Ultra-compact seems to be the dominant trend in consumer point-and-shoot cameras. At the store where I work, I would say that at least 6 out of every 10 cameras we sell are ultra-compact cameras. With so many models, it is difficult to figure out which cameras provide quality equal to their style. This is the camera we have been using in the store for all of our basic photography needs for the last five months. Normally, I would tell you why I chose this camera, but in this case it is being used because it was handed to me. The Fuji FinePix Z3 Digital Camera provides good image quality and great features, making it one of the better values in ultra-compact cameras. In short, this is a so-called “cute camera.”

Style
This camera is sleek and slim, at 2.2 inches in height, 3.5 inches in width, and 0.8 inches thick. This is similar in height and width to most other ultra-compact models, but one of the flatter models as far as thickness. The lens can be covered by a flat piece in the front that slides over to protect it when not in use. The metal body gives the camera a durable feel and the design keeps the camera light in weight, weighing in at only 4.6 ounces. The camera was comfortable to hold, although it did take some getting used to. I'm used to cameras that are a little thicker. I always make sure the wrist strap is on me at all times, just in case.

The camera comes in three colors, blue, silver, and pink. This definitely appeals to the younger crowd. I have had a lot of teenagers come into the store requesting colored cameras. For every purchase of the pink model, Fuji will donate money to the National Breast Cancer Foundation, so I definitely recommend getting the pink one if you can. It is the same price and at least some money goes to a good cause.

Operation
Most of the buttons are on the back of the camera. The buttons follow the placement of many other current models. The zoom is on top, with the menu button below it with a circular button around it for controlling such features as flash, self timer, and macro. Below this are two buttons: one for controlling the display and another for the image stabilization. The placement of the buttons is comfortable and I found them to be large enough for my hands (my hands are a bit small, though).

The controls are intuitive and the camera has a minimal learning curve. Any questions the user might have are answered well in the manual. The menu was the only thing that you really have to take the time to play around with when you're learning how to use the camera.

Seeing the Picture
The LCD screen is 2.5 inches in size with a scratch resistant coating. I found the screen to be sharp and I thought the colors were vivid. The screen did get a bit more difficult to see in the sun. This camera does not have a viewfinder which is definitely a feature I would have liked. It wasn’t a big problem for me because my outdoor usage of this camera was limited to taking pictures of employees and company vehicles, outside in the parking lot.

Pictures
Quality:
This camera has a 5th generation Super CCD at 5.1 effective megapixels. 5 megapixels is usually enough for the average user who is just looking to make 4x6 prints of everyday activities. Megapixels reflects the amount of detail recorded in a picture, which is why it determines how big you can blow the picture up and how far you can crop the image. I have seen as large as an 11 x 14 inch print off this camera and it was very good quality.

Picture quality was good on this camera. There was a low instance of noise on most settings. The colors were good. I thought most of the pictures looked very clear. The camera did well on a company night out to a concert in which most of the room was dark except for lights on the stage. I was even able to get a few good shots of us in the audience. The antishake did its job because almost all of the shots were sharp. The few outdoor shots I did take were great quality. The camera did a great job on auto of making sure the shots were exposed correctly, both indoors and outdoors. The flash was surprisingly good at deciding when to fire and when not to fire (auto mode). This is usually a problem in our store, which has harsh lighting but for some reason, occasionally causes flashes to fire when they are not needed, resulting in dark pictures (oddly enough).

Scene Modes:
Natural light and natural light with flash: The natural light mode worked well but the natural light with flash dual mode is what really caught my eye. This mode takes 2 images, one with flash and one without with one push of a button. I thought this mode was great because I usually take two images in low light situations, to see if the image looks better with or without flash. This mode makes that much easier.

Portrait mode: This mode attempts to sharpen the subject of the image and does a pretty good job. I found it to work well if the subject is about four feet away. We used this many times for team portraits during morning meetings. Red eye did occur in some of the images, but nothing that couldn’t be edited out.

Landscape mode: The landscape mode on this camera was effective. It did a great job of adjusting the depth of field and I was able to take some really nice images of the store after a renovation. It worked best with a tripod, but the antishake was effective at preventing blur.

Sport mode: The sport mode was decent, but not great. This would be good for most moving subjects, but nothing too fast. I was unable to effectively catch children playing with some toy light sabers on the day Star Wars was released, but it was effective at catching them playing a demo of Dance Dance Revolution (video game that involves jumping around on a dance pad).

Night mode: The night mode was good on this camera, as well. It effectively adjusted the ISO and flash to take good portraits at night. I also found this mode to be effective when used in combination with the burst mode and suppressed flash mode to catch some interesting photos of a lighted ferris wheel moving in front of the adjacent mall.

Fireworks mode: This mode provides longer shutter times to give you nice flowing shots of fireworks. I didn't have any opportunity to shoot fireworks, but I do recommend using it with a tripod.

Sunset, snow, and beach modes: These modes are all supposed to be use in the situations their titles suggest. I didn't use them much but I did notice the beach mode did a good job of preventing overexposure in bright sunlight. You can clearly see when you play around with them, that the white balance is adjusted for each.

Museum mode: This is a "manner" mode that turns off sounds and the flash in situations when you don't want to draw attention to yourself. We don’t have manners in our store so we never used it.

Party mode: This is an indoor mode that automatically adjusts the flash to red-eye reduction mode. I didn't really use it much because we have such powerful lighting. The two times I did use it, were both in the break room and both times the pictures were good.

Flower mode: This mode seemed to adjust the settings similar to a macro mode but made the colors appear more vivid.

Close up mode: Obviously for close up images, I found this mode to be effective and was able to get some good close ups of a necklace and other cameras. At one point we were having a problem with blurry close ups, but I suspect someone accidentally changed the settings.

Text mode: This mode is for taking pictures of documents. I haven't needed to use it but did so just to see and it turned out fine.

Other Features
The available flash modes on this camera are automatic, forced flash, suppressed flash, red eye reduction, slow synchro, and red eye reduction + slow synchro. I used all of the modes except the last one. The red eye reduction was fairly effective, except on the lightest-eyed employees. I don’t see much hope for them.

This camera has a 3x optical and 5.2x digital zoom. I never used the digital zoom since it would lower the quality of the image (digital zooms stretch the image digitally, similar to what happens when you stretch a picture on your computer). The 3x optical zoom was good enough for my needs. It takes the camera a small amount of time to refocus when you zoom.

The Z3 has a self timer with 10 or 2 second settings. I didn’t have much use for the 2 second setting, but we used the 10 second setting at one of our store meetings. We set the camera up on a tripod on a ladder pointed down toward our 150+ member staff, then set this timer, providing just enough time for me to jump down the ladder and into the picture.

This camera has white balance options of automatic (did a good job of adjusting for different lightings, but sometimes too true to life, sucking the color out of myself and my fairer-skinned coworkers), fine, shade, daylight, warm, white, cool, white, and incandescent light. The available shutter speeds are 4 – 1/1000 sec. I would have liked faster shutter speeds if this was my own personal camera, but for use at my job it was fine. It would probably be fine for most people who do not frequently shoot moving images, like sports photos. Shutter lag wasn’t a problem on this camera but it wasn’t the fastest response time I have seen in compact models.

This camera has a movie mode with audio. It was average video and the sound volume was a bit low, but the video wasn’t really important for my use. The video swallowed memory, so I would recommend a high capacity memory card when using video.

Power and Media
The Z3 takes the NP40 rechargeable lithium ion battery (included). Lithium ion batteries last longer than AA alkaline and are reusable, making them the cheaper way to go. This is the battery format I prefer. I would, however, recommend keeping a spare on hand. Although these are longer lasting, in the event that you have no time to charge the battery before an important affair, you cannot purchase standard batteries from a drug store to power the camera. The battery lasted about 200 images at a time, but much of the use was interrupted by the reviewing of pictures on the screen (when you're taking pictures of employees, 30 different people need to individually check that they look ok in the picture). I suspect that the actually battery life is closer to 300 pictures. The AC adapter is included to charge the batteries.

This camera takes XD type memory cards. This is one of the few things I dislike about this camera. XD type is mostly used by Olympus and Fuji, and tends to be more expensive than the more widely used SD type. It is, however, comparable in price to the memory stick (pro and pro duo) formats. There is also a compatibility issue with type M memory cards. Current XD cards are type M format (there is a little tiny M listed next to the card’s capacity). These look just like the old XD cards, except some readers cannot read the new ones. If you take your card to a pharmacy that has older equipment to print your pictures, they may tell you that your card isn’t working properly. It is likely that your card is fine and you will have to transfer your images to your computer and burn them to a CD in order to use these machines to print your images. The camera comes with 10 megabytes of internal memory (about 5 pictures). I found a 1 gigabyte card to be sufficient memory but more may be required if you plan to use the movie mode frequently.

Connecting it
This camera easily connected to all of the store computers by just using the included USB cable and the software. The software was easy to navigate and helpful. Another possibility is using a memory card reader to read the XD card.

Price
This camera retails for $219.99. This is one of the most reasonably priced digital cameras I’ve seen in the ultra-compact category. Usually cameras with lithium batteries are pricey, starting at $249.99. I think it is a great value for the price.

Overall Impression
This is a stylish camera that takes good pictures. It would make a great gift for younger recipients (teens and early 20s) who are interested in taking pictures of friends and nights on the town. The picture quality and abundance of features make this camera stand out as a great camera for many users. With a relatively low price, you’ll get lots of bang for your buck. I definitely recommend this camera.


Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 219.99
This Camera is a Good Choice if You Want Something... Easy Enough for Anyone to Use