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Fuji FinePix 6900 Zoom Fuji updates their uniquely-styled "electronic SLR" with a 3.3 megapixel SuperCCD chip and improved color! Select a topic Reference: Datasheet F6900 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 F6900 Review --------------------------------- Digital Camera Comparometer (TM) --------------------------------- <-- Digital Cameras (Home) <-- Digital Camera Reviews Index <<Viewfinder :(Previous) | (Next): Exposure & Flash>> Page 5:Optics Review First Posted: 7/19/2001

Optics
The 6x, Super Electron Beam Coating (EBC) Fujinon 7.8-46.8mm zoom lens (equivalent to a 35-210mm lens on a 35mm camera) is a professional quality, high-precision lens with two aspherical elements (10 elements in seven groups) and low chromatic aberration. Though it measures only 46mm in depth, and is encased in a strong, lightweight magnesium alloy casing, the lens takes up a large part of the camera body -- much larger than the lenses typically used on FinePix digicams. This is doubtless due to the longer than normal zoom ratio and the lens's fairly large maximum aperture at full telephoto (f/3.1 at 210mm equivalent). The lens telescopes from the barrel when the camera is powered on, and returns when the camera is shut down. Focus ranges from 1.6 feet (50cm) to infinity in Normal mode, and from 3.9 to 32 inches (10 to 80cm) in Macro mode.

Autofocus is determined by a contrast-detection system and gives an audible notification when focusing has been completed. Manual focus is controlled by the notched focus ring at the end of the lens barrel. A switch on the side of the lens controls whether the camera is in Auto or Manual Focus mode. When focusing in Manual mode, a focusing indicator appears at the top of the monitor, next to the MF icon. Two arrows guide you to turn the focusing ring right or left (based on the subject in the very center of the monitor), and once you achieve correct focus, a round dot appears in place of the arrows. If you are in Manual focus mode, but want to speed up the process, you can push the One-Touch AF button on the side of the camera lens and it will quickly switch to Autofocus to complete the focus (the round focus dot will not be displayed).

We've typically found that digicam manual focus systems operate much better when accompanied by a distance readout scale, primarily because it's so difficult to tell whether the subject is in focus based on the LCD image. Fujifilm has addressed this issue by providing a Focus Check button on the back panel (just below the power button), that uses Super CCD technology to enlarge the center of the image to about twice its normal size. Surprisingly, this seems to be enough to make accurate judgments about image focus, and worked quite well in our own testing. In fact, we felt the magnified LCD view actually worked better than the Manual focus indicator, particularly in the case of low-contrast subjects.

As much as we appreciate the manual focus options this camera provides, we still feel the response time is rather slow and it takes a bit of scrutiny to decide when you've really achieved optimum focus. (The manual focus ring on the 6900 is actually a "fly by wire" control, since its motion doesn't control the lens directly, but instead just instructs the camera's processor to move the lens elements appropriately. This gives very fine control when you're zeroing in on a focus setting, but is rather slow when making major focus changes.) The in-focus indicator in the viewfinder is very useful for telling when you've achieved accurate focus, but users accustomed to manually focusing their 35mm lenses will find the response of the manual focus ring on the 6900 frustrating.

Aperture can be manually or automatically adjusted, depending on the exposure mode, from f/2.8-f/3.1 to f/11.0 with 13 steps in 1/3 "f" increments. The f/2.8-f/3.1 specification refers to the fact that the maximum effective aperture varies as the lens is zoomed from wide-angle to telephoto. This variation is documented in Fujifilm's specs for the lens. It's likely that a similar variation occurs for smaller apertures as well (meaning that the minimum aperture at the telephoto end of the lens's range is likely some number higher than f/11.0, but Fuji doesn't provide this specification, nor does the camera report it in its JPEG file headers.

Zoom is controlled from one of two locations: a large rocker pad on the side of the camera lens or the Up and Down Arrows buttons on the rear-panel four-way arrow pad. The 6900 Zoom also offers a digital telephoto function that works with all file sizes except for the 2,832 x 2,128-pixel setting, and is activated by zooming past the optical zoom range. A zoom status bar appears on the LCD display, showing the amount of digital and optical zoom available with the current camera settings. The amount of digital zoom depends on the actual image size, with the largest amount of digital zoom equaling 4.4x for the 640 x 480-pixel image size. There's no provision to disable the digital telephoto function, but you don't have to worry about inadvertently zooming too far and triggering digital telephoto, because the zoom stops at the end of the optical range, and doesn't proceed into digital telephoto unless you release the zoom button and press it toward the telephoto setting again.

We typically don't recommend using digital telephoto because it only crops the center of the image and enlarges the existing pixels -- compromising image quality by increasing noise levels and / or lowering resolution. However, Fujifilm's system is set up so that it never interpolates the image beyond what the sensor would normally deliver. (That is, it only crops, doesn't interpolate back up to larger pixel dimensions.) No digital telephoto is available at maximum image size, and the amount of digital telephoto available at any given image size always corresponds to a simple cropping of the maximum-resolution file. Therefore, digital telephoto will be slightly less sharp than the optical telephoto image, but it won't degrade to the extent seen in some cameras.

A set of threads on the inside lip of the lens barrel accommodate wide-angle and telephoto lens conversion kits, available as accessories from Fujifilm. As we wrote in our review of the FinePix 4900 last year, we'd like to see the thread adapter part of this kit sold separately from the lens conversion kits, so you could buy it for use with standard 55mm filters or macro lenses, without having to purchase the whole kit.

In our tests, the lens on the 6900 showed rather high barrel distortion in its wide angle position, about 1.2%. Pincushion distortion was about 0.56% at the telephoto setting. Both numbers are higher than average among the high-end consumer digicams we've tested. Chromatic distortion is very low, but there's a fair bit of corner softness evident at all focal lengths.