Fujifilm FinePix 4800 ZoomFuji updates their SuperCCD pocket camera with improved color and a hot-sync cradle!<<Camera Modes & Menus :(Previous) | (Next): Video, Power, Software>> Page 10:Image Storage & InterfaceReview First Posted: 08/16/2001 |
Image Storage and Interface
The 4800 Zoom stores images and movies onto 3.3v SmartMedia memory cards. A
16MB card is supplied with the camera, but higher capacity cards are available
in sizes as large as 128MB. The LED lamp next to the optical viewfinder eyepiece
flashes orange and green when the camera is recording a file to the memory card,
and glows orange steadily when no other camera operation can take place while
the image is written. The SmartMedia card slot is located on the left side of
the camera, and the card inserts with the gold electrodes going in first, facing
the front of the camera. To release the card, give it a quick press, which pops
it up slightly, then remove it from the slot.
SmartMedia cards come with a set of write-protection stickers that, when applied
to the card, prevent it from being erased or written to. Each sticker can only
be used once and must be clean to be effective. You can write-protect individual
images, or all images on the card, through the 4800 Zoom's Playback menu. Write-protection
prevents images from being altered in any way, except by card formatting, which
erases all the images, even write-protected ones. A trimming function allows
you to crop images in Playback mode. The crop area is designated by enlarging
the image with the Playback Zoom function, then pressing the Menu / OK button
to crop and record the image.
The 4800 Zoom offers a variety of image size and JPEG quality settings. The
largest is the interpolated (4M) 2,400 x 1,800 pixel size, which offers quality
settings of Fine, Normal, and Basic. The remaining image sizes are (2M) 1,600
x 1,200, (1M) 1,280 x 960, and (VGA) 640 x 480 pixels, with Fine and Normal
quality settings available in the 1M and 2M modes, and Basic only available
in VGA mode. Movie files are always recorded in the 320 x 240 pixel resolution,
with no quality settings available.
Following are the number of images and approximate compression levels for a
16MB SmartMedia card:
|
Resolution/Quality |
|
|
|
|
| Highest
Resolution (2400 x 1800) |
Images | 8 | 19 |
|
| Approx. Compression |
6.5:1 | 15:1 |
|
|
| High
Resolution (1600 x 1200) |
Images |
|
|
|
| Approx. Compression |
|
|
|
|
|
(1280 x 960) |
Images |
|
|
|
| Approx. Compression |
|
|
|
|
|
(640 x 480) |
Images |
|
|
|
| Approx. Compression |
|
|
|
|
The following shows the approximate amount of movie and audio recording time
for a 16MB SmartMedia card:
| File Type |
|
| 320 x 240 Movie |
|
| Audio file |
|
The 4800 Zoom comes with a USB cable, PC connector cradle, and a software CD
for downloading images to a computer. Placing the FinePix 4800 Zoom in its cradle
immediately begins charging the battery. Pressing the Power button at the bottom
front of the cradle turns on the camera and automatically launches Fujifilm's
EXIF viewer program. (Essentially a rudimentary thumbnail-organizer for photo
files.) When the viewer launches, it immediately opens to show thumbnails of
all the images currently on the camera's memory card, which is great for quickly
checking and downloading your files.
The USB connection provides for fast downloads from the camera, we clocked it
at about 11 seconds to download a 4.3 meg movie file to our Mac G4, a transfer
rate of 389 KBytes/second. This is average to a bit faster than average for
USB cameras we've tested. One plus: The FinePix 4800 Zoom is a "storage
class" USB device, which means that Mac users running OS 8.6 or later,
or Windows Me or 2000 users can connect and download files from the camera with
no additional software - their computers should recognize the 4800 as a USB-connected
disk drive.
One
of the first things any new digicam owner will need is a larger memory card
for their camera: The cards shipped with the units by the manufacturers should
really be considered only "starter" cards, you'll definitely want a higher capacity
card immediately. - Probably at least a 32 megabyte card for a 1.3 or 2 megapixel
camera, 64 megabytes or more for a 3, 4, or 5 megapixel one. (The nice thing
about memory cards is you'll be able to use whatever you buy now with your next
camera too, whenever you upgrade.) To help you shop for a good deal on memory
cards that fit the FinePix 4800, we've put together a little memory locater,
with links to our price-comparison engine: Just click on the "Memory Wizard"
button above to go to the FujiFilm memory finder, select your camera model ,
and click the shopping cart icon next to the card size you're interested in.
You'll see a list of matching entries from the price-comparison database. Pick
a vendor & order away! (Pretty cool, huh?)
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