Fujifilm FinePix Z70 review

Having reviewed Fujifilm's latest EXR-sensor compact the FinePix Z700 earlier this week, I thought I'd take a look at it's little brother the FinePix Z70 today. While the Z700 is stuffed with the latest technology, including its advanced sensor, image stabilisation and a big high-resolution touch-screen monitor, the Z70 is a much more modest affair, although it does share a few features with its higher-spec sibling. It too is a sliding-front ultra-compact featuring a 5x zoom lens, but it has a normal 12-megapixel CCD sensor, a 2.7-inch 4:3 ratio monitor with 230k dot resolution, and has only digital image stabilisation.

The Z70 is a budget-priced camera, currently selling for less than £80 from most retailers. It is unashamedly designed to appeal to the younger generation, as its extremely noisy and “in your face” page on Fuji's website will attest. It is quite well put together for a cheap camera though, with a sleek and well finished aluminium body. It's a very compact and lightweight camera ideal for slipping into a pocket or handbag for a night out, measuring 91 x 57.1 x 20.1mm and weighing only 145g including battery and card. It is available in a wide range of colours, including black, silver, metallic blue, metallic purple and the bright metallic pink seen here.

The Z70 is designed to be a blogging tool for those who live their lives online, and has a dedicated button that tags images and video clips for upload to Facebook or YouTube. The included My FinePix Studio software will automatically upload any tagged picture to the appropriate site as soon as the camera or memory card is connected to a computer. It's kind of a handy feature I guess, although uploading files to either site isn't exactly difficult to begin with.