Note: This is not a paid review! I just felt like writing about my obnoxious-orange camera, ok? :D
A while back, I spotted a Fuji FinePix z30 on the clearance rack at my store, and nabbed it. I’d been looking into an ultra-small, portable, high-quality camera to stash in my purse while out and about town. My travel camera, a Kodak z1012 (which I love) is just too big to carry around with me. I use it for my “professional” travels and I really don’t want to look like a tourist when I go to the library or shop at WalMart.
We went on a few trips this weekend, and I gave the Fuji a thorough test. It performed surprisingly well!
The camera starts up in an instant. There is a little sliding door on the front of the camera. It covers the lens while off (and closing the door shuts off the camera, too), and the camera instantly opens when you slide the door open. It starts up very fast. With my hefty Kodak, I have to wait several nail-biting seconds for it to start up– and for every photo I snap, I have to wait even more time before taking another! The Fuji is snappy— a real “point and shoot” camera.
The best things about the Fuji are this:
1. It has a rechargeable li-ion battery. You know what that means, don’t you? No more AA batteries!! Yessssss! I spend a FORTUNE on AAs and have been looking forward to the day I can personally STOP supporting the pensions of the CEOs at Duracell, EverReady, and RayOVac. The Fuji li-ion battery takes less than an hour to charge, too. I just love this!
2. It has an internal memory, with a slot for external SD card memory. This is so important to me, because I kinda forget things. Like SD cards. When we go on trips. Uh huh. Talk about FRUSTRATING. I had an old Canon that didn’t have an internal memory. TOTALLY forgot to pack a card. I didn’t realize I’d forgotten until we arrived at our destination. We drove around and around, looking for an open business that sold them, and found nothing. 
Boy, I kicked myself in the seat for that!
3. The Fuji will take videos. I’m not a big video person, but it’s nice to know it’s there if I need it.
4. It’s very small, but it’s not so tiny that it will slip out of your hand. I do tend to drop things (oopsies). The Fuji is about the size and dimension of a deck of cards, so it “fits” in my hands. The buttons on the back are of a grippy, rubbery material, too.
5. It has some nicer features, like adjustable flash and macro. Actually, the best thing I like about it is the very simple macro feature (macro is for closeups). It is amazing– the macro is either ON or OFF. See how simple that is?! When it comes to cameras, I *just* want to take nice photos not cook eggs and play piano, ykwim? With my Kodak camera, there’s a macro, but then there are a gadzillion other buttons and settings to adjust, and by then I’m too doggone tired to snap photos. And half the time, the Kodak macro photos are blurry. With the Fuji: want a closeup? Get a closeup. Simple!
6. The image files are .jpeg format, the audio files are .wav format and– BEST OF ALL– the video files are .avi format.
Warning rant ahead: My Kodak takes videos in .mov format. The .mov format is TOTALLY INCOMPATIBLE with Windows machines and software. Someone please tell me WHY OH WHY Kodak decided to print “Windows compatible” on their camera boxes, but then put the camera files in a non-Windows format?!?!? Gah!! (Yes, I spent about three hours last night trying to find codecs, players, and conversion programs for my Kodak videos, all to no avail They won’t play!!). Fuji has the good graces to put the videos in a format that most computers can READ and USE. Sheesh!
The only negative things I can think of about the Fuji are that the lens is high in the upper left hand side of the camera. It’s all too easy to get your finger on the lens while taking photos. And another issue is with the funky orange color. Not too attractive, in my opinion, and that’s probably why it was the only clearance model of it’s kind left on the shelf… but at least I’ll always see the neon color shining out from the deep, dark depths of my purse. There’s an adequate flash, loads of settings, but the camera is simple enough so that you aren’t bogged down trying to figure out what does what. I hate complex buttons and settings. The Fuji is nice and simple for a simple gal like me.
The Fuji FinePix z30 is a 10 megapixel camera (my Kodak z1012 is a 10.1), but it only has an optical zoom of 3x (my Kodak has 12x zoom). My Kodak takes nicer photos– the color is better and the images are clearer. But the Fuji is great for light travel and fast photos (like of that nasty driver who cut me off on the road, or of the blue heron flying past me in the parking lot).
So I think I got a good deal. I finally found a portable camera that works great and is something I won’t drop!
Wed, Jul 8, 2009
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