Fine Pics from my Finepix (Fujifilm Finepix 6800 Zoom)

Member Name: kingseany

Product:	Fujifilm Finepix 6800 Zoom
Date:	04/08/03 (834 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Image Quality, Looks, Features

Disadvantages: Not full manual control, Some other niggles

I love taking photographs! I started with a Kodak Disc camera when I was little, and soon progressed to Zenit 35MM, later replaced with a Cosina after it was stolen. When digital was within my reach, I bought my Fuji 4700, this camera was superb, and also looked really cool. People actually looked at me (well the camera perhaps) when I took it out! It developed a small problem, and was still in warranty, but no longer available, so I "traded it in" for a Finepix 6800.

This was in June 2001, and over 2 years and 6000 or so photographs later I'm still very proud of it (and I still get looks from people). It looks similar to my previous model (but even sexier) including the highly polished aluminium/magnesium alloy body (designed by Porsche of course), and much of the layout and features are the same. The size of it (W/H/D) is 80mm x 97.5 x 36.3, or in old money that's 3.1in x 3.8 x 1.4. It weighs in at 258g (9.1oz) without the battery. It will fit into a trouser pocket, put not tight jeans perhaps. This camera cost just £30, Jessops allowed me the full original purchase price of £600 in my part exchange, also meant another years warranty - so not too bad I thought. I think the price dropped to about £450 before the new model arrived from Fuji.

Although this camera has been replaced, it's still worth picking up on the second hand market, this is what you should get :

Fuji Finepix 6800 Camera (obviously)
16Mb Smartmedia Card
Power Supply
NP-80 L-ion Battery
Docking Station / Charger
Case & Strap
USB Cable for conenction to PC
Audio/Video Cable (for connection to TV/Video with suitable phono inputs)
CD containing all software and drivers
132 page instruction Book (all English) and Quick Setup Guide

So lets take a photo...turn it on, press the button...done! It really can be as simple as that. You can use the 1.7inch colour screen or the traditional viewfinder, leave it
on auto or select manual for a bit more control. On auto, just hold the button half way down, to automatically focus and get an exposure reading, and depress fully to take the shot.

That's the easy stuff, now let's jump straight into some more of the features, there literally are too many though!

PICTURE QUALITY & SIZE
Resolutions of 2832 x 2188 providing a 6megapixel output file. It's not truly 6megapixels, it uses a method of immitating it though. This resolution means the average file size with least compression is in excess of 2Megabytes. The 3megapixel gives a resolution of 2048 x 1536 pixels, 1 Megapixel is 1280 x 960 and VGA is 640 x 480. Using the supplied 16Mb card would only allow 6 photos in the highest mode, so I purchased 128Mb and 64Mb smartmedia cards. With these I can get a much more acceptable number of photographs, 53 on the 128Mb and 26 on the 64Mb. Whilst this does not seem huge, increasing the compression, thus reducing the file size, means I can double the number of photographs, with just a slight (hardly noticable) loss of resolution. Going to the exreme, I can take Over 1300 photos on the VGA setting, but this is really only useful for web photos.

VIDEO & SOUND
Perhaps a useful feature is the ability to add voice captions to a particular picture, of up to 30 seconds, in addition to voice recording of up to 272 minutes on a 128Mb Smartmedia card, and digital video of up to 774 seconds. Voice and video can both be played back on the camera with it's inbuilt speaker. The camera can also be used as a Web-camera! These however are features I rarely use, mainly as the video and sound is not up to my standards, but it can be fun.

POWER
Battery life is improved over the previous models, by opting for the Lithion Ion battery, the NP80. This provides on average 120 shots with the LCD monitor on, and 250 with it off. Using flash or zoom lowers this. It also allows around 3 hours of voice
recording on a single charge. Charge time is 5 hours, using the supplied docking station, it's a simple matter of dropping the camera into the cradle, and charging starts. A fast charger which is available at extra cost. The battery cost is quite high, around £30, and maybe mine will need replacing soon - there is a limit to the number of times they can be charged. You can also use the camera direct from the supplied PSU, but it does mean of course you can't really go far from a power source. This is more useful for playback when connected to the TV for instance.

ZOOM
As with all modern cameras, zoom is almost standard now. It allows you to get closer to the subject without actually moving yourself. The amount of zoom you can use, depends on the resolution quality you have selected. You can also use zoom in video mode. The camera is stated to have 3x zoom.

MACRO
If you've ever dreamed of taking some of those wonderful photographs of butterflies, insects, flowers etc, then macro is what you want. Basically it means close-up and is effective at distances of 20cm- 80cm. Doesn't sound that close, but it's close enough, and I have taken some fantastic photos with this. Selecting it, is a matter of pressing the "Flower" button. It's usually a good idea to use a tripod, unless you have a particularly steady hand.

FLASH
Again, standard on most cameras except the cheapest. Four types of flash are available. Auto - means the camera chooses the best available flash settings. Red-eye reduction - fires a pre-flash before the main one to reduce the red eye effect. Forced Flash - to photograph scenes which are back-lit, such as someone standing by a window for instance. Slow Synchro - for night photography where you want to have both foreground and background well lit. The flash brightness can also be changed in manual mode.

PLAYBACK/ERASING PHOTOS ETC
Once you have taken photos you can play them
back on screen instantly. You can forward and rewind through them one at a time, fast forward with 3 images in screen at once, or preview 9 images at once. With the last option, you can select the image you want to view easily. You can also use the slideshow facility which plays back the images one at a time, wothout pressing any buttons, and connected to a TV with suitable audio/video inputs allows you to share images with your friends and family. You can also set the camera to "preview" mode meaning you see the captured image, and can choose to record it to the memory card or not. You can zoom in (up to 18x), pan around the image, and crop (trim). Deleting a photo is easy, as is deleting all the photos on the memory card.

MORE FEATURES
Multi-exposure allows you to overlay several photographs on top of one another - in fact there is no limit to the number of exposures that can be taken. You can have some fun with this, give people 5 heads and so on, I'm sure there must be more serious uses though.

Manual focus, for when you want to take control of the focussing.

Continuous shooting. A flick of the dial on the top takes you to the mode where you can take up to 5 shots at once, with .2 second intervals. This is great for action, fast moving children etc, although you cannot use flash. Once taken, the images appear on screen, and you can record which ones you want.

Auto power save. The battery power goes quick enough, so if you are not using the camera, it can automatically turn off after 2 or 5 minutes. If you don't like this, it can be turned off.

Frame protection. If you have taken that amazing photograph and really want to make sure don't erase it accidentally (it can be done), use this option. You can apply protection to single frames or all of them on the memory card. To delete these, you must first remove the protection.

ISO Sensitivity. Pretend your camera is a 35mm by manually s
etting either 100,200 or 400 ISO. The higher the number, the more useful it is for lower light. It would be useful to have 800 and 1600 settings, as sometimes indoor shots without flash can be less than perfect.

Auto bracketing. What many professionals do is auto bracket. This means take the same photograph 3 times with different exposure settings. The over/under exposure settings can be modified. Once taken, the 3 images are displayed you can select which (or all) of the images to be recorded to the memory card.

Self timer. This is actually quite useful. If you are alone, on the top of everest with no-one to photograph you at the summit, use the self-timer. Align the shot with the LCD screen on, press the record button and then get into shot within ten seconds....and smile!

Night scene. Use this to slow the shutter speed down, to grab all the available light you can, albeit up to 3 seconds. Does work quite well, but it would be nice to be a little longer.

Black and White. You can make your photograph mono (like the old days), or you can wait and do it on your PC with suitable software. This is quicker.

White balance. Auto mode works fine most of the time, but some situations you need to give the camera a little guidance where white balance is concerned. In manual mode you can set options which work well in the following situtations : Outdoors in fine weather, in shade, under florescent lamps, in incandescent light and so on.

Exposure compensation. Useful when the subject is a lot brighter or a lot darker than the background. There are 11 steps of exposure correction.

As mentioned before, I have taken around 6000 photographs with this camera. The results are simply stunning, and even hardered 35mm users are undeniably impressed. Printing both on a home inkjet printer and at a photo shop, there is no noticable difference to that of a standard 35mm print. A4 prints are perfect, when I lived in the UK, I e
ven sold some framed. I've also managed to sell a licence to use a photo of an apollo butterfly I took on this camera to an advertising company in Finland.

So can it do better? Well I have a few wishes.... Firstly that the flash was detachable or positionable. Although it does have a range of flash options and adjustments, red eye can still be a problem, and indoor shots are still not as great as they could be. Secondly the dial on the top, turns itself to another mode on entry into the case, or exit. This means that you can sometimes take a quick shot in the wrong mode, if you do not pay attention. I've got used to this now, but it's annoying. Thirdly, the camera has on more than one occastion, turned it self on while still in the case. On one occasion I noticed something very hot in my coat pocket, it was the camera, which had turned itself on, and got into a very strange mode. The case felt so hot, I could not touch it! I removed the battery and allowed it to cool, took around 10 minutes before it was cool enough. Lastly I'd just like more control, but I guess thats what my (completely manual) SLR is for.

LETS END NOW (phew)
I could go on with more features and settings, but imagine you are probably sleeping by now, apologies for some technical jargon. You don't need to understand it all. I could have just said A "super-duper" camera that's easy to use, packed with features, and takes stunning photos!

The camera has now developed a fault, which is extremely costly to fix. I'd recommend additional warranties on digital cameras which are expensive to fix should they develop a fault. I'm still in discussion with Fuji/Jessops on the replacement of the camera, even though it is out of warranty.

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