Fuji Z1 -- Take it Anywhere

For a couple of years now I've been using my Canon PowerShot A300 for everyday pictures, and a Nikon 5700 for better shots. However, as the children have gotten older, I found my Canon ... ahem ... appropriated. While I love the Nikon, for semi-serious photography, there are times when you just want a camera that can fit into a shirt pocket.

So I found myself in the market for a point and shoot digital camera and wound up with the Z1.

Ok, first of all Nuts and Bolts.

MegaPixels

This camera is a 5 megapixel camera -- for those who are not tech geeks, this means that it's great for snap shots, good for pictures up to say 8" x 10", but anything more than that and you're stretching it. Honestly, if you're going to blowing up your pictures larger than this regularly, this is not the camera for you.

For the record, with the compression software, a picture shot with the 5 megapixels takes up about 1 megabite on a storage card.

ZoomLens

The camera has a 3x optical zoom lens (equivalent 36mm -- 108mm, for those used to 35 millimeter cameras) and a 5.7x digital zoom. Now, you may ask (and I'm glad you did) what's the difference.

With an optical zoom, think Binoculars. The lens magnifies the image. If you're shooting in the 5 megapixel mode, you get the entire 5 megapixels in your frame. With digital zoom, it's like blowing up a picture on the computer screen. You can see a portion of the picture larger, but with fewer megapixels.

Bottom line -- Optical is better. Every camera maker recognizes this, and in fact, the Z1 (and every other camera on the market) magnifies the image with the optical zoom until you reach maximum magnification, and only then moves over to the digital zoom.

But, and this is a big but ... for many users, it won't really matter. Now, what I'm about to say is controversial, and real techies may disagree, but in my experience, it's 100% correct. As I said previously, 5 megapixels is enough for an 8x10 picture. If you're taking snapshots, and only plan 3x5 or 4x6, you can get great pictures with far fewer megapixels. So, shooting on in 5 megapixel mode, using the digital zoom, and printing your snapshot should be fine.

While we're talking about lenses, one of the REALLY nice features of this camera is that the optical zoom is a 'non-extending' zoom lens. This means exactly what it sounds like, the entire lens is inside the camera the whole time. Probably doesn't impact on picture quality, but it's neat.

Ease of Operation

Ok, are you a camera geek? Do you like endlessly tweek the f-stops, white balance, shutter speed? Do you want to control every aspect of your picture. If so -- buy a different camera. The Z-1 was not designed for you.

The camera really what I call a PHD, camera. No, you don't have to have an advanced degree to operate it. PHD stands for Push Here Dummy. Out of the box, you can use the default modes, auto focus, auto flash, and it's "Look Ma ... I'm taking Pictures."

However, the camera does allow you to play a little. You can, for example, shut off the flash, or use an anti-redeye mode. It has a couple of different settings -- landscape, portrait, Natural Light (this one is great, I'll get to it in a down below in performance), and several others. However, the learning curve for this camera is not high. A beginner can use it.

Performance

Now, the important question -- how good are the pictures. I've read a number of reviews, some of them love the pictures, some say they're substandard. I'll be honest, with good light, my Nikon5700 takes much better pictures. There's no contest here. However, for normal everyday pictures, most of the point and shooters will be more than satisfied with this camera.

That being said, in low light, the Fuji Z1 is much better than the Nikon. They have a mode, called "Natural Light" under which the camera does as much with the ambient light as possible. This mode doesn't use the flash. The mode is great -- acceptable pictures without flash at much lower light than the Nikon.

On the performance side, both the boot up time (time from when you turn on the camera) and the time between pictures is very fast for a digital camera.

Other Features

Best of all, the viewfinder screen. It's 2.5 inches, which is large. You can see more detail in your pictures than many competative products.

The camera also has a movie mode. For my personal opinion. The best I can say about any camera's movie mode, is that should the need arise, it's better to have it than not. The Z1 is not a replacement for a movie camera, but will work in a pinch.

Appearance

Honestly, this camera rocks. It's about as small as a deck of cards, weighs only a few ounces, can fit in a shirt pocket.

There's a sliding lens cover -- when it's closed, the camera is off, and the lens is protected. When it's open, take pictures.

The camera comes in either Black or Silver. Unless you really really care, get Black. You're going to be carrying this camera in your pocket, and the Silver Case can scratch. It won't affect the your pictures, but it's better if something doesn't show scratches.

Hardware

The final thing I want to mention is the hardware the camera comes with and uses.

Pictures are taken in an xD card. This is a very small chip, and is a bit more expensive than other formats. The Camera comes with a 16 megabite card. You'll need to get at least a 256 meg card, and a 512 meg would be better.

Battery -- The Fuji Z1 uses a proprietary battery. Other reviews rate it's capacity as average. You can get maybe 150 pictures or so in a single charge. You probably want to carry an extra battery with you.

Cradle -- This is a downside. To recharge the battery, the camera is placed in a cradle. This cradle is meant to serve several functions. First, for recharging. It's adequate for this, but really doesn't let you charge a second battery out of the camera.

The cradle is also set up to take a photo tripod. Honestly -- Bad idea The camera itself wiggles a bit in the cradle, so stability is an issue.

Finally, the cradle provides a USB port for directly loading pictures into a computer. I find removing the chip and using a chip reader easier.

All-in-all, the cradle is poorly designed, but in the greater scheme of things, this is a minor issue.

Conclusion

This camera is excellent as a shirt-pocket, point and shoot camera. For most users, it will meet all their needs. The ability to take low light pictures is a plus.