Fujifilm Finepix F610 Zoom

Review Date: May 5th 2004

Features

The Fujifilm FinePix F610 Zoom has a 6.3 megapixel CCD that delivers more than 12 million recorded pixels. There are 5 image sizes available (4048x3040 (12.3 million), 2848x2136, 2016x1512, 1600x1200, 1280x960), which can be recorded as JPEGs in a range of different quality settings. Unlike the FinePix S7000 Zoom, there is no RAW format. The camera features a Super EBC Fujinon 3X optical zoom lens that is equivalent to a 35–105mm lens on a 35mm format camera. The Fujifilm FinePix F610 Zoom only supports the xD-Picture Card format.

This camera offers a full range of selectable exposure modes, with program, aperture-priority, shutter-speed priority and manual, as well as a number of scene modes (Portrait, Landscape, Sports, Night Scene). The Fujifilm FinePix F610 Zoom has 3 exposure metering modes (TTL 64-zone metering-multi, spot, average) and there are 5 different types of focusing available (Autofocus, Area, Centre, Multi and Manual Focus). The aperture range is f2.8 – f8 and the shutter speed range is 3 sec. – 1/2000 sec. Focusing distance in Normal mode is 60cm to infinity, and in Macro mode is approx. 9cm – 80cm.

ISO speeds are slightly confusing, in that it is determined by which shooting mode you are currently using. In Auto the ISO range is equivalent to 125/200/400/800, whilst in Manual it's equivalent to ISO 160/200/400/800. Unfortunately ISO 800 is only available when the camera is set to record 3M files, and not for the larger image sizes. There are 7 different White Balance settings to choose from (Automatic, Manual (Fine, Shade, Fluorescent light (Daylight), Fluorescent light (Warm White), Fluorescent light (Cool White), Incandescent light).

The Fujifilm FinePix F610 Zoom has a continuous shooting mode in which you can take 5 frames at 3.3 frames/sec and choose to keep either the first 5 or last 5 frames of the sequence. The built-in flash offers a range of different modes; Auto, Red-eye Reduction, Forced Flash, Suppressed Flash, Slow Synchro, Red-eye Reduction and Slow Synchro.

Images are recorded as JPEGs in a range of different quality and size settings. To compose your images, you can use both the LCD monitor and the traditional optical viewfinder. The Fujifilm FinePix F610 Zoom has a 1.8 inch colour TFT LCD monitor which has 134,000 pixels, and is powered by a proprietary rechargeable NP-40 battery. There is also a second smaller LCD monitor that allows you to view the camera settings.

The Fujifilm FinePix F610 Zoom can record movies at a setting of 640x480 pixels at 30 frames per second, recorded in the Motion JPEG format, a type of AVI format that can handle images and sound as a single file, and can be played back by QuickTime 3 or later. As well as recording movies with sound, the Fujifilm FinePix F610 Zoom also doubles up as a voice recorder, allowing you to record 30-second long voice memos in the WAV format. The camera has a Video Out socket for fast and easy on-screen TV viewing and features PictBridge compatibility for direct printing.

The Fujifilm FinePix F610 Zoom dimensions are 71.9mm (W) x 93mm (H) x 31.3mm (D), and it weighs 195g without batteries and storage card fitted.

Finally, the box kit that I reviewed contains a 16Mb xD-Picture Card, USB cable, AV cable, one lithium-ion NP-40 rechargeable battery, AC power adaptor, hand strap, USB cable, AV cable, PictureCradle, manuals and a CD-ROM containing USB driver,, FinePix Viewer and ImageMixer VCD2 for FinePix . You will need to invest in some much bigger xD-Picture Cards to store your images on, as the supplied 16Mb can only store approximately 6 images at the 12M file quality setting.