Fujifilm FinePix Z10fd

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http://reviews.cnet.co.uk/digitalcameras/0,39030233,49293977,00.htm

Reviewed 13 November 2007

Reviewed by Rich Trenholm

The Fujifilm FinePix Z10fd is a fairly basic 7.2-megapixel point-and-shoot aimed squarely at the youth market. Priced around £100, it's being promoted through social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook, with adverts emphasising the online sharing possibilities of such a user-friendly camera.

Design
With style so high on the agenda, the Z10fd is available in a range of colours: hot pink, wave blue, midnight black, wasabi green, moss green and sunset orange. Ours was red. We're not keen on the tapered curve to the right hand side as it makes the camera look a bit deformed, but that's a matter of personal taste.

Two clickpads keep things uncluttered at the back of the Z10fd, although the space in the centre of the upper pad could have been another button

There's a fairly standard 64mm (2.5-inch) LCD screen. Also on the back are two clickpads, keeping things uncluttered. We would like the central section of the upper clickpad to be a button, as it looks like a button, feels like a button and would make a great menu button. A rejig of the controls would free up space for important features like exposure compensation, which is instead buried in a menu.

The Z10fd is switched on by sliding across the brushed-effect faceplate. The faceplate is quite chunky and adds a few millimetres to what could have been an extremely small camera, although it's still eminently pocketable. Watch for fingers creeping into the lens placed so near the corner.

Features
Features include the ubiquitous face detection technology, as well as intelligent red-eye removal, infrared sharing and the option to choose xD or SD cards for memory needs. You also get the the usual wealth of scene modes, but as always, some -- like portrait mode -- are more useful than others -- like text mode, and the high-ISO low light mode. Beyond these there are few features, and not much in the way of manual control.

With blogging and multimedia sharing being the thrust of the Z10fd advertising, it's disappointing that the only options for picture size are standard (640x480 pixels) or small (320x240 pixels). There aren't actual online sharing features, such as Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, although you can transmit your pictures by infrared.

Performance
The Z10fd is not at all fast. Without high speed shooting enabled, the Z10fd captured seven images in 10 seconds. High speed shooting managed much the same, the difference apparently being the camera speedily refocussed each time. The continuous mode is arthritic, managing only 0.5 frames per second over five minutes.

This crop from our test shot at maximum speed ISO 1,600 shows atrocious noise, as even plain white areas are pebbledashed with artefacts

The Z10fd's is a basic budget point-and-shoot. As such we didn't expect much from the pictures. The good news is that picture quality was reasonable. Colour was, appropriately enough, the high point. Saturation was vibrant and flesh tones were smoothly produced. This is fortunate as there is only two colour options -- standard and chrome -- neither of which seem to be very different.

At lower ISO speeds the images are reasonable, as in this crop at ISO 64, but watch for purple fringing

Noise rears its ugly head at the higher ISO speeds. Even in decent lighting, shadows and contrast areas are speckled with purple noise at ISO 800 and 1,600. The camera should really be kept at lower noise levels, ideally no more than ISO 400 for prints. It may well be unlikely that the Z10fd's target audience are unaware of the importance of ISO speed, but for 'disposable' online snapshots it probably isn't an issue.

Conclusion
The Fujifilm FinePix Z10fd stands and falls by its styling, and in a world of grey snappers its rainbow colouring and nu-rave marketing makes it stand out. It's an unremarkable camera, but if the choice is between the economy of models like the Pentax Optio E40 or the style of, say, the Canon Digital IXUS 75, the Z10fd strikes a compromise. A decent present for style-obsessed teens.

Edited by Jason Jenkins
Additional editing by Shannon Doubleday