12 megapixels in a camera of this size was almost obscene compared to my Minolta DiMAGE 7i with a miserable five. The second was that the lettering and symbols on the chrome trimming for the on/off and zoom rocker lever was unreadable unless tilted ‘just so’ to make the angle of shadow and reflection correct. Indeed, it’s not evident that the on/off is actually a button - it is so small and with a bevel above the main body about the thickness of a bee’s whisker.

Grumbles over? No. There is one more. With a price tag of $499, this is not at the cheaper end of the compact digital camera scale and yet it does not ship with what are these days an inexpensive memory card as part of the deal (it will accept both xD and SD cards). Yes, there is 57MB of internal memory but with a camera capable of 4,224 x 2,816 in its finest mode, that is not going to last long. In testing, around 12 frames to be exact.

But there is good stuff too. I like the way when selecting a function that a description of it appears on the excellent 2.7in LCD. And there is a very good range of functions too for those that want to go beyond happy snapping. For example, ISO ranges from 100 to 12,800 and there are no less than 18 program modes.
In addition to the usual suspects you have the choices of underwater (when in a housing), sunset, flower, museum, two images shot consequently (one with flash and one without) and beach is separate from snow. The self timer has a variable range, face detection is included, a grid can be overlayed the LCD to give a more accurate rule of thirds line up and the lens is a fair dinkum Fujinon that is excellent, with a range of 3.3 to f5.1.
The way of choosing and setting the various parameters is brilliant. It’s a pseudo click-wheel method, again with full descriptions and images of exactly what you are doing. The way this is implemented means that you can do it one handed with ease.

Startup time is quite fast. Not the fastest I have seen or used, but a two-second lag from whoa to go is not too shabby in the average scheme of things. The 5x zoom is also adequate unless you are into long distance sports photography, for example, and whilst I am not a fan of LCD only, much preferring a viewfinder for framing, it is useable outside and, even in direct sunlight, could be seen quite clearly.

One thing I do like in a camera of this ilk is that it feels solid. I have never maintained that the ubiquitous rectangular shape is the best design for any camera body, but at least with solidity behind it, camera shake can be minimised. It was thus surprising to find out that the F100 only weighs 170g, as it feels much more than that.
Power is obtained from a removable battery, and Fuji claims it is good for around 230 frames from the standard battery. Would I buy it? Probably not, but for no other reason than I don't like shelling out nearly five hundred big ones to only find to make full use of it, I have spend more to get memory. That’s a bit penny pinching on Fuji’s part for mine. Technically, however, it is a very good camera and ranks alongside equivalent units from Canon, who I consider the benchmark at this price point.