That's another FinePix you've gotten us into! (Fujifilm Finepix F601 Zoom)

Member Name: LegendaryMrDude

Product:	Fujifilm Finepix F601 Zoom
Date:	19/09/02 (959 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Styling, Video/Audio capture, Handling

Disadvantages: Cost, 3.1/6 million pixel scam

Digital cameras currently account for a staggering 25% of all new cameras sold. When you consider that the remaining 75% includes disposable cameras, this figure is even more significant than it first looks. With the constant improvements in technology and the associated reduction in costs, digital cameras are fast coming into reach for a lot of people. I am one of those people and some 4 months ago I bought a Finepix F601-Zoom.

What you will find here is an account of my experiences with the camera. If it's full-on tech-specs that you're after you can find them at http://www.fujifilm.co.uk/fujidc/fp601/index.html .

I'll start off by pointing out that my purchase didn?t not go un-researched. I spent some considerable time talking to guys at work who had other cameras, reading around the subject and, finally, spending over an hour in my local Jessops looking at all the cameras in my price bracket (£400 - £500). The F601 was a purchase made on the basis of substantial evidence.

In relation to it's nearest competition, the Fuji immediately stands out thanks to it's styling. The only camera to adopt a 'portrait' orientation, it sits neatly in the hand and lends itself to one-handed picture taking. It is a fairly small device, barely bigger than a brushed aluminium packet of cigarettes. Despite it's compact size, the controls are sensibly laid out. Clutter is kept down through the use of a 'thumbstick' controller and a series of intuitive menus, meaning that there are only 6 buttons on the back of the camera. Add to this the mode-wheel and shutter button on the top of the camera and you have 8 buttons in total. Not bad for something as potentially complex as this!

As already mentioned, the camera is 'driven' using the thumbstick to navigate around menus which are displayed on the 1.5" LCD screen. This is where my first gripe comes in. When you can see them, the menus are clear and ea
sy to follow. Unfortunately the menu icons are transparent and are overlaid on the live footage the camera is currently displaying. This can mean that it's sometimes difficult to read them and you end up having to cover the lens before you can make sense of them. Other than that, the controls on the camera are a breeze. The level of automation can be set using the "mode-wheel" and ranges from fully manual to fully automatic, with some subject specific program modes in between to optimize pictures for either portrait, landscape, sports, night-time or multiple exposures. When set to manual, you have full control over the camera, just as you would with a regular SLR, being able to set shutter speeds, apertures and even adjust the sensitivity of the 'film'. It's not quite as fast to set up as an SLR, but the thumbstick makes it a straightforward exercise. The focal range of the camera is equivalent to 36 - 108mm on a 35mm camera which gives it a moderate 3x optical zoom. Digital zoom isn't really worth bothering with as it can all be done back on the PC.

The camera has a built in flash, although it's rather weak and won't do much if the subject is more than 10 feet away. It's also rather slow to charge so actions shots that require flash are pretty tricky to capture.

The LCD screen is excellent, producing a crisp, colourful image that is packed with detail (considering it's size). It makes a decent viewfinder although I'm not quite sure how much of the field of view it shows, I have a feeling that it's considerably less than 90%. It can be turned off to save battery power and comes in handy when deciding which pictures to keep when you are running low on storage space. I tend to do this (as do most people) by switching the camera to playback mode and flicking through the stored images, zooming in to see how much detail has been captured. It is possible to trim pictures this way, zooming and panning
around the image on the built-in LCD, but I have found that it's better to wait until the pictures are on a PC and do it properly.

The F601-Z is equipped with a 3.1million pixel "Super-CCD" which produces images containing 6million pixels. While an impressive sounding figure (especially at this price bracket), it should be taken with a pinch of salt, and a fairly large one at that. While the Super-CCD does improve the quality of the photo, it does not bring it up to the same levels as those produced by a true 6m Pixel camera (which retail for around £1,500 - £2,000). If you were comparing cameras on a pixel-count basis I would estimate that the SuperCCD gives an equivalent quality of a 4m native pixel camera, at the cost of larger files and thus reduced capacity on the storage media. Having said that, I tend to use the camera at it's "3.1m pixel with fine detail" setting as I find it gives the best balance between image quality and number of photos (about 100 pictures on a 128Mb card). Images are stored on a SmartMedia card, which come in sizes ranging from 2Mb to 128Mb. The camera is supplied with a single 8Mb card, but a 126Mb card will only cost about £60.

As well as pictures, the other thing the F601 can do is record video and sound and it was this, along with the handling of the camera, which swayed my decision. On the front of the camera, just under the Autofocus and Flash sensors, is a microphone, which picks up a surprising amount of sound! Recordings are stored on the SmartMedia card as standard .wav files which can be played back on the camera (through the built in loudspeaker) or any PC with a soundcard. The sound files are also pretty easy to edit on a PC. There are no quality options for sound, and on a 128Mb card you can store about 4.5 hours of audio!

Video is a slightly different matter, with just under 4 minutes fitting onto a 128Mb card at maximum resolution (640x480) and a slightly more palat
able 9 minutes at the other resolution (340x240). Videos are stored as .avi clips and they playback well enough, I've not yet had one with dropped frames. As a guide, a 6 second low-res clip with sound is about 1.4Mb in size. While the F601 isn't going to replace a camcorder, it is handy if you just want to grab a small scene and stick it on a website or similar simply because of the ease with which it can be transferred to the PC.

Transferring files from the camera to the PC is simplicity itself. The F601 pack includes a cradle into which the camera neatly slots. This cradle provides the USB connection to the PC and can also act as a recharger for the battery while it remains in the camera. The cradle keeps things tidy and has a power button on the front which, when pressed, activates the USB interface. Under WindowsXP, a dialog box pops up when the cradle is activated, asking what you would like to do. If you have installed the supplied "FinePix Viewer" software, this is probably the best option as it provides an easy to use interface to the camera and makes copying images to/from the camera extremely easy. Images can also be deleted this way, cleaning up the memory card ready for it's next outing.

Other points worthy of note include the leatherette carry case that comes with it. This has a belt loop and is pretty handy at saving the brushed metal case from scratches. The NP-60 battery holds a decent charge and has not run out on me yet. This is probably due in part to the fact that battery charging/conditioning is carried out all the while the camera is in the docking cradle. New batteries go for around £30 and it's always worth carrying a spare, just in case. Images are stored in JPEG and there are 3 compression levels available (basic, normal and fine) which improve the quality of the recorded image accordingly, at the cost of storage space. The SmartMedia cards are dead simple to use and pretty cheap, which is a good
thing when you consider that only 4 minutes of hi-res video will devour a whole 128Mb card!

So am I happy with my FinePix? Weeeellll, sort of. I've been spoiled by the quality of my SLRs over the years and was a little disappointed by the output of the F601, especially with it's claimed 6m Pixel output. In truth, regular 35mm photos scanned at maximum resolution stand up to A4 enlarging better than images from the FinePix. But my SLRs don't do too good a job of recording sound/video and it's surprising how often you make use of the sound recording feature (once you have remembered that it's there!). The handling is excellent and the ease of use means that you don't have to spend ages setting it up for a photo. It has earned itself a place in my camera bag, not only for the speed with which results are obtained but also because it's so small and relatively light that it would be silly not to take it. And when you consider that, at minimum resolution, you can store a ridiculous number of pictures on a 128Mb card it's always handy to have in case I run out of film. It can never replace my SLR for quality and control but for candid snap-shots, recording sounds to help recapture the atmosphere of a place/event, a few seconds of video and for taking on a holiday, it's more than good enough.

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