Fujifilm FinePix Z70 Review

The Fujifilm FinePix Z70 is a style-focused ultra-compact digital camera with a 12 megapixel CCD sensor, a 2.7 inch LCD screen and a 5x optical zoom lens (36-180mm focal length) with a sliding cover. For movie makers the Z70 has the must-have feature of 2010, high-definition 720p video recording at 30fps, with the welcome ability to use the 5x zoom during recording and a handy one-touch record button. Easy uploads to Facebook/YouTube, ISO 100 up to ISO 1600 at full resolution, Tracking Auto Focus, support for SD/SDHC memory cards, and an Automatic Scene Recognition mode for beginners complete the Z70’s main specifications. The Fujifilm FinePix Z70 costs £129.99 / $149.95 and is available in black silver, red, blue or purple.
Ease of Use

The Fujifilm FinePix Z70 is a small and slim metal-bodied point and shoot camera with a sliding cover that protects the lens and also turns the camera on and off. It's cheaper than its build quality and good looks would initially suggest, at £129.99 / $149.95 costing a lot less than other fashion-orientated snapshot rivals. Size and pricing aside, this 12-megapixel camera is as much about user friendliness as creative flexibility. For those with kids or subjects that don't stay put its auto focus tracking ability will doubtless come in handy, as will the 5x internal zoom lens, which provides a focal range of 36mm wide-angle to 180mm telephoto.

Given the telephoto lens reach of 180mm, image stabilisation is a welcome inclusion, albeit a less effective digital system which increases the ISO speed rather than the more advanced CCD-shift anti shake found on other models in Fujifilm's extensive range. In practice therefore with the Fujifilm FinePix Z70 it's mostly a case of a half press of the shutter release button and the camera does the rest, particularly with Fujifilm including an 'auto everything' scene recognition (SR) auto mode. Although far from infallible - if you're not paying close attention and it's presented with a busy scene it'll call up landscape when macro is needed and vice versa - it adds to the beginner-friendly feel.

The Z70 introduces high-definition video for the first time to the Fujifilm Z-series, capturing 1280 x 720 pixel footage at 30fps with mono sound, full use of the 5x zoom and a maximum recording time of 15 minutes per clip. Alternatively there are also 640 x 480 pixels and 320 x 240 pixels modes, also at 30 fps. Although there's no built-in HDMI port, you could use Fujifilm's optional HD Player Kit instead, which includes an HD card reader that connects the camera to your HDTV, and even a wireless remote control. The in-camera Movie Edit function allows you to make your movies black and white, sepia or even add backlight correction to correct the exposure.
Front Rear

The best Digital Cameras

We're constantly asked the questions "What is the best digital camera?", "Which camera should I buy?" and "I have X amount of money, what's the best digital camera in my price range?".

In an attempt to answer all of these questions and lighten the load on our inbox, we've launched this guide to the Best Digital Cameras (plus accessories and books), which represents what we currently think are the best cameras in each price category.

Note that this guide will constantly be updated to reflect the ever-changing digital camera marketplace, so make sure to check back often.

For current digital cameras on eBay click this link.

Most Expensive Digital Cameras

Digital Cameras

A digital camera (or digicam) is a camera that takes video or still photographs, or both, digitally by recording images via an electronic image sensor.

Front and back of Canon PowerShot A95


Many compact digital still cameras can record sound and moving video as well as still photographs. Most 21st century cameras are digital.[1]

Digital cameras can do things film cameras cannot: displaying images on a screen immediately after they are recorded, storing thousands of images on a single small memory device, recording video with sound, and deleting images to free storage space. Some can crop pictures and perform other elementary image editing. The optical system works the same as in film cameras, typically using a lens with a variable diaphragm to focus light onto an image pickup device. The diaphragm and shutter admit the correct amount of light to the imager, just as with film but the image pickup device is electronic rather than chemical.

Digital cameras are incorporated into many devices ranging from PDAs and mobile phones (called camera phones) to vehicles. The Hubble Space Telescope and other astronomical devices are essentially specialized digital cameras.

Types of digital cameras

Digital cameras are made in a wide range of sizes, prices and capabilities. The majority are camera phones, operated as a mobile application through the cellphone menu. Professional photographers and many amateurs use larger, more expensive digital single-lens reflex cameras (DSLR) for their greater versatility. Between these extremes lie digital compact cameras and bridge digital cameras that "bridge" the gap between amateur and professional cameras. Specialized cameras including multispectral imaging equipment and astrographs continue to serve the scientific, military, medical and other special purposes for which digital photography was invented.
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Compact digital cameras

Subcompact with lens assembly retracted

Compact cameras are designed to be tiny and portable and are particularly suitable for casual and "snapshot" use, thus are also called point-and-shoot cameras. The smallest, generally less than 20 mm thick, are described as subcompacts or "ultra-compacts".

Most, apart from ruggedized or water-resistant models, incorporate a retractable lens assembly allowing a thin camera to have a moderately long focal length and thus fully exploit an image sensor larger than that on a camera phone, and a mechanized lens cap to cover the lens when retracted. The retracted and capped lens is protected from keys, coins and other hard objects, thus making a thin, pocketable package. Subcompacts commonly have one lug and a short wrist strap which aids extraction from a pocket, while thicker compacts may have two lugs for attaching a neck strap.

Compact cameras are usually designed to be easy to use, sacrificing advanced features and picture quality for compactness and simplicity; images can usually only be stored using lossy compression (JPEG). Most have a built-in flash usually of low power, sufficient for nearby subjects. Live preview is almost always used to frame the photo. Most have limited motion picture capability. Compacts often have macro capability and zoom lenses but the zoom range is usually less than for bridge and DSLR cameras. Generally a contrast-detect autofocus system, using the image data from the live preview feed of the main imager, focuses the lens.

Typically, these cameras incorporate a nearly-silent leaf shutter into their lenses.

For lower cost and smaller size, these cameras typically use image sensors with a diagonal of approximately 6 mm, corresponding to a crop factor around 6. This gives them weaker low-light performance, greater depth of field, generally closer focusing ability, and smaller components than cameras using larger sensors.

Bridge cameras
Main article: Bridge digital camera

Bridge are higher-end digital cameras that physically and ergonomically resemble DSLRs and share with them some advanced features, but share with compacts the use of a fixed lens and a small sensor. Like compacts, most use live preview to frame the image. Autofocus is achieved using the same contrast-detect mechanism, but many bridge cameras feature a manual focus mode, in some cases using a separate focus ring, for greater control.
File:S3000.jpg
Fujifilm FinePix S9000.

Due to the combination of big physical size but a small sensor, many of these cameras have very highly specified lenses with large zoom range and fast aperture, partially compensating for the inability to change lenses. To compensate for the lesser sensitivity of their small sensors, these cameras almost always include an image stabilization system to enable longer handheld exposures. The longest lens so far on a bridge camera is on the Canon SX30 digital camera, which encompasses an equivalent of 24-840 mm (35x).

These cameras are sometimes marketed as and confused with digital SLR cameras since the appearance is similar. Bridge cameras lack the reflex viewing system of DSLRs, have so far been fitted with fixed (non-interchangeable) lenses (although in some cases accessory wide-angle or telephoto converters can be attached to the lens, if they have lens thread), and can usually take movies with sound. The scene is composed by viewing either the liquid crystal display or the electronic viewfinder (EVF). Most have a longer shutter lag than a true dSLR, but they are capable of good image quality (with sufficient light) while being more compact and lighter than DSLRs. High-end models of this type have comparable resolutions to low and mid-range DSLRs. Many of these cameras can store images in a Raw image format, or processed and JPEG compressed, or both. The majority have a built-in flash similar to those found in DSLRs.

In bright sun, the quality difference between a good compact camera and a digital SLR is minimal but bridgecams are smaller, lighter, cost less and have a similar zoom ability to digital SLR. Thus a Bridge camera may better suit outdoor daytime activities, except when seeking professional-quality photos.[2]

In low light conditions and/or at ISO equivalents above 800, most bridge cameras (or megazooms) lack in image quality when compared to even entry level DSLRs.

Mirrorless interchangeable lens camera
Main article: Mirrorless interchangeable lens camera

In late 2008 a new type of camera emerged, combining the larger sensors and interchangeable lenses of DSLRs with the live preview viewing system of compact cameras, either through an electronic viewfinder or on the rear LCD. These are simpler and more compact than DSLRs due to the removal of the mirror box, and typically emulate the handling and ergonomics of either DSLRs or compacts. The system is use by Micro Four Thirds, borrowing components from the Four Thirds DSLR system. The Ricoh GXR of 2009 puts the sensor and other electronic components in the interchangeable sensor lens unit rather than in the camera body