Fujifilm FinePix Z700EXR 12 MP Super CCD EXR Digital Camera with 5x Optical Zoom and 3.5-Inch Touch-Screen LCD
- 12-megapixel resolution; Super CCD EXR sensor
- 3.5-inch, wide (16:9) high-resolution touch-screen LCD
- 5x periscopic optical zoom lens (36-180mm equivalent); dual image stabilization
- Capture HD movies in 720p with sound; Dual Direction GUI and Dual Image Display
- Face Recognition; Pet Detection; easy Web upload
Product Description
Fujifilm FinePix Z700EXR- 12MP SuperCCD EXR, Fujinon 5x Periscopic Optical Zoom, 3.5″ High Resolution (16:9) Touch LCD. Dual Direction GUI w/ Auto Rotation, Other features include: Face Detection w/ Red Eye Removal, Face Recognition, Pet Detection, Dual Image Stabilization, High Sensitivity 1600 ISO, 6 Scene – SR Auto Automatic Scene Recognition, HD Movie 720p w/ Sound, Thin Metal Body 17.9mm, Li-Ion Rechargeable Battery…. More >>
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I bought the Fujiflim FinePix Z700EXR for my Hubby as a gift….he wanted a light pocket size camera that was easy to use. I choose the Z700EXR for all the features at a very good price. I have always used top the line Sony Cyber-shot digital point & shoot cameras in the past and was very surprised to find that the Z700EXR photos are on the same par as my Sony’s.
At first I was not happy with the fact that the EXR auto mode reduces the megapixels by half, but after using that setting and then editing the shot in the camera to S (3mp) the photo was still sharp and clear, good for small prints. Love the touch screen, the natural plus flash dual mode, ease of use and the size. Although the video is of good quality it is not as great as my Sony’s but we do not buy a ditigal camera for that purpose. All features & modes are self explainatory and not difficult to understand.
Oh yes, Hubby is very happy with the Z700EXR also….it fits in his pocket, is easy to use and takes great photos.
Rating: 5 / 5
WHAT’S INCLUDED IN THE BOX:
Camera, battery charger, battery, strap, USB cable and a CD.
CAMERA:
The camera is very compact. 12 megapixel res. It has a slider cover that serves as lens protector as well as the on and off button. The first thing to setup is the language, date and time, which is simple and easy. After that, if you have any experience using a digital camera, you are pretty much set in taking your pictures out of the box. The first thing to note is that it has the wow factor that you can pretty much shoot, focus, and set the proper exposure by merely using the LCD touchscreen. Hold the camera, compose, touch your subject on the screen and it will shoot a picture without using the shutter button. Impressive! Well, nice to have an option, but then in the end, your normal trigger finger is still looking for the usual shutter feel when it comes to cheesy times. Fuji is well known to take better pictures in low lighting situations and the Z700 is no exception. ISO can be set up to 3200.
LCD.
This camera has a 3.5 inches touch screen widescreen LCD – it is huge. I mean huge! The glass covers the entire back of the camera. Unfortunately, that’s the trade off – no viewfinder. It also has an accelerometer similar to the iPod where the image automatically shifts to portrait or landscape depending on how you hold the camera. You can advance or check the previous photos by sliding your finger forward or back. The only thing missing is the pinch for zooming in and out of an image.
ZOOM:
Zoom is 5x optical.
HIGH DEFINITION MOVIE:
This camera is capable of shooting 1280 x 720 high def movie (in AVI format). I was pretty excited to try this function as I was hoping with a bigger lens will have better quality than my Flip HD video camera. Not so, it is quite good on outdoor scenes, but very disappointing in indoor performance. Result is very grainy in dim light situations. It also cannot zoom during video shoots. Mono. 30 frames/sec.
CHARGER:
The included charger is rated for 100-240V, 50/60 Hz, which makes it a great portable travel charger. Not only it can accommodate the NP-45A battery which this camera uses, it also can charge another type of battery – the NP-50. Output is 4.2V at 550 mA. It is very light and is equipped with a folding retractable prongs for easy storage. Made in China.
BATTERY:
Fujifilm NP-45 Lithium Ion Rechargeable Battery for Fuji Z & J Series Digital Cameras. 3.7 V720 mAh.
MEMORY CARD:
Uses Secure Digital (SD) memory cards (not included). You can have up to an 8G SDHC memory card. The camera has a 30MB (6 photos if you shoot in max resolution) internal memory built-in, but pretty limited in capacity.
VERDICT:
Overall, the camera takes wonderful photos. It has tons of presets for every imaginable shooting situation. You just have to pick the right setting and you’ll almost certainly be satisfied. So small, but feature packed. Looking back in the days of my 640 x 480 Mavica, this pocket friendly point & shoot has gone a long long way.
Rating: 4 / 5
Having owned 3 different models of the Z-Series Fuji camera, I feel so fortunate to be able to review this top-of-the-line Z700 EXR. I’m a camera buff; I have purchased ten Fuji’s since 2003 and have never been let down by any of them. (My oldest, a 2MP A205, still works).
I love the Z700’s metal construction. I have the red, it’s a true red with no pink tones, so it should appeal to either gender. The tripod mount is located center bottom, so you can use a mini-tripod without it tipping over. I’m fairly certain the silver parts are plastic, but the main camera body is metal.
What’s in the box? The camera, rechargeable lithium-ion battery, battery charger, USB cable, software CD, basic instruction manual and hand strap. The manual is 23 pages in the English version, and also comes with French and Spanish manuals. The full manual is on the CD.
The lens is protected by a sliding cover which also powers the camera on and off. The lens (5X optical) zooms in and out INSIDE the camera, so you don’t have to be as careful when you handle it. Unless you drop the camera you probably won’t get a zoom error that commonly happens with cameras where the lens protrudes outward when powered up and you accidentally bump it into something.
One thing I like better about this Z700 than some of the older Z series is the USB connector is not located inside the battery compartment, it’s on the side of the camera, behind a door. The battery compartment door (on the bottom) appears to be well-made.
On previous Z cameras the buttons were too close and it was easy to press the incorrect one. I don’t have that problem here as everything is done by touch-screen. At the same time I’m a little skeptical that the screen will work years from now. It’s a whopping big 3.5 inches, biggest I’ve seen so far, but it has to be large due to the “buttons” being on the LCD. In any event, once you get used to using it, all the symbols for the functions look similar to what you’d see on a conventional digital camera. A light touch is all that is needed to choose your settings.
The default is the EXR Auto mode – this is similar as the SR Auto (scene recognition) mode on less expensive Fuji’s. The sensor is supposed to discern what you are taking a picture of: Portrait, Landscape, Night, Macro, Backlit Portrait, or Night Portrait. In addition to choosing the scene, it also decides which EXR mode to use automatically. Sometimes the pictures turn out better if I choose the mode myself instead of letting the camera do it automatically. Just tap over to either of the 3 EXR shooting modes: HR, SN, or DR, because the camera doesn’t always choose the correct scene if used in EXR AUTO (it messes up approximately 5% of the time, not that big a deal, but still….). I haven’t been lucky with the SN setting – so far SN has resulted in grainy pictures, I guess practice makes perfect with this setting. (HR is high resolution, SN stands for sensitivity/low noise, and DR stands for dynamic range).
Recovery time after taking a picture without using the flash was under a second; recovery time between pictures with the flash firing was under 2 seconds before the camera was ready to take another shot…this was faster than other cameras I’ve used recently. Recovery time also depends on the class of your SD card.
This camera has OPTICAL Image Stabilization, accomplished by CCD sensor-shift technology. As far as manual settings, the settings are: ISO, white balance, exposure compensation, size, quality (normal/fine), D-range, and film simulation.
So far I’ve shot over 100 pictures and some short movies and the battery is still fully charged. The charger is included and you can fully charge the battery in a little over an hour. I prefer lithium batteries over AA’s as they make the camera lighter in weight. You just have to plan ahead in case you are going somewhere so you have a fully charged battery, or buy a spare. Speaking of camera weight, the Z700 is slightly heavier than other compact cameras, due to it being metal.
Being a pet owner, my favorite feature is the Pet Recognition. It can recognize the facial features of many dog and cat breeds to optimize the focus. My cats are mixed breeds and they were recognized too. However, it will not recognize Persians with smooshed-up faces. I’ve noticed that when used in the cat (or dog) mode, the camera tends to focus on the face, and not the rest of the body. Works better as a “portrait” shot. If I’m photographing the entire body, it works better on EXR Auto.
There are two movie selections – HD and 640 in the AVI format. The HD video quality is better than my Flip Mino HD camcorder. Optical zoom needs to be set before recording starts, it cannot be changed after the button is pushed. Focus is also set when recording begins, but exposure and white balance are constantly adjusting during the recording.
Playing movies on your TV requires an optional A/V cable. Playing HD movies requires an optional HDMI cable. There is also a Model HDP-L1 player available on Fujifilm’s web site, which includes an HD card reader and a remote. Since I don’t have an HDTV, I didn’t purchase this so I can’t comment on it.
This camera comes with Fuji photo editing software (not a favorite of mine). It’s compatible with Windows 7, Vista, XP and Mac. The software is not as good as Picasa, so I don’t use it. I never edit my photos while in the camera, it’s easier to use the computer for this.
This camera has 30 MB of internal memory, so pick up an SD card with a minimum Class 4 speed.
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THINGS I DON’T LIKE:
1. The screen shows fingerprints so I’m constantly wiping it off with a cloth. I hate dirty screens!
2. One thing I did not expect is that the touchscreen (and the entire camera) gets very warm if you have it turned on for an extended period of time – 10 minutes or so is all it took for mine to heat up – which wouldn’t be an unusually long period of time if you are taking lots of pictures. I am not sure if the camera could overheat, but it’s something to keep in mind.
3. Due to practically the entire back of the camera being a touch-screen, there’s not much area to grasp the camera. I find myself carefully holding the top and bottom. And I ruined a lot of pictures in the beginning with my fingers getting in the way of the lens.
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WHO WOULD I RECOMMEND THIS CAMERA FOR? Not a young child because of the touch-screen – easily broken and this camera isn’t cheap. Not for grandma or grandpa either unless they are somewhat comfortable with digital cameras already. For everyone else: Go for it! It’s a cool-looking camera that takes really great pictures. I would definitely choose another Fuji with the Super CCD EXR. Would I buy another touch-screen? I’m not sure at this point. It will depend on how long this one lasts before it gives me trouble. I hope it never does. To be honest, I didn’t much care for the touch-screen at first, but it’s growing on me.
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If you need a camera case, this one is perfect for the Z700EXR Lowepro Volta 20 Camera Case (Black) and it has enough room to carry an extra battery and SD card.
Rating: 5 / 5
Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R13CD7P1R722N I’d been looking at new cameras, so I was thrilled when I received the Fujifilm FinePix Z700EXR through Amazon Vine. (I mistakenly refer to it as the “2700EXR” in the video, guess I should have been wearing my glasses when I made it.) This camera has all of the features I was looking for in a camera: it takes excellent picture, it’s great in low-light, the menuing system is easy to navigate, and, something that I didn’t even know I needed until I saw it – a screen big enough that I don’t have to wear my glasses when I take a picture… If you are of “a certain age” you know what a pain glasses are in regards to cameras – glasses off to see the person you are photographing – glasses on to frame them on camera and set any menus – glasses off – glasses on, etc., etc., etc.
The screen on this camera is HUGE! And it’s a touchscreen so rather than endlessly pushing arrow buttons (up, down, right, left) to move through menus then trying to remember which button to push to select (I always push the wrong one!) you simply touch the menu item, then touch your choice. Ahhh, simplicity!
In the video I try to show the basics of using the camera and a few of my favorite features. I read the entire instruction manual and the list of things that this camera can do is really impressive, but honestly, I just want a camera that takes good photos. All of the bells and whistles are nice, but I’ll probably never use most of them. I just want to take decent quality photos of my friends, family and pets.
I also want to be able to turn the flash off easily because I really don’t like the way the flash flattens the image when shooting people (the flash tends to wash out all of the shadows and makes everything look flat and overly bright… think “dear in the headlights”) This camera has a feature called “Natural Light & Flash” which, when set, takes two photos in rapid succession every time you press the shutter: one with a flash and one without.
For me this is the most brilliant and most useful feature I’ve ever seen on a camera! Instead of taking a shot with the flash off, looking at it, realizing that there wasn’t enough light, stepping through 15 levels of menus to turn on the flash, then taking another photo, and, by now, the scene has changed and the moment is lost – now I just hit the shutter button and boom, boom the camera fires off two shots, the first without the flash and the second with. It even shows you the two side by side on the screen after it takes them. I love this feature!
Since the camera works very well in low light, there’s a lot more flexibility in terms of when the flash is required, but with this camera I don’t ever have to guess since the camera snaps off a flash/no flash photo every time I touch the button.
This camera addresses my three biggest concerns when buying a camera: it takes good photos, it works well in low light and the menu is drop-dead simple to navigate. But it also slam-dunks two requirements that I didn’t even know I had until I used it: a screen big enough to see without my glasses and the ability to shoot a flash/no flash sequence every time I take a photo. My standards have officially been raised.
I’ve already recommended the Fujifilm Finepix Z700EXR to a couple of friends who, when they saw the screen on this thing didn’t want to give it back! But this one’s mine, get your own.
I hope this video-review helps,
Claire
PS – It always makes my day to know that people find these reviews helpful. So, please vote (The “Was this review helpful to you: Yes or No” buttons) and leave a comment if you’d like, even if it’s just to say, “Hi!” I respond to all comments so feel free to ask a question about the product. Also, when you leave a comment, I will go to your reviews and pay you the same courtesy.
Rating: 5 / 5