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Introduction

As I said in the start of my Q & A for the Canon Powershot A-20, if you are looking for a camera review by an experieinced digital photograher or digital camera reviewer, then try A-Digital-Eye. But sometimes it's also helpful to get the views and thoughts of other amateur digital photographers.

If you're completely new to digital photography then you might want to consider reading my Powershot A-20 review first. On the other hand, if you;'re now looking to move up to something a bit more advanced thah your typicalo digital point-and-shoot, then read on as I give my two cents worth on my newest camera, the Finepix 620Z.

1. Why move up from a point-and-shoot digicam?
2. What features made the Finexpix 602Z attractive?
3. Whats the battery life like?
4. How much memory?
5. What is this dual-slot memory thing?
6. Is it worth the money for optical zoom?
7. How does the camera go under low-light?
8. Quirks and Could be Better
9. Closing Comments

1. Why move up from a point-and-shoot digicam?

If all you are wanting from a digital camera is the ability to take a quick photo at a party or the family picnic, a regular point and shoot like the Powershot A-20 will probably do the job. But after a while you may find yourself experiencing a couple of frustrations with this type of camera.

The frustration I found was that there are some circumstances where you really need manual control in order to get the creative result you want. Some effects are best created 'in-camera', rather than being added after the fact with Photoshop or Paintshop. More manual controls also provides more opportunity for developing skill with the camera and producing creative images straight out of the camera. Finally, there are some situations where the limited functionality of cheaper point and shoot digicams means missing out on photos that might have been possible with a better camera. The ability to manually set shutter speed, for instance, can make a big difference.

One last observation. Point and shoot digicams are now commonplace and prices have fallen a lot in the last two years. The price falls seem to have slowed a bit, but camera makers are now offering higher resolutions and some manual functionality, rather than lowering prices. The A-20 I purchased for about $900 (2 years ago) would probably only fetch a couple of hundred dollars now. By contrast, the 602Z that I purchased about 16 months ago for $1500 still retails for about $1300.

2. What features made the Finexpix 602Z attractive?

There were a few things which made the 602Z an appealing buy. The 602Z has a great range of manual controls and features that brings it close to being a digital SLR. The 602Z provides manual control over shutter speed and aperture, as well as manual focussing (very useful for close-up/macro work). It also has user selectable ISO settings (ISO 160-1600). As well as having the standard options for white-balance, the 602Z also has the option to manually select 'white' (e.g. to point at something non-white and tell the camera that it is white). Last but not least, the camera has two choices for video capture and a choice of Compact Flash or Smart-Media cards for storage.

3. What's the battery life like?

The camera needs four AA batteries. I use rechargeable NiMH batteries and with these I've found you can typically get around 80-100 photos, depending on how much you use the zoom and flash. A couple of gripes about power use though. Firstly, the low battery warning is woeful. So woeful in fact you might as well not have it. If it gives you 10 seconds of warning you're lucky. Moral to the story is to always carry a spare set of batteries (but that's the same with any digicam) and be proficient at changing them in a hurry.

4. How much memory?

I'm using 128Mb of Compact-Flash plus the standard 16Mb of Smart-media memory. Typical 3 megapixel images out of this camera come in at just over a Megabyte, so the 144Mb (total) gives about 100 images.

If you are new to digital photography, my simple piece of advice would be to buy as much as you can afford. This lets you take the maximum number of images possible, at the highest quality settings possible.

5. What is this dual-slot memory thing?

The references to 'dual slot' and 'dual memory' when talking about the 602Z, refers to the ability of this camera to use either Compact Flash (Type I or II) memory and Smart-Media memory. The camera will operate with both types of memory inserted in the camera, however a little annoyingly, there is no automated switch over from one memory type to the other once one type of memory card is full. Once you've filled one type of memory card you are required to go through the on-screen menus in order to switch to the other type of memory card.

6. Is it worth the money for optical zoom?

Yes. Let me restate what I said in my review of the Powershot A-20.

"This was something else I struggled with at first, having to pay several hundred dollars more for a camera with an optical zoom. Is it really worth it? Yes. If you want the in depth technical explanation of why, visit one of the professional sites. But think about it this way - digital zoom on the camera does the same thing as the zoom function on your image viewer software (or the resize function). You have the same amount of detail, the pixels are just bigger. In other words, when you use digital zoom you are going to loose a bit of quality.

On the other hand, optical zoom is like a true zoom that brings the subject closer and allows you to actually capture more information. I very rarely use the digital zoom capability of my camera because what's the point - if I want a digital zoom effect I can do that after the fact with Paintshop!"

Whilst 3x optical zooms are starting to become commonplace on the compact/point-and-shoot cameras, the Finepix 602Z has a 6x optical zoom. This is probably another feature that has helped the camera retain its value.

7. How does the camera go under low-light?

I've found this camera handles low light satisfactorily. I won't give it a raving great review, but nor would I say that it handles low light poorly. The camera has the option to operate at ISO 1600, but only at one megapixel resolution. But when this is combined with manual control over aperture and shutter speed, it's possible to get images that the likes of the A-20 would never manage. These images tend to exhibit a bit of noise, but this is better than no image at all.

8. Quirks and Could be Better

The 602Z has it's share of little quirks and things that could have been done better.

• Digital Eye-piece/viewfinder. On the whole this is a great feature on the 602Z. The digital viewfinder is a 100% representation of what appears on the cameras LCD, which means that it lets you see exactly what will be captured. It also means you can review images under bright sunny conditions that would render a normal , back of the camera LCD useless. But it does stay on whilst ever you have the camera powered on, which means it is sucking power. One of the great things about the A-20 is that you can have it on and ready to shoot at short notice, without really consuming much power. The digital eye-piece of the 602Z means that if you want to have your camera ready to shoot (i.e. powered on, lense ready), then you are going to be draining the battery while you wait.
• Black and White. The 602Z has a black and white mode, which is great for those b&w enthusiasts (like myself) who like to compose some shots in black and white. Unfortunately the 602Z only makes the b&w mode available in automated mode, with no user control over aperture, shutter speed, white balance etc. This is a serious ovesight in my view, since the sort of people who are going to want to take black and white photographs are probably the same people who enjoy using the manual controls of their camera.
• ISO settings and Megapixels. As discussed earlier, when selecting high ISO values, the camera automatically drops the resolution back to one megapixel. This is a sensible feature that I can live with. What irks me is that when you change the ISO back, the resolution isn't changed back automatically. This is made more annoying by the fact that changing resolution is one of the more cumbersome tasks.

9. Closing Comments

Despite its little irks and quirks, I love my Finepix 602Z. The 6X optical zoom is fantastic and I I really miss the extra flexibility this gives wen I'm forced to go back to using my A-20. The range of manual controls is also a real joy. Whilst it does mean greater opportunity for 'dud' images, this also means greater satisfaction when you tweak the settings in just the right way to achieve a photo that could never have been achieved with a simpler camera like the A-20.

. Whilst this camera is not a true digital SLR, it's a good alternative for anyone wanting more functionality than offered by the cheaper , compact cameras - but who isn't yet ready for the expense of a true digital SLR.

That's All Folks

Well, that's all folks. I hope you've found the answers to these questions helpful in deciding whether or not the A-20 is the camera for you.