Fujifilm FinePix Z100fd

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By Edvarcl Heng, CNET Asia
Nov 22, 2007

The compact camera seems to have reached the end of its tether. The megapixel race is largely over (consumers are seeing the relationship between increasing megapixel count at the same sensor size and increasing noise) and cameras can't seem to get any smaller.

So instead of practical additions, manufacturers are pushing out zany features. Some Nikon and Sony cams have Wi-Fi built-in. Olympus has digicams that are as tough as nails. Casio is partnering with YouTube. And the Fujifilm Z100fd, well, it's got a camera slider that glides… diagonally.

Design

Yes, the Z100fd is fearless in the face of common slider design philosophy. Sony do it vertically. The first Fujifilm FinePix Z1 and Casio does it horizontal. So the oblique slider must be Fujifilm for thinking out of the box.

Functionally, the diagonal slider works the same as a sideward version--if you pull it from the side. It doesn't work when we tried from the top. But we like it for the glide mechanism moves with a smooth fluid motion.

But the Z100fd is more than a design aberration. It's one of the best-looking compact cameras to gallop out of the Fujifilm stable. In fact, we like to think that its brushed metal finish and straight utilitarian lines puts it on par with the best that Sony's got (the Cyber-shot T200).

It's solid in feel and weighty (138g). The two-tone color scheme chic. Buttons are functional in design with good tactile depth, and that's true even for the too-tiny Display and Playback nubs beneath the scroll wheel.

The stylized and illuminated Z; tiny nub of a button.

And the scroll wheel? It's another pseudo celebration of the iPod's Click Wheel. The scroll is mechanical and the four compass points are clickable. But compared with the scroll wheel on the Nikon Coolpix S51c, it's unnecessarily stiff and doesn't allow for a smooth rolling motion. We found pressing on the compass points to be more accurate.

The menu is classic Fujifilm. There are tabs for fast browsing and the categorizing of camera settings is generally neat.

But we didn't like how the scene selection, camera modes and camera settings are all accessed through the same button. Unlike the F50fd, which splits up access among three buttons, and thus quick access; the Z100fd have them all cobbled up together. This makes menu navigation irritating.

To make an immediate change to the ISO means clicking on the Menu button, scrolling up three items, clicking through and scrolling down another five items before you arrive at the ISO control. These tedious steps apply to other essential adjustments such as white balance and exposure compensation.

Another irk is that the camera, like the older Fujifilms, will throw you out of the menu controls once you have changed a setting. For example, after you have adjusted the date and time, you will need to jump through the same hoops in order to set the LCD brightness.

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