Designed by a sports car designer, the compact Fujifilm FinePix 6800 Zoom camera combines style with flexibility, good image quality, and point-and-shoot ease of use. Thanks to a wide range of photo features, video and audio capture, and Webcam capability, it will appeal to anyone with a weakness for sleek, versatile imaging gear. But advanced photographers will want to take a careful look at the trade-offs that Fujifilm's imaging technology makes, and budget buyers will have to keep dreaming.

The body's by Porsche, but the FinePix 6800 Zoom isn't a midlife-crisis car--it's an upscale digital camera from Fujifilm. Conceived with a little help from the sports car designer, this easy-to-use digicam offers style, solid image quality, and versatility without too much complexity. In keeping with the sports car theme, the 6800 Zoom is also a fast performer that will let you keep up with the action without missing the shots you want. Fujifilm built the camera around its innovative 3.3-megapixel SuperCCD, and it does a great job with dynamic range, image detail, and colour, but advanced photographers will want to give careful consideration to the trade-offs in increased image noise and occasional chromatic flaws.

Fujifilm's 3.3-megapixel SuperCCD image sensor has an innovative design, with octagonal pixels arranged in a honeycomb fashion.

According to the company, this kind of sensor and the image sampling and processing system created to work with it can capture images with higher resolution and more detail than a standard CCD of the same resolution can. Our test images showed an excellent dynamic range, and the 6800 Zoom was able to capture ample detail in both shadow and highlight areas. The camera produced vivid, well-balanced colours, although shots tended to be warm, especially indoors.

Unfortunately, we also noticed some flaws in the image quality, the most prevalent being visible noise. Even in brightly lit outdoor shots, areas that should have been smooth were sometimes mottled with visual noise. This effect was most pronounced in the camera's 6-megapixel mode. In tricky lighting situations that juxtaposed dark and bright areas, the 6800 Zoom also produced quite noticeable blooming and chromatic aberration, so that tree branches shot against a bright sky turned out looking turquoise and white objects were fringed with unrealistic colour.

While the 6800 Zoom can produce a 6-megapixel file, we didn't see it make a leap in image quality from the 3.3-megapixel mode. Our observations were backed up in independent tests by DigitalBenchmarks (Web site), which showed that in 3.3-megapixel mode, the camera achieved a 1,100-line horizontal resolution and with the 6-megapixel mode it resolved 1,200 lines--less than a 10 percent increase. With the included 16MB of SmartMedia memory, we got six shots at 6 megapixels before filling the card, and ended up preferring to shoot twice as many pictures with about the same quality by using the 3.3-megapixel mode.

Fujifilm collaborated with auto designer F.A. Porsche to give the 6800 Zoom a sleek, high-tech design that not only looks good, but also makes the camera easy to hold and operate. We liked the positioning of the controls, though the buttons seemed a little small for large hands. The camera has a minimal number of buttons, so most options are accessed through the intuitive menu system and the soft buttons that surround the camera's round status LCD. The 2-inch colour LCD screen is sharp and bright, although it washed out when we were shooting outdoors.

The 6800 Zoom is at the top of its class when it comes to performance. Unlike many other 3.3-megapixel cameras, it has an almost imperceptible shutter delay. DigitalBenchmarks timed the average delay at a negligible 0.05 seconds. Shot-to-shot and continuous shooting times were also impressive. With its smooth zoom and fast image-capture, this camera will make it easy for you to catch action shots. It has a pop-up flash that works well, but it has to be released manually, and we sometimes found ourselves forgetting to open it when light was low.

Advanced users will like the camera's wide range of features, and there are a number of exposure presets that snapshooters will find easy to use. In addition to capturing still images, the 6800 Zoom records video clips of up to 160 seconds with audio and audio-only files of up to an hour. When recording video with audio, we had to be careful not to block the mike with our fingers. The audio worked best for speech, though both speech and music had crackling artifacts.

We really liked the PalmPilot-style cradle that connects to your PC and lets you drop the camera in to download your files and charge the battery. If you prefer, you can still plug the USB cord and power adapter directly into the camera. The 6800 Zoom also has a PC Camera mode, which turns it into a Webcam when it's in the cradle.

The Fujifilm FinePix 6800 Zoom is a versatile, easy-to-use camera that fits nicely into a jacket pocket. While you'll want an extra memory card to get the most out of it, this camera's almost foolproof auto mode and advanced exposure features will let you take advantage of most photo opportunities. If you want a digital camera that offers style, performance, and very good image quality--and are willing to pay for it--you'll find the 6800 Zoom a solid buy.

Fujifilm Fine Pix 6800 Zoom
Company:Fujifilm Australia
DistributorHarvey Norman
Ph: 02 9662 9888
Price: AU$2,399
Available: 5 to 10 working days

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