Alan Stafford

Fujifilm FinePix 6800 Zoom

The FinePix 6800 Zoom is a finely tooled digital camera, with a Porsche-designed aluminum-magnesium alloy body and exquisitely machined controls. At 10.3 ounces, it's almost as light as the Canon S300 Digital Elph, and it's small enough to fit a shirt pocket. In addition to a 2-inch LCD screen on the back of the camera for framing subjects and displaying most of the menus, the camera supplies a round, monochrome LCD bubble nearby that glows amber when the camera is in shooting mode and green during playback mode; it houses frequently used commands such as the macro mode, which you access via four buttons surrounding it. When you turn the camera on, the bubble greets you with a "Hello!" and when you turn it off, it reads, "See you!" Despite being about the size and shape of a small handheld tape player, this vertically oriented camera packs a 3X optical zoom that works smoothly, quickly, and accurately; the zoom retracts behind a protective shutter when you shut off the power. While the camera operates, it makes impressive mechanical noises that suggest it's a precision device (in contrast to some other cameras, which sound as if they have gravel inside them). It takes pictures quickly--so quickly that, until we got used to the speed, we thought it wasn't working. The FinePix 6800 reproduces color well in most situations; it did an above-average job of differentiating red from orange. It captured lots of detail, especially in our on-screen tests. In addition to its native 3.3-megapixel, 2048 by 1536 resolution, it can capture a software-interpolated 6-megapixel, 2832-by-2128-dpi image; we saw a minor improvement in sharpness with the larger file. However, the camera does not offer you the option to shoot an uncompressed TIFF. The flash (which you must pop up manually) is powerful enough to cover lots of ground but doesn't overpower subjects. Fujifilm includes a useful cradle that lets you recharge the battery and transfer pictures to your computer via an attached USB cable.
The menu system is difficult to navigate quickly. Two small buttons on the back of the camera confirm or cancel menu commands, while the four arrow buttons around the edges of the LCD bubble let you select menu options. For many operations, you end up scrutinizing directions on the larger LCD screen to know which button to push next. Some options are buried on separate pages within the menus; instead of being able to get to them by scrolling farther to the right, you must stop and choose a second or third page, and then resume scrolling. The camera's small size compromises ergonomics somewhat. When you hold the camera in your right hand, the only place to put your thumb is over the LCD bubble. If you peer through the optical viewfinder with your left eye, your nose hits the back of your thumb; if you look with your right eye, you don't have any place to rest the camera, so you may poke yourself in the eye with the viewfinder. Manual focusing is difficult--you must select the mode from a menu and then use the directional buttons to the left and right of the LCD bubble to move the lens very slowly. The FinePix 6800 didn't score nearly as well in our tests of prints made from its shots as it did in on-screen tests. We saw some video-like buzzing around some objects in one of our high-resolution tests, though the colors still came out fine. The steep price doesn't get you the same number of sophisticated features as you get from cameras such as the Nikon Coolpix 995 (but the small case size may account for some of the cost). You can focus manually and tweak settings such as white balance and exposure value, but you don't get shutter-priority or aperture-priority modes (though you do get a few preconfigured shooting modes, including portrait, scenic, and night).
You can shoot short AVI movies with the FinePix 6800; the movies look a little choppy, but they're surprisingly clear. Arcsoft VideoImpression, a basic video-editing application, comes with the package. With the included 16MB SmartMedia card, you can capture about half an hour of.wav-format audio (the storage capacity is unlimited with larger-capacity media, but you can store only up to 1 hour of audio in a single recording). You can also use the camera for videoconferencing via a USB connection. Another nifty feature lets you superimpose one or more images on top of another in the camera; you don't have to combine them in software. The rechargeable lithium battery in our test unit lasted a little over 2 hours, or about 186 shots--about average. A sleep mode shuts down the large, power-sucking LCD screen but keeps the lens extended (while in shooting mode); touch any button while the camera's still sleeping, and it instantly comes back to life. If you don't wake it, the lens retracts and the camera shuts everything off. Though activating menu options is clunky, those options aren't too difficult to figure out. The manual offers many illustrations and images, but it lacks an index, so some topics may be hard to find.
The FinePix 6800 Zoom's high-quality construction, diminutive size, and above-average performance make it an excellent choice for people who are willing to pay for high resolution in a small, sturdy package.

Buying Information

Fujifilm FinePix 6800 Zoom 3.3 megapixels, 2832 by 2128 maximum resolution (interpolated), 36mm to 108mm focal range (35mm equivalent), f2.8 to f10.8 aperture range, shutter speeds from 3 seconds to 1/2000 second, optical and LCD viewfinders, USB and video connections, bundled 16MB SmartMedia card, one rechargeable lithium battery, recharging/picture transferring cradle, 10.3 ounces with battery; Adobe PhotoDeluxe Home Edition 4.0, Adobe ActiveShare, Arcsoft VideoImpression software. One-year parts and labor warranty, toll-free support for 12 hours on weekdays. $ 899 3.3 megapixels, 2832 by 2128 maximum resolution (interpolated), 36mm to 108mm focal range (35mm equivalent), f2.8 to f10.8 aperture range, shutter speeds from 3 seconds to 1/2000 second, optical and LCD viewfinders, USB and video connections, bundled 16MB SmartMedia card, one rechargeable lithium battery, recharging/picture transferring cradle, 10.3 ounces with battery; Adobe PhotoDeluxe Home Edition 4.0, Adobe ActiveShare, Arcsoft VideoImpression software. One-year parts and labor warranty, toll-free support for 12 hours on weekdays. 800/800-3854 http://www.fujifilm.com