Fujifilm FinePix 4900Z Review, Phil Askey, October 2000
Review based on a production FinePix 4900Z
Radical. Futuristic. I heard several descriptions leveled
at the 4900Z while at Photokina 2000 this year. Certainly when Fujifilm
first hinted and then
later announced the
4900Z a lot of people oohed and ahhed at the design. Echoes of SLR, yet
modern looks and an attractive feature set. Officially the 4900Z is a
replacement for last years 2900Z. In my mind it's much more of a camera
than the 2900Z was.
The 4900Z is targeted at the "prosumer" market,
those users who are looking for a digital camera with manual features
and good image quality without having to spend a small fortune on digital
SLR kit. The 4900Z specifications are impressive, a full 6x optical zoom,
auto and manual focus, a 2.4 megapixel SuperCCD generating 4.3 megapixel
images, full manual exposure options, majority of controls on the outside
of the camera and a LCD viewfinder (0.556") (dubbed EVF; Electronic
View Finder by Fujifilm) which means an "almost real" TTL view
from your eye directly through the lens.
SuperCCD
 The
4900Z has the same "Honeycomb" SuperCCD's found in the 4700Z.
The major difference between a SuperCCD and standard CCD is the orientation
of the CCD pixels. In a SuperCCD they're orientated in a diamond formation,
turning this into a square image requires interpolation which generates
a higher pixel count.
The Fuji 4900Z has a 2.4 megapixel SuperCCD which generates
a 4.3 megapixel image (2400 x 1800). This means that the cameras internal
systems are processing those diagonally orientated pixels to generate
the image... The jury is still out as to whether this is a good thing
or not (it's definitely worked for the S1 Pro which features a 3.2 megapixel
SuperCCD but less so for the 4700Z), the SuperCCD design does lend itself
to higher sensitivity thus the 4900z has a lowest sensitivity of ISO 125
and highest of ISO 800. Interesting note is that Fujifilm have introduced
the lower ISO of 125 with the 4900Z.
If you're new to digital photography you may wish to
read the Digital Photography
Glossary before diving into this review (it may help you understand
some of the terms used).
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Photographs of the camera
were taken with a Nikon D1, images which can be viewed at a larger
size have a small magnifying glass icon in the bottom right corner
of the image, clicking on the image will display a larger (normally
1024 x 768 or smaller if cropped) image in a new window.
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This review is Copyright 2000 Phil
Askey and the review in part or in whole may NOT be reproduced in any
electronic or printed medium without prior permission from the author.
For information on reproducing any part of this review (or any images)
please contact: Phil Askey.
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