Great piece of technology for its price!
Written: Apr 22 '03 (Updated May 09 '03)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
| Ease of Use: |
 |
|
| Durability: |
 |
|
| Battery Life: |
 |
|
| Photo Quality: |
 |
|
| Shutter Lag |
 |
|
|
Pros: Good Pix, Video with Audio, Output to TV, Web-cam, File copy
Cons: 5-hr recharge time, microphone pick-up not sensitive enough, no pouch
The Bottom Line: No exageration. Does everything it's supposed to do.
Buy it, if like me, you want a combination of above average stills and video capabilities in a small package.
|
|
|
| sandtang's Full Review: FUJIFILM FinePix F601 Zoom Digital Camera |
Please look to Fujifilm website for technical specs.
Ergonomics
Nice metallic body makes it look expensive and cool. Nice to hold but requires 2 hands to navigate about. About the size of a normal camera, so it'll fit in your pant pocket but will bulge... (definitely will not fit in your tight jean pocket!)
Ease-of-Use
Navigation takes some getting used to but I've a lady friend who picked it up and played with it on her first try. Fujifilm did a good job such that I find little room for improvement here actually... It has detail settings ready should you decide to go manual, otherwise the Auto modes work very well for a novice like me. The bubbly and slightly animated menu is quite cute too.
Still Pictures
I'm a layman so they look really good to me.. impressed... way beyond email quality, closer towards semi-pro quality. It's highest resolutions are good enough to print on A4 or larger, so I think that's good even for some professional media work. After using for some time, I realise you have to use flash otherwise the photo would be slightly blurred due to hand movement. I only noticed tiny spots when taking stills at max resolution. It's 3.1 Megapixel Super CCD isn't just a marketing ploy. In darkness, when set to Night mode, it picked up everything, including things I couldn't even see with my own eyes!
Video
One of the rare few that can record video at 640x480. Very good quality and smooth. I could hardly believe that distant lights and dark-bright transitions are all captured by this crazy little thing! Toy it's not!
(I actually wished it could capture poorer quality video which would maximise memory. It presently tops out at 10min on 128MB SM card in 320x240 mode. Nonetheless, still better than other cameras that break at 30sec or don't do audio.)
Software & Web Services
Complete set of software. Installed and worked flawlessly on Win98SE and WinXP. Allows me to submit my photos online for printing. Gives me 20MB webspace to share photos with others. Video and still picture editing software are good too. Please note that though video output is AVI, it's a special kind of AVI such that it requires Windows Media Player to download a new codec to play. Can be easily converted to WMV using supplied software to avoid any inconvenience. Still, better than having to mess with i.link and DV card required by real videocams do.
Speed
Camera starts up in less than 2 sec. Only very slight lag between shots. Menu navigation is snappy too. Download to PC speed is fast enough not to be annoying at all (but depends on size of your files.)
Others
Did you know it's a Web-cam too!? It is! And works very well with included software! Also, with the docking cradle, all recorded content(stills/video/audio) can be sent to TV! Quality is good enough for my family to enjoy on bigger screen. Because I had the cradle which came with its own USB cable, I put the extra (original) USB cable in the office. This allows me to do file transfers between office and home like a portable drive! How neat is that! This added feature alone makes it worthwhile for me to replace the 16MB SM card with a 128MB one.
For Singaporeans
Paid S$599 and was given docking station free during promotion and had a chance to enter lucky draw to win Audi TT Roadster. You can also apply free to take a lesson on using digital cameras. Really good deal! Given what it can do for me, I believe the camera paid for itself already!
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 340 This Camera is a Good Choice if You Want Something... Flexible Enough for Enthusiasts
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID: sandtang
|
|
Reviews written: 1
Trusted by: 0 members
|
|
|