Fujifilm FinePix 2800 2MP Digital Camera w/ 6x Optical Zoom

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Product Details

Product Manual [406kb PDF]

• Product Dimensions: 2.8 x 3.7 x 3 inches ; 1 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00005QI59
• Item model number: 2800 Zoom
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (147 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,327 in Camera & Photo (See Bestsellers in Camera & Photo)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes
• Date first available at Amazon.com: October 16, 2001

Product Description

Amazon.com Review
The Fuji FinePix 2800 Zoom offers an innovative design, a fantastic 6x optical zoom, and great image quality--all in an incredibly small form. Fuji has clearly departed from many of the usual design cues with the 2800. Most notable is the introduction of the EVF--electronic viewfinder. This replaces the standard optical viewfinder and provides an SLR style experience. The benefits of this are more accurate image composition (as parallax differences between viewfinder and lens are avoided), a better indication of depth of field prior to taking the shot, and improved battery life over using the main LCD monitor.

The EVF is not a perfect solution, though, as the panel is not as bright or detailed as its optical counterpart, has no diopter correction for wearers of glasses, and disconcertingly freezes the image while autofocusing. However, the EVF is a useful feature and places the 2800 at the cutting edge of digital camera design.

The 2800 is exceptionally easy to use, with manual controls limited to adjusting white balance and exposure compensation. More experienced photographers will miss the ability to fine-tune aperture, shutter speed, ISO settings, etc. The 6x optical zoom is superb and makes an enormous difference to picture quality and ease of composition--it equates to a zoom range of 38-228mm on a standard 35mm camera.

Fuji has included a movie mode with sound running at 10 frames per second and at a resolution of 320 x 240 pixels. Disappointingly, this is limited to 60 seconds of recording time, regardless of the capacity of memory card in use. It also does not make use of the optical zoom, relying instead solely on the digital zoom. Other features include voice captioning and, bizarrely on a camera of this specification, a video conferencing mode enabling you to use it as a Webcam. A notable omission however, is the lack of a video-out socket.

As you would expect from Fuji, the 2800 is straightforward to install and includes paper manuals for both the camera and the supplied software--this includes a simple viewer/organizer, QuickTime, Videoimpression, and Adobe Photodeluxe. The 2800 uses four AA alkaline (supplied) or NiMH rechargeable batteries. Fuji recommends avoiding lithium batteries as the heat discharged can damage the camera. --Nick Baxter

Pros:

• Easy to use, with automated controls
• Very good 6x optical zoom
• Electronic viewfinder (EVF) provides more accurate image composition
• Bonus feature: can be used as a Webcam

Cons:

• EVF is still a little buggy
• Movie mode does not allow use of optical zoom, only digital

Product Description
MD) FUJI FINEPIX 2800 DIGITAL CAM

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

244 of 246 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Digicam for the Money, March 6, 2002

By A Customer

This is my first digicam and I spent a great deal of time researching this camera along with others. I was looking for a camera...I finally settled on the Fuji 2800Z. To date, I am extremely please with my purchase, as I have found this camera to be an excellent value for the money.

Some of the positives of this camera include, a killer 6x Optical Zoom, Sharp and Crisp Pictures, extremely easy to use menu system, 60 second video with audio, and it can double as a webcam. This camera is pretty much a point and shoot camera so if you are looking for a digital camera that has a wide selection of manual settings, look elsewhere as this camera is not for you. You do, however, have control over the white balance, exposure, and flash settings. Other than that, the rest is automatic.

As I mentioned, this is a great little camera, however it is not without a few "flaws". As well noted, this camera has trouble in low light situations, specifically the EVF and LCD. In the few weeks that I have had the camera and the several hundred pictures that I have taken, I have only run into 1 situation where the EVF and LCD were useless. This issue can be worked around and should not be a sticking point for those looking to purchase this camera. I personally like using the EVF as, unlike an optical viewfinder, it shows you "exactly" what is being photographed without distortion. Finally, if you decide to pick up this camera, make sure that you get some rechargeable batteries and a 128mb Smart Media card. You will be set.

In summary, if you are looking for a simple to use, point and shoot camera, with a great zoom, sharp pictures, and a few additional nice features, get this camera. You will be hard pressed to find a better camera for the money!

117 of 117 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I am having fun with this camera, November 11, 2001

By	Hanyu Xiao (Newark, CA United States) - See all my reviews

I got my Fujifilm Finepix 2800 three days ago and here's my first take.

The camera has a good look, and feels sturdy with the all-metal case. Its width is about that of a credit card, so you can say it's small; however it’s pretty thick (comparable to its width) due to its 6x zoom lens, so it won't fit in your shirt pocket.

I have only taken indoor photos, and the image quality is excellent. The photos usually look very nice as is, without having to be fixed by a photo editor.

The 6x optical zoom was a big factor in my decision to buy this camera. It doesn't work well for me when taking indoor pictures. I would have to keep the camera absolutely steady under the full zoom or the picture comes out blurry. A friend of mine has an Olympus C-2100, which has a 10x zoom. It comes with image stablization, which is probably absent in Finepix 2800 (at least I didn't find any mentioning of it).

The electronic view finder (EVF) gave mixed results. On the one hand, it is great to be able to see everything with EVF, including the menus. This removes the need to switch on the LCD just to change some menu settings, and as a result, you get longer battery life. On the other hand, the EVF was completely useless in a low light setting. The room wasn't that dark, but the EVF was totally blank when I pointed the camera to a dark area, so was the LCD. I had to point the camera to the general direction and let the flash do its job. Luckily the picture came out OK, but still I wished I had an optical view finder at the time.

The webcam is very easy to set up. You'd use the menu to set the so-called "USB mode" to "webcam", and then connect the camera to the PC through the USB cable, just as if you were uploading the pictures. Then you'll launch the PictureHello program and that's it. The captured image is pretty dark, though.

It is just as easy to take a video as to take photos. The movie is a little dark, tough, when taken indoors.

Fuji says in the manual that the operation of the camera is only guaranteed when it's used with Fuji SmartMedia cards. However I am using a 128MB Mr. Flash SM card I bought (...) and the camera took it without incident. I also bought 1600mAh NiMH batteries and a charger from newegg.com. The price was great, so was the service. I highly recommend them.

The battery life seems very good. I have taken over 100 indoor photos, all using the flash, and the 1600mAh batteries are still going strong. As I mentioned earlier, it certainly helped not to have to switch on the LCD very often, but I didn't go out of my way to avoid using it.

Software installion on my Windows 2000 laptop went smoothly. It was actually a series of independent installations for USB driver, FinepixViewer, QuickTime, VideoImpression, and Microsoft Media Player, etc. You can also install Adobe's PhotoDeluxe and ActiveShare.

All in all, I am having lots of fun with this camera. It has its limitations, such as the lack of TV out and certain manual controls. But I would say at this price level you won't find another comparable camera that has such a rich set of features.

101 of 103 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fuji 2800Zoom - Pleased, November 12, 2001

By A Customer

(...) I liked the fact that it looks like a camera and that it is quite small, compact and light weight. I did some research, but honestly not that much. I was interested in optical Zoom, and the 6x optical zoom is what made me buy the Fuji 2800Zoom. Most of the other digital cameras in my price range only had 3x Optical zoom. So far I've taken at least 50 pictures and I am very pleased. The software installed easily and worked the first time on both of my computers, Win98 and Win2000 Professional. The only problem I have is that the on/off button is right where the 'take a picture' button is on other cameras, which means that I have turned the camera off, instead of taking a picture on at least 4 or 5 times.

I also like the fact that it has both a small eye viewfinder like a regular camera plus the eye viewfinder is also in color. Plus it has the LCD screen. The eye viewfinder is very useful in bright sunlight where you might not be able to see the LCD screen. You can change the LCD brightness also.

Overall I am quite pleased with this camera. The Fuji 2800Zoom has 2 megapixels, which at first I thought might be a drawback since 5 megapixel cameras are now available, but now I see that the photos are very clear and sharp at the "1M Normal" setting, so that is not an issue. The camera allows you to change the settings for picture quality. There are 8 settings. Naturally the higher the setting the fewer pictures you can record on the card. The lesser the setting the more you can record. But at the Normal setting, on a 16Meg card you can still get about 50 pictures of very good quality. If you need more you can buy a higher meg card to store more photos. That's it, have fun.