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By Shaun Marin, CNET.co.uk
Oct 23, 2006

Most Fujifilm cameras look slightly odd. Don't get us wrong, we like the occasional quirky styling of the S5600, or the chunkier-than-expected body shape of the excellent F11, but when it comes to good looking we remain to be convinced. The Z series is where Fujifilm's designers cater for the masses and offer the common (or beer) garden snapper a camera that looks good and is slim enough that friends with a Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T7 or the latest Casio won't start giggling when it's whipped out.

Another problem Fujifilm has is persuading punters that megapixels are not the last word in digital imaging--the Z3 boasts a reasonable 5 megapixels alongside a decent feature set for a style-led camera. But in a market place where 6-, 8- and even 10-megapixel compact cameras are grabbing the headlines, is it enough?

Design
Any camera that shares a name with a sporty BMW touring car had better be a good-looking chunk of technology, and the latest instalment in Fujifilm's catwalk-friendly Z series is certainly that. The Z3 boasts the same clean lines as its predecessors, with an attractive curved design and a smart sliding lens cover that doubles up as the on/off switch. The whole shebang is made from sturdy aluminium, and it feels as solid as any compact camera on the market.

Our only gripe with the design is that while the color range has been increased to three models, the classy black and silver number has fallen by the wayside. Instead, we keep the cool silver, and are offered boy and girl versions in a baby blue or soft pink finish.

It may not be as slim as say the Cyber-shot DSC-T7, but the Z3 is a tad shorter and still cuts a slimline dash at 90mm by 55mm by 20mm. It weighs in at a handbag--or manbag--friendly 150g with card and battery on board. There's little in the way of protrusions, too, and the lanyard slips through a couple of embedded slots on the right-hand side of the camera.

It may be small, but the extra depth compared to some compacts means it's reasonably easy to get to grips with, and fingers and thumbs don't get in the way of the lens and flash. This makes for steady images, especially when you rack up the ISO settings--more on that later. The sliding cover can sometimes be a pain, though, and it feels clumsy getting your hand from opening the camera to ready to shoot, even though start-up time is a racy 0.5 seconds.

With an understandable lack of originality, all of the important controls are located on the top and back of the camera. The top lip features a mere two controls--the shutter release button and a switch that moves you from still to movie mode. There's also room up there for a very small microphone, which is located just about where your left forefinger would be if you were trying to hold the camera very still, so beware when shooting film. The speaker is located on the left-hand side panel of the camera.

The lack of top lip controls obviously means more buttons squeezed onto the back panel, and at first glance it does look bit of a mess. At the top, right under where our thumb sits, resides the zoom controller, which is quite large for a compact; bigger than, for example, the one on the Kodak EasyShare V610. Below this are three lights that display different colors depending on what the camera is doing--a green flashing light means that the autofocus is locking in; solid red means the battery is charging and blinking orange means the flash is re-charging. The seven combinations are really too much to remember, but hopefully most of the warning ones won't arise.

Below the traffic signals there's a five-way controller for getting into frequently used options, such as macro and flash; a button to enter the playback mode; and the Fujifilm 'f' button, which provides you with quick access to important tweaks such as the number of megapixels shot--from 0.3 right up to the full 5--and ISO and color settings.

The rest of the back panel is taken up with a 64mm (2.5-inch) LCD screen. It boasts an impressive 230,000 pixels and proves itself to be an invaluable tool for framing and reviewing images--especially as there's no optical viewfinder available. It even passes muster in bright sunlight, although with the sun directly behind our back we've encountered better screens.

At the bottom of the camera a flap pops out to reveal a compartment for the battery and memory card. Being a Fujifilm camera, it's no surprise to find that storage is via the xD card format, which are now available in sizes of up to 2GB for around US$113. We have no real issues with xD, but when you consider the lack of compatibility with other technology it may be a problem--Samsung's debut Blu-ray player, the BD-P1000, has a multi-card slot that covers most of the card formats, except xD.

Finally there's a small, mini-USB sized socket which allows you to connect the Z3 to the supplied docking station. You'll need this to both transfer images via USB and charge the camera, which means one more thing to pack if you're going on holiday. It's also is the only way to attach a tripod, and isn't the most elegant of solutions.

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