Fuji FinePix 2600 Zoom2 megapixels, a 3x zoom lens, great pictures, and a bargain price: A great "value leader" from Fuji!<<Reference: Datasheet :(Previous) | (Next): Print-Friendly Review Version>> FinePix 2600 Zoom Sample ImagesReview First Posted: 11/08/2001 |
| We've begun including links in our reviews to a Thumber-generated index page for our test shots. The Thumber data includes a host of information on the images, including shutter speed, ISO setting, compression setting, etc. Rather than clutter the page below with *all* that detail, we're posting the Thumber index so only those interested in the information need wade through it! |
| Outdoor Portrait: (751 k)
The extreme tonal range of this image makes this a tough shot for many digicams, which is precisely why we set it up this way. The object is to hold highlight and shadow detail without producing a "flat" picture with muddy colors, and the Fuji F2600 Zoom handled the challenge quite well. The shot at right has a +0.3 EV exposure compensation adjustment, which brightened up the midtones and lost only a few highlight details. Both the Auto (749 k) and Daylight (732 k) white balance settings produced similar results, so we chose the Auto setting for our main shot. Skin tones look about right, and the blue flowers show very good hue, coming out only slightly dark (this is a difficult blue for many digicams). Detail is crisp and sharp throughout the frame and resolution is high. Details are also sharp in the shadows, with moderately low noise. To view the entire exposure series from zero to +1.0 EV, see files F26OUTAP0.HTM through F26OUTAP3.HTM on our thumbnail page. |
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Closer Portrait: (731 k)
Results are similar to the wider shot above, and the 3x zoom lens helps prevent any distortion of the model's features. More fine detail is visible in the model's face and hair, and details remain sharp. The shadow areas again show great detail with low noise. Our main shot was taken without an exposure compensation adjustment, as anything brighter lost too much highlight detail. See files F26FACAP0.HTM through F26FACAP2.HTM on our thumbnail page to view the entire exposure series (from zero to +0.7 EV). |
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Indoor Portrait, Flash: (744 k)
Good color, somewhat dim though The F2600 Zoom's flash illuminated the subject well, though the overall light level is just slightly dim. Still, overall color looks good. The bright incandescent room lighting results in a pinkish-orangish cast, which also affects the white value of the model's shirt, but the color is quite well balanced overall. |
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Indoor Portrait, No Flash: (753 k)
A hard time with incandescent lighting, too yellow by far. This shot is always a very tough test of a camera's white balance capability, given the strong, yellowish color cast of the household incandescent bulbs used for the lighting, and the F2600 Zoom's white balance system had trouble with this difficult light source. Both the Incandescent (753 k) and Auto (748 k) white balance settings produced similar, warm images. We chose the Auto setting for our main series, and an exposure compensation adjustment of +0.7 EV for our main shot. The warm cast intensifies the purplish cast on the blue flowers, but remaining color looks reasonably good, and cleans up well in Photoshop or other imaging program. (We do wish manufacturers could manage to deal with incandescent lighting well & consistently though.) To view the entire exposure series from zero to +1.0 EV, see files F26INAP0.HTM through F26INAP3.HTM on our thumbnail page. |
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House Shot: (762 k)
Decent sharpness, good color. We chose the Daylight (762 k) white balance setting for our main selection, due to the warm cast produced by the Auto (768 k) setting. Though the Daylight shot has a slight greenish tint, the white value of the house trim is more accurate than the reddish cast of the Auto white balance image. Resolution is high, with good detail in the tree limbs above the rood and in the house front details. Despite some corner softness in the two left corners, details throughout the rest of the frame are reasonably sharp. |
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Far-Field Test (752 k)
This image is shot at infinity to test far-field lens performance. NOTE that this image cannot be directly compared to the other "house" shot, which is a poster, shot in the studio. The rendering of detail in the poster will be very different than in this shot, and color values (and even the presence or absence of leaves on the trees!) will vary in this subject as the seasons progress. In general though, you can evaluate detail in the bricks, shingles and window detail, and in the tree branches against the sky. Compression artifacts are most likely to show in the trim along the edge of the roof, in the bricks, or in the relatively "flat" areas in the windows. This is our ultimate "resolution shot," given the infinite range of detail in a natural scene like this. The F2600 Zoom captures a lot of detail throughout the frame, with a good level of sharpness. The fine foliage details in front of and above the house are well-defined, as are the details of the house front. The bright sunlight tricks the F2600 Zoom into losing all of the detail in the white bay window area, showing a slightly limited dynamic range. The shadow area above the front door shows stronger detail, with the brick pattern nearly visible. The table below shows our standard resolution and quality series. Resolution Series:
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Lens Zoom Range A typical 3x zoom range. We've received a number of requests from readers to take shots showing the lens focal length range of those cameras with zoom lenses. Thus, we're happy to present you here with the following series of shots, showing the field of view with the lens at full wide angle and at full 3x telephoto. The F2600 Zoom's lens covers a range equivalent to a 38-114mm zoom on a 35mm film camera. Following are the results at each zoom setting.
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Musicians Poster (756 k)
Good color from the daylight white balance setting. For this test, we shot with the Auto (754
k) and Daylight (756 k) white balance settings,
choosing the Daylight setting as the most accurate. Auto white balance
produced a very warm image, possibly in response to the large amount
of blue in the composition. The Oriental model's blue robe looks about
right, though the darker parts of the robe show a purple tint. (This
is a tough blue for many digicams to get right.) Resolution is high,
with a lot of fine detail throughout the frame, particularly noticeable
in the embroidery of the blue robe. |
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Macro Shot (752 k)
Decent but not exceptional macro coverage, but some barrel distortion when shooting this close. Flash throttles down well. The F2600 Zoom performs about average in the macro category, capturing a minimum area of 3.94 x 2.96 inches (100 x 75 millimeters). Resolution is high, with great detail throughout the frame. Color looks good as well, though the overall color balance is slightly warm. Corner softness is also visible in all four corners from the wide angle lens setting, as well as some barrel distortion. The F2600 Zoom's flash (757 k) did a good job illuminating the macro area, throttling down almost too much, however, and producing shadows in the corners of the frame. |
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"Davebox" Test Target (737 k)
We shot samples of this target using the Auto (737 k) and Daylight (737 k) white balance settings, and noticed similar results in each shot. Both resulted in a slightly warm, greenish cast. Because the Daylight setting appeared just a hint warmer, we chose the Auto setting for our main shot. Exposure looks good, with a strong tonal distribution on the Q60 chart. The large color blocks have good saturation and color is nearly accurate, despite the warm cast. Detail looks good in the shadow area of the charcoal briquettes, with moderately low noise.
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Low-Light Tests So-so for low light conditions. Not sensitive enough for even well-lit city streets at night. The F2600 Zoom's full automatic exposure control and maximum shutter speed of 1/2-second limited its low-light shooting capability a great deal. The camera captured bright, clear images at light levels only as low as four foot-candles (44 lux), which is about two EV stops brighter than average city street lighting at night. Color looks good, though the overall color balance is slightly warm, and images have low noise levels. The table below shows the best exposure we were able to obtain for each of a range of illumination levels. Images in this table (like all of our sample photos) are untouched, exactly as they came from the camera.
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| Flash Range Test
Fuji's stated flash range of 9.8 feet is about right. Fuji rates the F2600 Zoom's flash as effective to about 9.8 feet (3.0 meters), which matches our test results fairly well. (That range is specified at wide angle, we were shooting with the lens set to telephoto, which cuts its light transmission somewhat.) In our testing, the F2600 Zoom's flash was brightest at eight feet from the target, with decreasing intensity with each additional foot of distance. Flash power was very dim at the 14 foot distance. Below is our flash range series, with distances from eight to 14 feet from the target.
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| ISO-12233 (WG-18) Resolution Test (716 k)
The F2600 Zoom performed well on our "laboratory" resolution test chart for its two-megapixel class. It started showing artifacts in the test patterns at resolutions as low as 550 lines per picture height, in both horizontal and vertical directions. We found "strong detail" out to at least 800 lines, although there were very strong artifacts in the vertical direction starting at 600-700. "Extinction" of the target patterns occurred at about 950 lines. Optical distortion on the F2600 Zoom is a bit lower than average at the wide-angle end, where we measured an approximate 0.5 percent barrel distortion. The telephoto end fared somewhat worse, as we measured a 0.58 percent pincushion distortion, quite a bit higher than average. Chromatic aberration is very low, showing only about two faint pixels of coloration on either side of the target lines. (This distortion is visible as a very slight colored fringe around the objects at the edges of the field of view on the resolution target.) The most prominent optical problem we saw was rather pronounced softness in the extreme corners, but this didn't extend very far at all into the image area. Resolution Series, Wide Angle
Resolution Series, Telephoto
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Viewfinder Accuracy/Flash Uniformity
A very "tight" optical viewfinder, but a pretty accurate LCD. The F2600 Zoom's optical viewfinder is very tight, showing approximately 77 percent frame accuracy at wide angle, and about 74 percent at telephoto. Images framed with the optical viewfinder also show significant extra space at the top and left sides of the target. The LCD monitor fares much better, showing approximately 96 percent of the image area at the wide angle setting, and approximately 94 percent at telephoto. Given that we generally prefer LCD monitors to be as close to 100 percent accuracy as possible, the F2600 Zoom's LCD monitor does pretty well here. Flash distribution at wide angle is fairly even, with slight falloff at the corners and edges of the frame. At telephoto, flash distribution is even throughout the frame.
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