Hot on the heels of Fujifilm's Finepix F31fd, comes the Finepix Z5fd.
This svelte digital camera is a fine advert for the company’s Super CCD HR , a 6.3-megapixel sensor which is claimed to be up to four times more light-sensitive than a conventional CCD.
And the functionality packed into the camera’s diminutive frame is impressive.
Fujifilm is schizophrenic when designing compacts, sometimes delivering uglies (see the A-series ), but the Z series just reeks of chic.
This aluminium-clad model benefits from an absence of ugly protrusions - the 3x zoom lens doesn’t even extend from the body when in use - and a tidy set of on-body controls.
It’s pocketable and lightweight at 148g sans battery and card, although shame on Fujifilm for not bundling an Xd Picturecard.
There’s a measly 26MB of internal storage, so budget for a 1GB (around £15) Xd that's good for 341 best-resolution stills or approx 15mins of VGA video (Avi as Motion-Jpeg).
In use, the Z5fd is undemanding. Well-designed LCD menus give access to numerous happy-snapper functions, including a plethora of scene modes for camera klutzes, continuous shooting at 2.2fps (frames per second), macro and a healthy variety of white balance presets.
There's also Fujifilm’s signature F button for calling up ISO sensitivity, which ranges from 100 to a noisy 1600, image quality from 6megapixels Fine down to web-friendly 0.3megapixels, and a choice of Standard, Black & White and Chrome colour modes. The Chrome setting boosts colour saturation and, once you’ve tried it, you're unlikely to go back.
Power-up and pause between shots is a pinch under a second, so it’s acceptably speedy, and the combination of a sensitive CCD and dual noise-reduction to boost high-ISO fidelity means camera shake is less of a problem than with some compacts.
A dedicated Anti-Blur button is on hand to optimise the Z5 for sharp shooting, while a Natural Light & Flash mode is also available, providing the means to take a straight photo, then a flash variant immediately after.
It’s the ‘fd’ in the name, however, that indicates the Z5’s key feature: Face Detection. If a human face is in the frame, the camera near-instantly locks onto it (detection is as quick as a claimed 0.05sec) and configures the camera for best portraiture.
Should the subject move, the camera will follow it, so you can experiment with different compositions without having to re-set. And if there are multiple faces all over the frame, it’ll track up to 10 simultaneously.
In Replay mode, faces can be zoomed on instantly to check for sharpness, and there’s also a Trimming for Blog feature to quickly crop and re-size any image destined for online blather.
Also, IrSimple infra-red connectivity is included for transmission of files to other compatible devices, alongside USB2 for connection to Mac or PC.
When reviewing images on computer, it’s plain that, even with the diddy Fujinon lens, such aberrations as vignetting, distortion and fringing along high-contrast edges are seemingly absent. Colours are natural, or super-rich if Chrome is engaged, and the camera’s 256-zone metering does a sterling job of balancing exposure.
While the camera’s tiny controls will be off-putting to the large-fingered, folk seeking a reasonably versatile compact for social shoots will find ease of use, Face Detection and swift performance most welcome. The more discerning, meanwhile, will have few quibbles about capture quality.
The Z5fd is also available in Mocha (dirty brown) and Raspberry (dirty pink), but the style conscious should plump for the silver livery and enjoy this excellent example of Fujifilm matching style with substance.
