When I decided to upgrade to a digital camera with a longer optical lens
last summer, I had two models in mind. One was the Olympus C-720, which
at that time was carrying a price tag of over $500. The Fuji 2800z was
somewhat less costly at $400. I wanted a new camera, both as a birthday
present to myself, and for my then impending vacation.
The Fuji sports a 6x optical zoom lens on its somewhat compact body.
While it is only a 2 Megapixel unit, it can capture images that rival
most 3 Megapixel cameras.
The first thing you
notice right off the top is just that. The controls are positioned
across the top right hand side and at the rear right
hand side of the camera body. This is fine, unless you are left
handed. The
camera fits comfortably in your hand, and is not too heavy because
of the use of weight-saving plastics for most of the body. Many digital
cameras these days are getting less expensive, while
adding
features that even 2 years ago were found only on the highest priced
units. The 2800z is no exception to that. Once you hold the 2800z in
your hand you will instantly fall in love with it. Its sleek design
and professional feel will hook you right in.
When
you power up the 2800z, you hear a series of beep tones that alert
you to the camera’s
readiness to take pictures. Once the 6x Fujinon lens is fully extended,
you are ready to shoot. There are automated controls
for every possible setting, including white balance, flash mode,
and settings for resolution and use of memory. All thesettings are
electronic,
except for the three-way mode selector near the power and shutter
buttons. The three-way switch lets you choose between Still Photography,
video
mode, and the view setting which lets you view your saved images.
The
menus themselves are located by using a combination of the rear
panel controls.This
allows you to select the best combination of
settings as
they show up on the 2800z’s bright and crisp 2-inch LCD
display. The flash is one of the quietest units I have ever used.
It has
5 shooting modes, and its red eye setting works wonders.
As far as memory
capacity is concerned, the 2800z takes Smart Media cards up to 128
MB. I tested the camera with two 64 Meg cards,
and the 16 Meg
card that the camera ships with. The 64 Meg card will hold
160 Pictures at the highest resolution (2MB), and close to 500 shots
in what’s
called Normal mode(which translates to 640x480). Between
the two is the 1MB mode, which allows you to take about 290
shots
on the
64MB card.
The 2800z also allows you to shoot short movies at 640x480! Although
your memory will fill up fast, you can shoot a series of 60 second
clips, and then string them together, either with the included video
impression
software, or by importing them into iMovie!
The still images are saved as Jpegs, and the video clips are saved
as Quicktime AVIs. This would be a problem if you had an older
version of
Quicktime on your machine, but since QT-5 this is less of an issue
than in the past.
Overall this is a
reasonably priced camera that takes fantastic shots for a 2 Megapixel
chip. I only have two problems with this
camera.
One is that it does not have an optical viewfinder. You can only
use the
electronic viewfinder or the LCD screen. This translates to sometimes
viewing “dark” areas because you are looking directly
through the lens for your previews. The second problem is the
motor drive for
the lens housing can hang up and freeze under excessive use,
This has caused me to place the camera in the repair shop. If
you do not use the
zoom to excess, this is not an issue.
Finally, when I purchased this camera, it was $400.00. Now the
list price is an even cheaper $329.
|
