Fuji FinePix 2800 ZoomTwo megapixels, a 6x zoom lens, great pictures, and a bargain price: Another great "value leader" from Fuji!<<Reference: Datasheet :(Previous) | (Next): Print-Friendly Review Version>> FinePix 2800 Sample ImagesReview First Posted: 02/06/2002 |
| 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: (738 k)
The extreme tonal range of this image makes it a tough shot for many digicams, which is precisely why I set it up this way. (And also, why I don't use fill-flash on it.) The object is to hold highlight and shadow detail without producing a "flat" picture with muddy colors, and the Fuji FinePix 2800 Zoom did a good job of it. The shot at right has a +0.3 EV exposure compensation adjustment, which brightened up the midtones without losing too many highlight details. Both the Auto (781 k) and Daylight (784 k) white balance settings produced very similar results, so I chose the Auto setting for our main series. Skin tones are slightly pinkish, but the blue flowers look about right (this is a difficult blue for many digicams). Resolution is moderate, with sharp details throughout the frame. To view the exposure series from zero to +0.3 EV, see files F28OUTAP0.HTM and F28OUTAP1.HTM on our thumbnail page. |
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| Closer Portrait: (736 k)
Overall results are similar to the wider shot above, and the 6x zoom lens helps prevent any distortion of the model's features. (A zoom lens is very helpful for close-in people shots like this.) Resolution is high in the model's face and hair, with even more fine detail visible in this close-up shot. Details are also very crisp and well-defined, with good clarity in the shadow areas. The main shot was taken without any exposure compensation, as the slightest adjustment blew out the highlight areas. See files F28FACAP0.HTM and F28FACAP1.HTM on our thumbnail
page to view the exposure series (from zero to +0.3 EV). |
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Indoor Portrait, Flash:
Somewhat low intensity, and a slight color cast. The 2800 Zoom's flash illuminates the subject fairly well, though intensity is a little low, and the camera's exposure compensation adjustment doesn't apply to flash exposures. The strong background incandescent lighting results in an orange/magenta color cast, but overall color isn't too bad. A quick adjustment in an image editing application should clean things right up. |
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Indoor
Portrait, No Flash:
The 2800 Zoom falls victim to American household incandescent lighting. 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 2800 Zoom's white balance system had some trouble here. Both the Auto and Incandescent settings produced practically identical results, so I chose the Auto setting for the main selection, with an exposure adjustment of +0.7 EV. Overall color is very warm, resulting in yellowish skin tones and white values. (An editing program could clean this up fairly quickly, but there's a lot more yellow here than I'd like to see.) |
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House Shot: (767 k)
Excellent resolution, with good color. We shot this target with the Auto (772 k) and Daylight (767 k) white balance settings. Though the Daylight setting has a bit of a greenish tinge, I preferred that to the warm cast of the Auto setting. Resolution is moderately high, with fairly sharp details throughout the frame (we noticed only very slight corner softness in all four corners). |
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| Far-Field Test (750 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 my ultimate "resolution shot," given the infinite range of detail in a natural scene like this. The 2800 Zoom captures a lot of detail throughout the frame, especially in the tree limbs above the house and in the front shrubbery. Details are just slightly soft, but remain well-defined. The bright sunlight tricks the 2800 Zoom into losing practically all of the detail in the white bay window area, revealing a limited dynamic range. The shadow area above the front door shows stronger detail, with the brick pattern completely visible. The table below shows our standard resolution and quality series. Resolution Series:
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| Lens Zoom Range
Excellent 6x zoom range, with crisp digital telephoto. In response to reader requests to show an example of a camera's zoom range, I've included the following series of shots, showing the field of view with the lens at full wide angle, at full 6x telephoto, and at full telephoto with the 2.5x digital zoom enabled. The 2800 Zoom's lens covers a range equivalent to a 38-228mm zoom on a 35mm film camera. Following are the results at each zoom setting.
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Musicians Poster
Great color and detail. For this test, I again shot with the Auto (746 k) and Daylight (750 k) white balance settings, choosing the Daylight setting for the main image. (The Auto setting resulted in too warm of a color balance, probably in response to the large amount of blue in the composition.) The Oriental model's blue robe looks good, with only the faintest purple tints in the deep shadow areas. (This is a tough blue for many digicams to get right.) Resolution is high, judging by the embroidery details of the blue robe. |
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Macro Shot
Great resolution, color, and detail, only average minimum area, and some distortion. The 2800 Zoom performs pretty well in the macro category, capturing a minimum area of 3.8 x 2.8 inches (95.89 x 71.92 millimeters). Resolution, color, and detail are all very good. I noticed a little corner softness, but it doesn't extend very far into the image area, as remaining details are crisp and distinct. There is some pretty noticeable barrel distortion though, which you can see in the righthand side of the bill in particular. The camera's flash (756 k) throttles down for the macro area fairly well, though intensity is slightly dim. |
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"Davebox" Test Target
Good color overall, but a yellowish color balance, and slightly weak saturation. I shot samples of this target with the Auto (742 k) and Daylight (744 k) white balance settings, obtaining nearly identical results with each. Thus, I chose the Auto setting for the main image. Overall color balance is slightly yellow, and saturation is a bit weak in the large color blocks (except for the large red block). Exposure looks good, as the 2800 Zoom picks up the subtle tonal distribution of the Q60 chart, as well as the highlight details in the white gauze. The shadow area of the charcoal briquettes has strong detail as well, with only moderate noise. |
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| Low-Light Tests
Somewhat weak low light performance, not enough for shooting under average city street lighting at night. The 2800 Zoom features full automatic exposure control and a maximum shutter time of only a half a second, which limits its low-light shooting capabilities quite a bit. The camera captured bright, clear images at light levels only as low as four foot-candles (44 lux), which is about two stops brighter than average city street lighting at night. Color looks good, though slightly warm, and image noise is very low. The table below shows the best exposure I was 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
A fairly strong flash:Fuji's flash range estimations are conservative. Fuji rates the 2800 Zoom's flash as effective to about 11.5 feet (3.5 meters), which seems slightly conservative in light of my test results. In my testing, the 2800 Zoom's flash was brightest (almost too bright) at the eight foot distance. Intensity decreased very slightly with each additional foot of distance, but remained effective (though slightly dim) at the 14 foot distance. Below is the flash range series, with distances from eight to 14 feet from the target.
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| ISO-12233 (WG-18) Resolution Test (764 k)
The 2800 Zoom performed very well on my "laboratory" resolution test chart. It started showing artifacts in the test patterns at resolutions as low as 600 lines per picture height vertically, though I noticed artifacts as low as 300 lines horizontally. I found "strong detail" out to at about 800 lines. "Extinction" of the target patterns occurred at about 950 lines. Optical distortion on the 2800 Zoom is high at the wide-angle end, where I measured an approximate 0.8 percent barrel distortion. The telephoto end fared slightly better, though I measured an approximate 0.6 pincushion distortion. Chromatic aberration is very low, showing only about two or three faint red pixels of coloration on one 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.) Resolution Series, Wide Angle
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Viewfinder Accuracy/Flash Uniformity
Very good viewfinder accuracy, but the electronic viewfinder will have a hard time in low light. The 2800 Zoom's electronic optical viewfinder and LCD monitor showed great accuracy, with identical results. I measured approximately 93 percent frame accuracy at wide angle, and about 95 percent at telephoto, with both viewfinders. Given that I prefer to see LCD monitors as close to 100 percent accuracy as possible, the 2800 Zoom does a pretty job here. Flash distribution at wide angle shows slight falloff at the corners of the frame. At telephoto, flash distribution is more even, though some falloff is visible in the corners.
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