Since the Fuji Finepix F31fd is only a minor update to the current champion of ultra-compact digital cameras, the Fuji Finepix F30, the assessment from that camera apply to the F31fd too. The minor changes are an updated image processing engine, face-detection and infrared support. Not only is the F31fd's performance nearly identical to the F30's, but its competitors haven't caught up either. This means that the F30 remains the best ultra-compact camera and so is the F31fd.

 

Note that the two paragraphs below were taken from the F30's assessment almost verbatim.

 

The Fuji Finepix F31fd is an exceptional ultra-compact digital camera which delivers high-quality images with incredibly low image noise. This is the first non-SLR to produce usable images up to ISO 3200, enabling new photographic opportunities. Even more than its predecessor, the F31fd is a great camera for indoor photographs due to its high-ISO capabalities, its ultra-compact size and very durable battery life.

The main two downsides of the Fuji Finepix F31fd is the strong presence of chromatic aberrations at all focal-lengths and the lack of an optical viewfinder. However, the LCD is still bright enough to make it the subject's shape in direct sunlight and the brightened mode does help. In the end, there are not enough reasons to choose any other ultra-compact digital camera over this one. For a little less money, the less friendly but slightly better built Fuji Finepix F10 is an excellent alternative which is just a bit noisier and surprisingly does not suffer as much from chromatic aberrations.