Fujifilm FinePix Z33WP – water proof camera
Sum and Substance:
Thumbs Up:
Nice design, simple user-friendly interface, inexpensive.
Thumbs Down:
Awful performance.
Inside the Trunk:
Utilities and drivers, FinePix Viewer, bundled USB cable, hand strap,
The Whiz Kid Speaks:
Fujifilm FinePix Z33WP is a 10 MP camera, has 5.7x optical zoom, light sensitivity options include ISO auto, ISO 1600, ISO 800, ISO 400, ISO 200, ISO 100, ISO 64. Shooting programs include natural light & with flash, portrait mode, natural light, party/indoor, sports mode, under water, night mode, landscape, anti-blur, auction, sunset, museum, flower, beach, text, snow.
Minimum shutter speed is 3 seconds, maximum shutter speed 1/1000 second, white balance presets include fluorescent light (warm white), Fluorescent light (cool white), Fluorescent light (daylight), Incandescent, Shade, Fine. Videos are stored in AVI. MJPEG format, video capture resolution options are AVI – 320 x 240, AVI – 640 x 480,
photographs are stored in JPEG format.
Image storage resolution options are JPEG 640 x 480, JPEG 1600 x 1200, JPEG 2048 x 1536, JPEG 2592 x 1944, JPEG 3648 x 2432, JPEG 3648 x 2736. The Z33WP has 50 MB internal memory and and the camera supports SD Memory Card, MultiMediaCard.
Flash modes include Red-eye reduction, Flash OFF mode, Slow synchro, Fill-in mode, Auto mode. Additional features includes Automatic Scene Recognition (SR Auto), Digital image stabilization, In-camera red-eye removal, Face Detection Self-timer, Digital image rotation, USB 2.0 compatibility, PictBridge support, Exif Print support, Cropping an image, Face detection, DPOF support.
The Z33WP has Zoom lens – 6.3 mm – 18.9 mm – F/3.7-4.2 and has 3x optical zoom, lens aperture is F/3.7-4.2, macro focus range is 8-300cm, minimum focus range is 23.6 inch and focal length is 6.3 mm – 18.9 mm. The Z33WP has 2.7 inch TFT LCD on the back. Connectors on the camera include Composite video/audio output, USB. The camera is powered by Fujifilm NP-45 li-ion rechargeable battery
Razzle Dazzle:
The Z33WP is a cute camera with lot of protection around to block water from going in. You get color options of glowing green, hot pink and black. We don’t know if green and pink (if you are a guy) colors will go well with you. We got the green model in our test centers and we thought that it was made for teenagers who love such aggressive colors. The device is very thin, lightweight, compact and won’t occupy much space in your backpack.
Inside Dope:
Though the Fujifilm FinePix Z33WP, it is not made for serious dive-in shooting. It is more of a beach/pool camera. It is water proof up to ten feet and can stand up two hours consecutively in water. It is only a secondary camera for using in damp, dust or dirty conditions where you do no want to use your precious high end camera. The photo quality and the performance is not that good so get this camera only if waterproofing is important for you.
The lens is covered completely in tight glass in order to keep it away from dirt and water. Shutter release and the power button is located on the top of the device, the former is pretty hard to feel when you are taking pictures. It will take some time to get used to it. The back of the camera has a large LCD and a never before seen 2 columns of buttons which are a bit small and placed close to each other. These buttons need acclimation even if you are a veteran camera user. However, once you get used to it, it will be all fine. There is a dedicated movie mode button that takes you straight to VGA movie capture. It takes about three to four seconds for the camera to switch and then start capturing.
Interface is attractive and basic. You usually have F-mode button in cameras like Fujifilm to access the shooting options but in this device the Menu/OK button is used for it. Shooting options won’t impress the shutter bug freak, they are all simple and user-friendly. There is an Auto mode where in the camera checks out the environment and adjusts automatically. There are 16 scene modes in all including one for underwater photography. The manual mode only gives you control over white balance, exposure compensation and ISO settings. The camera can take VGA quality videos and as expected, you don’t get to use the zoom lens while recording. Successive Movie mode lets you stitch your clips and make a one big movie.
The camera is really slow and only the wake up time is a bit quick. It takes about 1.8 seconds for the device to boot up and start shooting. Shot-to-shot times with and without flash are 3.8 and 3.5 seconds respectively. Shutter lag is really long, about 0.6 seconds in bright conditions and in low light environments it is 1.4 seconds. Continuous shooting speed is 0.3 fps which is again sluggish.
Photo quality of the Z33WP is not good, even at low ISO settings, the pictures lacked sharpness. Noise problem was ubiquitous for all ISOs. Up to ISO 400, the pictures are nice if you intend to use them for Web or take small 5×7 inches prints. The camera has serious issues with shutter lag and ISO which makes this camera really bad for action or low light photography. Color representation was miserable on the photos, video quality is ok.
Nitty Gritty:
Fujifilm FinePix Z33WP is a waterproof camera but the image quality and the performance is really poor. However, it is cheap and if the photo quality is not important for you, go ahead and get this device.
