Summary: I was always averse to buying a zoom point-and-shoot camera because of the purported decline in lens quality. But I've heard so many good things about the DL Super Mini Zoom that I decided to pick one up. Well, in the past month that I have been carrying it around, it has completely earned my trust. At the wide end, it is just as sharp as a lot of single focal length P&Ss. And the fact that the zoom length is so conservative is proof that Fuji wanted to maintain lens quality. The 56mm zoom is short, but its purpose seems to be in aiding you when you just need to get a little bit closer but can't physically move there; it's not really there for telephoto purposes. As such, I think this is the camera I'll be taking on vacations from now on.
This camera also happens to be one of the best looking I've seen. There are a lot of cameras out there that claim to be made of metal, but they don't look like this. The DL Super Mini looks very finely constructed, with an elegant, minimal design. Short of the Posh P&Ss, I haven't seen a compact camera this well made.
However, I have heard one or two cases of electrical failure starting with the LCD, which is unfortunate, so beware.
This camera offers a host of controls that aren't normal on a compact. At first I didn't understand the point of offering "manual focusing" (by setting the distance in meters beforehand), but I've found it very useful in situations using the self timer. And the 3-shot self timer is great for situations when you need to put yourself in a group shot, and don't want to have to run back and forth from the camera to get "just one more".
Rating Reviewed by: Douglas Henderson(Unregistered User)
(Professional)
Review Date December 22, 2002
Overall Rating 2 of 5
Value Rating 2 of 5
Visitors rate this review 3.00 of 5,
1 votes
Review 2 of 32
Price Paid:
$129.00
from B&H
Summary: Bought this camera early this year, tried it out, was disappointed in the results and returned it to B&H. Perhaps I'm be too accustom to SLR results, because this Fuji DL Super was my second effort at finding a satisfactory P&S, my first try was a Rollei Prego 90 a few years ago--which I also returned because of a lens flaw.
The Fuji DL Super looked so nice and was quite optimistic will taking pictures in daylight and overcast exposures with 100 ASA slide film. All the slide images from the single roll shot showed light fall-off well into the image--in both bright daylight and darker overcast exposures, especially at wide angle, as much as a third of the whole slide image looked as it shot at another, slower f-stop. That by itself doomed any desire to keep the camera.
Since I used to take an old Minotla Hi-matic F rangefinder camera with its 38mm lens all over the country on backpacking trips with outstanding exposure and sharpness results with slide film, it amazes me that this sort of result would now be difficult to duplicate with today's $100 to $200 point and shoot cameras.m
Strengths: Nice aluminum body and sliding lens cover. Guessing exposures for print film would be satisfactory
Weaknesses: Substantial light fall off well into slide images. Image quality didn't seem very good by SLR standards--perhaps unfair comparison.o
Similar Products Used: Olympus SLR system--OM 1's, OM-2000, Contax SLR system--167MT, RX, S2, mostly macro copywork and landscape photography.o
Customer Service: B&H refunded purchase price--do save all the contents and leave all paperwork blank.t
Rating Reviewed by: Rick (Unregistered User)
(Intermediate)
Review Date May 25, 2002
Overall Rating 5 of 5
Value Rating 5 of 5
Used product for More than 1 year
Review 3 of 32
Price Paid:
$130.00
from Mail Order
Summary: Excellent carry everywhere point and shoot camera. Capability wise, this camera is equivalent to the high end Contax TVS at fraction of the price. Great focal length starting at a wide 28mm. Nice all aluminum construction. And most of all with Fuji Electronic Beam Coated lens, the pictures come out excellent.
Weaknesses: Lens is a bit slow so best to use 400 ASA speed film. The flash almost always activates even in bright scenes - gotta remember to set the camera to flash off setting.
Similar Products Used: Olympus Stylus Zoom, Pentax IQzoom, and others.
Rating Reviewed by: Alex (Unregistered User)
(Intermediate)
Review Date May 18, 2002
Overall Rating 5 of 5
Value Rating 5 of 5
Used product for More than 1 year
Visitors rate this review 5.00 of 5,
2 votes
Review 4 of 32
Price Paid:
$130.00
from Cameraworld
Summary: I have been so consistently impressed by this little camera that I can''t reccomend it more to anyone looking for a high quality P&S compact zoom. The lens is everything reviewers have said it is. Last year I took some photos of the aircraft I fly and had a flight attendant take a picture of the pilots in front of the aircraft (28mm) When I gave a print to one of the pilots he was flabbergasted at the quality (unprompted) The print quality is well defined and saturated all the way across the field. I have removed all the batteries from my SLR because I literally havent used it in the two years since I purchased this gem. We used to use a Minolta Cappios Zoom (What a piece of overpriced CRAP!!!) and were so disappointed with the quality we were getting from prints (light falloff, cropping, out of focus and poor AE)that we finally had to somehow lose it. The Fuji was $100 cheaper and I must say that if it ever gets lost I may be brought to tears. From the first roll of film I had keepers of my daughter at the beach and everyone was asking what kind of camera I was using. We develop at Photoworks and sometimes send in several rolls from both the Fuji mini and my wife''s Nikon SLR. We often can not tell which camera was used if we can''t remember. I hope that there is a good supply of these somewhere, because I would get another one if mine ever failed.
The only problems I can see are the slightly noisy zoom, the goshdarned fill flash which sometimes washes out the background and the ability of the lense cover to sustain dents. I used to carry this camera in my flight bag untill I noticed one day the lense cover had been dented (no problem) the camera still functions normally, it just looks dented. Now I have a premium Lowepro padded case for it which I highly reccomend.
Summary: i bought this to replace my pentax espio mini which i used to photograph gigs and club events until i left it in a taxi. i have only used this camera for a few events but i must say i am really disapointed with the end results. available light photographs are all grey and underexposed due to the limitation of the shutter speeds,slow sync flash is a pain on this camera because you have to reset it after each shot.all in all i wish i''d invested in the konica lexio 70 which my girlfriend bought a couple of days after i got this,(i tried getting her to swap but she wouldn''t have any of it).
Strengths: looks nice,metal body.
Weaknesses: slow zooming,slowest shutter speed is only 1 sec,night portrait mode incorporates red eye reduction and cancels after each shot???? flash fires even in the brightest sunlight.
Similar Products Used: nikon f4,olympus om4,rolleiflex tlr and gone but not forgotten my pentax espio mini.
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