Overview
The Fuji Finepix Z70 is a small, simple pocket camera. It falls into to the cheaper price category. In fact there are not many cheaper pocket cameras available from known brands.
Fuji are marketing the Finepix Z70 as a simple, fun camera. It is available in a range of bright colours including purple, black, silver, red and blue. It has a touch of style with a sliding lens. It has a solid feel and to my mind appears to be well made for a digital camera at this end of the market.
It does not have a great deal of up to the minute features, but this helps to keep the Finepix Z70 easy to use.
Why Buy The Fuji Finepix Z70
The Fuji Finepix Z70 is a small, simple pocket camera. It falls into to the cheaper price category. In fact there are not many cheaper pocket cameras available from known brands.
Fuji are marketing the Finepix Z70 as a simple, fun camera. It is available in a range of bright colours including purple, black, silver, red and blue. It has a touch of style with a sliding lens. It has a solid feel and to my mind appears to be well made for a digital camera at this end of the market.
It does not have a great deal of up to the minute features, but this helps to keep the Finepix Z70 easy to use.
Main Features
Megapixels:
Zoom:
LCD Screen:
Dimensions:
Weight:
12
5x
2.7 inches
91 x 57.1 x 20.1mm
125g
Macro:
HD Movies:
Manual Controls:
Batteries:
Memory Cards:
9cm
Yes
No
Lithium ion
SD / SDHC
Features
The Finepix Z70 could be referred to as "feature lite". The main features of 12 megapixels, a 5x optical zoom and a 2.7 inch LCD are inline with what I would expect from this type of digital camera. For snapshot prints you have access to more megapixels than you will ever need. Extra zoom is always a bonus, but unless you have an interest in something like sports or wildlife photography this length of lens is likely to cover 80% of photo opportunities you are likely to encounter.
One area where compromise has been made is with the LCD screen. Although the size is good the quality of the screen is one of the weaker points of the camera. This is something you tend to see at the lower end of the price spectrum. A further compromise comes with a macro mode that needs to be at least 9cm away from a subject in order to focus. For most people this is unlikely to be of great importance and seems to be a sensible area for Fuji to compromise.
Occasionally in this price bracket you will find digital cameras capable of shooting High Definition movies. In this case the Finepix Z70 is limited to standard definition recording. It should still be able to produce movies good enough for watching on a television. The fun side of the Finepix Z70 is highlighted by a mode that helps to make it easy to upload video footage and still images to sites like YouTube and Facebook.
To help you keep track of photos on your memory card Fuji have incorporated a Picture Search option.
Handling
The Finepix Z70 is turned on by sliding the lens cover down. On the top of the camera there are two buttons. The larger of the two is the shutter button. The smaller button is used for shooting movie clips.
On the back of the camera near the top are two buttons for controlling zoom. Underneath this is a relatively small area for resting your thumb. As you move down you will find a button for marking photos and video clips for later upload to web sites like Facebook and YouTube. Next to this a button for reviewing photos and video clips.
Next comes a four way button. The top section controls exposure compensation. In review mode this doubles up to delete unwanted images. The four way button also controls macro focusing, flash modes and the self timer.
Finally Fuji have found just enough room to squeeze in buttons for changing the LCD screen and accessing the menu system.
As you can imagine it is a bit of a tight fit in places, but there is just about enough room.
The main shooting menu runs to just 10 options. There are also 23 set up options. The setup options include setting the date and time and formatting a memory card. The relatively small number of options highlights just how simple to use the Finepix Z70 really is.
Image Quality - See Sample Images Below
Outdoor Scenic Shot 1
This can be a tough test during the autumn months with the sun causing a lot of reflection on the boats. Even making allowances for that the Finepix Z70 finds it hard going. A lot of detail is lost from the brighter areas of the scene. The shot also lacks clarity and sharpness in general. The colours in the shot are weaker than I like to see.
Outdoor Scenic Shot 2
Looking at the centre of this photo the level of sharpness is not bad. The same cannot be said as you move out towards the edges. Here the camera really finds it a struggle. I realise this is one of the cheaper digital cameras on the market, but based on the first two test shots I feel the Finepix Z70 could do better.
Outdoor Scenic Shot 3
Although I am not totally convinced by the colours produced by the Finepix Z70 this is a much better effort than the first two shots. With the lens fully extended the result is a much sharper shot.
Outdoor Building
As with some of the other shots produced by the Finepix Z70 this picture looks a little dark. It is certainly darker than the test shots I took with three other cameras at the same time. This is not a bad effort for a cheaper digital camera, but sharpness slips away again as you move away from the centre of the shot.
Outdoor Portrait
When it comes to focusing the Finepix Z70 clearly operates much better when it is close into the subject. Looking at this shot it has taken on a pink glow that I have not seen before with this test shot.
Indoor Portrait With Flash
It looks like as long as you are not too far away from your subject the flash unit packs a punch. This is certainly the brightest test shot I managed with this camera. Other cameras are able to temper the amount of light they produce better than this, but at this price I am just happy to see a decent burst of light.
Indoor Portrait Without Flash
This is easily the best shot I managed to take with the Finepix Z70. In fact it is some way above average. The level of detail in the shot is impressive, but I also like the colours the camera has managed to capture. There is a little added warmth to the shot.
Macro
I often think the macro shot says a lot about the overall quality of the lens. With this macro shot the Finepix Z70 struggles to match up to other cameras. To start with the focusing distance is more than most cameras. Next up the level of sharpness is below par. Finally once you start to make larger prints you can see purple fringing creeping in.
Colours
Almost all my test shots had a warmer look to them than normal. In some cases I thought this worked well, but in some the effect was overdone and took on an unnatural look. I also had concerns about the darkness of some of the photos.
Noise
Some of the skies took on a slightly grainy look and you can expect noise to kick appear in shady and darker areas of a shot. Even so I did not think that for a camera in this price bracket the Finepix Z70 had a major issue with noise.
Picture Quality Summary
Some of the skies took on a slightly grainy look and you can expect noise to kick appear in shady and darker areas of a shot. Even so I did not think that for a camera in this price bracket the Finepix Z70 had a major issue with noise.
Shutter Lag Times
Single Shot
Five Shots
Single Shot With Flash
Five Shots With Flash
Turn on Time
0.59 seconds
19.43 seconds
1 seconds
22.16 seconds
3.49 seconds
Ease of Use
The Fuji Finepix Z700EXR has a 3.5 inch touch controlled LCD screen. Compared to other digital cameras I found the touch screen interface easy to use. The Finepix Z700EXR fits easily into a pocket. My review looks at how good picture quality is.
Points I Like
Some of the skies took on a slightly grainy look and you can expect noise to kick appear in shady and darker areas of a shot. Even so I did not think that for a camera in this price bracket the Finepix Z70 had a major issue with noise.
Where it Could Improve
LCD screen quality - slow turn on and shutter lag times - picture quality
Verdict
A cheaper, eye catching digital camera is a great idea. After all photographer is meant to be fun. This camera is suitable for anyone who is looking for a cheaper snapshot digital camera, but it is not for anyone who is looking for high quality photos.
Where to Buy - Fuji Finepix Z70
Test Shots
Product Shots
Front View
Back View
Top View
Sample Menus
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Related Pages
Fuji Finepix Z70 Review Fuji Finepix Z70 Specification Fuji Finepix Z70 Sample Images
Review Date
October 2010
