Fujifilm FinePix 6800Z Review. Phil Askey, April 2001

Review based on a production Fujifilm FinePix 6800z

On the 1st February this year Fujifilm announced two new digital cameras, the 4800Z and 6800Z to supersede their popular 4700Z model. Both cameras shared the same new (but still familiar) "Porsche design" case and 3x optical zoom, however the 6800Z features a new 3.3 megapixel SuperCCD sensor which generates a 6 megapixel image (thanks to Fujiilm's "image processing").

, this new sensor captures the image a 3.3 megapixels which are then processed (interpolated to you and me) to a 6 megapixel (2,832 x 2,128) image.

Compared to the FinePix 4700Z

SuperCCD

Still controversial Fujifilm seem to have ignored many of the industry "nay-sayers" and continued with their line of SuperCCD sensors. The 6800Z has the same "Honeycomb" SuperCCD design found in the 4700Z, 4800Z, 4900Z and S1 Pro. 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 6800Z has a 3.3 megapixel SuperCCD which generates a 6 megapixel image (2832 x 2128). 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.

The 6800Z is also the first (along with the 4800Z and recently announced 6900Z) SuperCCD digital camera to support ISO 100 sensitivity, and also noticeably Fujifilm have dropped the ISO 800 sensitivity available on the 4700Z and 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).

Photographs of the camera were taken with a Canon EOS-D30, 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 960 x 720 or smaller if cropped) image in a new window. To navigate the review simply use the next / previous page buttons, to jump to a particular section either pick the section from the drop down or select it from the navigation bar at the top. DPReview calibrate their monitors using ColorVision Optical at the PC normal gamma of 2.2, this means that on our monitors we can make out the difference between all of the (computer generated) grayscale blocks below. We recommend to make the most of this review you should be able to see the difference (at least) between X,Y and Z and ideally A,B and C.

This review is Copyright 2001 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.