Fuji FinePix 6800 ZoomA new SuperCCD sensor gives Fuji's latest ultra compact true 3.3 megapixel resolution and great color.<<Viewfinder :(Previous) | (Next): Exposure & Flash>> Page 5:OpticsReview First Posted: 4/8/2001 |
OpticsA 3x, 8.3-24.9mm lens is built into the 6800 Zoom, equivalent to a 36-108mm lens on a 35mm camera. Fujifilm used low dispersion glass and aspherical elements in the lens design to improve sharpness and reduce distortion. The telescoping lens design extends from front of the camera about 1.5 inches when the camera is powered on, and retracts when the camera is shut off. Instead of a lens cap, a sliding metal cover 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. The total time to first shot is thus a bit longer than in some designs we've tested.
Apertures are automatically controlled on the 6800 Zoom, but range from f/2.8 to f/10.8, depending on the lighting conditions and lens zoom setting. (Note that while the effective aperture actually ranges from f/2.8 to f/4.5 as the lens zooms, the camera always reports it as f/2.8.) The lens actually has two aperture settings, which the camera switches between as needed. The wide aperture ranges from f/2.8 to f/4.5 as the lens zooms from wide angle to telephoto. (One aperture setting, but the effective aperture changes with the focal length.) The smaller aperture ranges from f/7.0 to f/10.8.
Focus ranges from 2.0 feet (60 centimeters) to infinity in normal mode, and from 0.6 to 2.6 feet (20 to 80 centimeters) in macro mode. The 6800 Zoom's autofocus system uses a contrast-detection method to determine focus, based on the central portion of the image. A manual focus option is available in Manual and Night exposure 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, the manual focus option does work well, and the sharp LCD monitor made it surprisingly clear when the view was in focus. An interesting side note with the manual focus is that the macro and flash settings cannot be changed after manual focus has been activated, meaning you need to specify both before switching to manual focus. (This is because the two arrow buttons that control manual focus normally control macro and flash modes.)
In addition to the 3x optical zoom, the 6800 Zoom also offers a digital telephoto that enlarges the image as much as 4.4x, depending on the file quality setting. Zooming past the normal optical zoom range enables the digital zoom, with a zoom bar display in the LCD monitor indicating the amount of digital zoom in use. Digital telephoto is unavailable with the interpolated, 2,832 x 2,128 pixel resolution size. 2,048 x 1,536 pixel images can be digitally enlarged as much as 1.4x, while 1,280 x 960 pixel images can be enlarged to 2.2x. The smallest image size, 640 x 480 pixels, offers the maximum digital enlargement of 4.4x. (Movie files can be digitally enlarged to 2x.) As always, keep in mind that digital telephoto is no substitute for true optical zoom, as digital zoom is merely cropping out and enlarging the central portion of the CCD image. Digital telephoto images therefore suffer a loss of resolution and sometimes increased noise as well.
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