F20 or F30....I can't decide.

[mrmichaeljmoore]

Looking to buy my first digital camera.....and....
After extensive research, I have narrowed it down to the F20 or the F30.

My questions to everyone:

-Should I spend the extra money for the F30 (about $70 or so) or should I just get the F20?

-I am your basic point-and-shooter.
BUT is the F30 worth the extra money:
for the better LCD?
for the longer battery life?
higher ISO?

-Will the quality of the pictures of the F20 and F30 be the same using the auto modes?

-For all intents and purposes, what are the real differences between the F20 and F30?

Thanks for your help.
mike

[MindBender]

personaly I think The FZ30 because it has more features...off topic...etc...

Good breakdown of comparative features. Too bad the OP wasn't asking about that camera at all. :confused:


BUT is the F30 worth the extra money:
for the better LCD?
for the longer battery life?
higher ISO?

Yes, yes, and yes. The F20 is going to give you very nice photos I'm betting... but the F30 seems, from the specs, to be a much better overall deal. If you will never do anything but shoot snapshots, then the F20 would probably serve you well, use the extra $70 to buy a memory card and a tripod. If you plan on doing anything else with it, good chance you'll want some of the extra modes that the F30 allows... plus, I can't say this enough, the battery life on the F30 is amazing. I've only had to charge it a couple times to top it off and once when I fully drained it from shooting lots of video and I've shot thousands of shots now. Higher ISO? well... 2000 vs. 3200 is kind of nitpicking more than likely. I rarely shoot above 800, but I've used the 1600 setting for indoor shots once in a while. I have used 3200 a couple times, but that was taking some odd outdoor night shots, so it might not be of any use to you... 2000 ISO is still pretty high.

Personally, I'd try to find a couple of them at a store (if you can) and try them out to see how you feel about them in general. I haven't used the F20, but I've been really happy with my F30 so far. No real complains (couple minor annoyances like no live histogram and could use a longer zoom but I knew that going in... and really, the stellar quality outshines the minor problems it might have).

$0.02

[Riley]

gawd Mindbender
quite right
my appologies

Riley

[MindBender]

gawd Mindbender
quite right
my appologies

We all have our days... or as usually the case for me... our 4am's. heh ;)

[tim11]

I have never seem any sample images from F20 but I believe that there won't be much difference from F30's.
I chose F30 because of the manual controls it offers since I mainly use Aperture/shutter priority mode most of the time. I only use Auto mode in standby just in case some photo opportunities come up.
If you never use those manual controls and is very unlikely to learn using it, then it's just a case of wasting the $70.

$0.015 ;)

[mrmichaeljmoore]

Unfortunately, there are no vendors in the area where I live that carry the F20 or the F30. So I haven't been able to compare them in front of me. Frustrating.......


Follow-up on the LCDs.....
The F30 has an LCD of 230,000 pixels. The F20 has an LCD of 153,000 pixels.
Has anyone compared the two to see if the difference is significant?
Is the additional money for the F30 worth it just for the LCD?

Thanks again.

[Riley]

there are some sample images here, although just 2 F20 images

http://www.pbase.com/cameras/fujifilm/finepix_f20

http://www.pbase.com/cameras/fujifilm/finepix_f30

hope that helps

Riley

[dodo]

Have a look at the review of F30 and make your own choice :)
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/fujifilmf30/
________
FXR150 (http://www.suzuki-tech.com/wiki/Suzuki_FXR150)

[Riley]

hmmm,
lol

Riley

[bascom]

You may want to consider the new F31FD, also:
http://www.dpreview.com/news/0609/06092501fujif31fd.asp