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Fujifilm FinePix 4800 Zoom Fuji updates their SuperCCD pocket camera with improved color and a hot-sync cradle! Select a topic Reference: Datasheet FinePix 4800 Zoom Sample Images --------------------------------- 1. Intro and Highlights 2. Executive Overview 3. Design 4. Viewfinder 5. Optics 6. Exposure & Flash 7. Shutter Lag & Cycle Time Tests 8. Operation & User Interface 9. Camera Modes & Menus 10. Image Storage & Interface 11. Video, Power, Software 12. Test Results & Conclusion --------------------------------- Print-Friendly Review Version Additional Resources and Other Links Reader Comments on FinePix 4800 Zoom Review --------------------------------- Digital Camera Comparometer (TM) --------------------------------- <-- Digital Cameras (Home) <-- Digital Camera Reviews Index <<Viewfinder :(Previous) | (Next): Exposure & Flash>> Page 5:Optics Review First Posted: 08/16/2001

Optics
The 4800 Zoom features a Super EBC Fujinon 3x, 8.3-24.9mm zoom lens (equivalent to a 36-108mm lens on a 35mm camera), with low-dispersion glass and six aspherical elements in six groups to improve sharpness and reduce optical distortion. The telescoping lens extends from the front of the camera about one inch when the camera is powered on, and retracts when the camera is shut off. Instead of a lens cap, a sliding metal plate automatically covers the lens when not in use. (The lens telescopes into place fairly quickly when the camera is turned on, but does so in two steps.)

Lens apertures are automatically controlled and range from f/2.8 to f/10.8, depending on the lens zoom setting and existing light conditions. Wide-angle settings are from f/2.8 to f/7.0, while telephoto settings are f/4.5 to f/10.8. (Note that while the effective maximum aperture actually ranges from f/2.8 to f/4.5 as the lens zooms from wide angle to telephoto, the camera always reports it as f/2.8.) Shutter speeds range from 1/2,000 to 3 seconds, giving the camera some low-light shooting capabilities. Both shutter speed and aperture are reported on the LCD monitor when the Shutter button is halfway pressed.

Focus ranges from 2.0 feet (60cm) to infinity in normal mode, and from 0.6 to 2.6 feet (20 to 80cm) in Macro mode. In macro mode, the minimum area that can be photographed is 2.4 x 1.8 inches (60.9 x 45.7 mm), about average. The 4800 Zoom's autofocus system uses a contrast-detection system to determine focus, based on the central portion of the image. A Manual focus option is available in Manual, Night, and Continuous Shooting modes, but doesn't report the distance on either the LCD monitor or smaller LCD status window. Despite the lack of a distance scale or readout, we found that the Manual focus worked very well, and the sharp LCD monitor made it surprisingly clear when the scene was in focus. An interesting side note is that the Macro and Flash settings cannot be changed after Manual focus is activated, therefore you have to set both of these before switching to Manual focus. (This is because the two arrow buttons that control Manual focus also control the Macro and Flash modes.)

In addition to the 3x optical zoom, the 4800 Zoom also offers a digital zoom that enlarges the image as much as 3.75x, depending on the file quality setting. Zooming past the normal optical zoom range enables the digital zoom, with a zoom bar display on the LCD monitor to indicate the amount of digital zoom in use. Digital telephoto is not available in the 2,400 x 1,800-pixel image size; 1,600 x 1,200 pixel images can be digitally enlarged as much as 1.5x; and 1,280 x 960 pixel images can be enlarged to 1.88x. The smallest image size, 640 x 480 pixels, offers the maximum digital enlargement, 3.75x. (Movie files can be digitally enlarged to 1.875x.) As always, we like to remind readers that digital zoom is no substitute for true optical zoom, as it merely crops out and enlarges the central portion of the CCD image. Digital telephoto images typically suffer a loss of resolution and may have increased noise levels as well.

Resolution on the 4800 is quite good for a 2 megapixel camera: We saw very faint artifacts in our resolution test target as low as 500 lines, but the image was quite clean out to 650 lines per picture height in both horizontal and vertical directions. Stronger artifacts set in after about 850 lines, but we'd still characterize it as having strong detail out to 950 lines per picture height, and "extinction" didn't occur until about 1100 lines. Overall, a very good performance. Optical distortion in the lens is fairly high at the wide angle end though, where we found 1.1 percent barrel distortion in our test images. At telephoto, this changes over to a very slight 0.12% pincushion distortion. We'd like to see less distortion at the wide angle end, but the figure for the telephoto setting is better than average.