9 out of 9 people found this review helpful.
Fuji FinePix Z3 Compact Digital Camaera
Date of Review: May 6, 2007
The Bottom Line: If you want a good quality, easy to use, compact digital camera, this is the one for you.
This Fuji compact digital camera is probably best suited to the 'point and shoot' user. Although it does have some advanced features for the more experienced user, it's at its best leaving the camera to do all the hard work. It can be set to fully automatic for speed and light settings and the results are generally very good. To take a picture is simplicity itself, just slide the lens protector across and the camera is ready to go.
With an easy to use digital movie facility (one flick of a switch) and fairly high quality sound, this is a great holiday companion.
If you want or need to use the zoom whilst in picture mode it offers a very easy to use one touch electronic zoom with auto focus. Due to the large display it's very easy to instantly review any shots taken and delete any pictures that don't turn out well.
If you are going to take it on holiday with you, make sure you buy a large capacity memory card. There has been some criticism that the camera will only accept XD cards which is true, although these along with the price of all memory cards has fallen dramatically recently, and you should be able to pick up a 1 gig for about the same price as a comparable SD card.
The quality of the finished product is right up with the best of them in this market sector, the aluminium case and large display allow you to know that you are holding a good quality product in your hand.
The only drawback that I have experienced is the base charging unit. You cannot plug the camera directly into the charger, but have to take the base unit with you. Obviously this is not going to be needed on a day out as the battery life is pretty good, but it is something extra you have to remember to pack when going away on holiday.
The camera does come supplied with very easy to use software that makes connecting to the PC and viewing pictures very straight forward.
I have used this camera for over a year now and it's fair to say I am very pleased that I bought it. Again, if you are like me and just want a camera that is easy to catch those 'magic moments' with no messing about, this unit is worthy of consideration.
