When I upgraded my DSLR last year I was amazed to discover what cameras can do in near darkness these days. I’ve had a lot of fun cranking up the ISO sensitivity of my new toy, shooting in conditions where I would previously have had to use a flash, or set the camera on a tripod. I have quickly become a low-light lover!

With my appetite well and truly whetted, I have been looking for the same capabilities in a compact camera, I can take everywhere with me – and I think I’ve found them in the Fujifilm F200EXR. The headline feature that attracted me to the F200 was its new EXR sensor that can operate in one of three ways: resolution priority, which aims to capture the most detail in a scene; dynamic-range priority, for shooting in high-contrast conditions; and a low-light mode, which raises the camera’s ISO and applies noise reduction to get rid of any grainy artefacts. It was this last feature that grabbed my attention. Would the F200 be able to deliver in the dark in the same way my new DSLR can?

One of the first places I tried out the FinePix F200 was at a formal dinner with friends at Corpus Christi College in Cambridge.

Using the camera in EXR mode with the Low Light setting selected I was able to capture the atmosphere of the beautiful old dining room really well without using flash, which would have drowned out everything and killed the mood. It’s also a far more discreet way of working: people don’t know you are taking their picture when the flash isn’t going off!

Realising you can take pictures in a new way like this is something of a revolution. As I walked home that night, I couldn’t stop myself  shooting street-lamp lit urban landscapes as I went. Looking at the results on the camera’s screen impressed me hugely and I couldn’t wait to get back to see what my images looked like on my PC. I wasn’t disappointed either!

The F200 delivers excellent images under these conditions, especially when you consider how compact cameras usually struggle with noise in images taken at high ISO settings. By delving into the F200’s menu it’s possible to control the camera’s sensitivity all the way up to ISO 12,800, although my preferred approach was to pick one of the capped auto settings that increases the ISO when necessary but only up to a limit of ISO 1600 to ensure that picture quality is maintained.

The F200’s high sensitivity isn’t the only factor that helps in these dimly lit situations, though. The camera also sports an image stabilisation feature that shifts the sensor around in response to camera movement, effectively canceling out the vibrations of camera shake. It’s a system that appears to work very well and I had no problem getting blur-free results, even at shutter speeds as low as 1/10sec.

For a self-confessed photo nerd and gadget lover like myself, the level of manual control offered by the Finepix F200 is a very positive thing. I can set apertures and shutter speeds myself in manual mode, and take control over ISO values, white balance, and metering patterns. Although I must say, the camera’s auto EXR mode seems to make a very good job of assessing the scene and picking the right sensor mode for the job.

So I now have a camera that can shoot in low light like a DSLR, but is size of a mobile phone. I’m not joking when I say this has transformed how I take pictures. The F200 goes everywhere with me and I can capture the mood and atmosphere of any scene I like the look of, indoors and out. Being able to shoot this way has opened up so many more creative opportunities. If I like the way the trees are reflected in the river by my house, I can capture them with the camera’s 5x zoom, safe in the knowledge I won’t see any camera shake. Likewise I can photograph city landscapes by the light of a single orange streetlight without needing a tripod.

Previous experience tells me that compacts have never been very good in the dark, even if they do boast high ISO settings, but the F200 seems to be the exception to that rule. Suddenly I’m enjoying capturing light again, rather than grabbing snaps.