I now have two Fujifilm digital cameras: a 1 megapixel MX-700 (purchased May 1998) and a three megapixel, 4th-generation version of the same basic camera, now called the F601 (purchased June 2002). The 3-megapixel Fuji F601 digital camera (see review at Steve's) has an interpolated 6 megapixel mode, as well. I immediately decided to pit the two cameras against each other, though it is no contest. The F601 has a much faster processor (the time between consecutive shots is virtually unnoticeable on the F601 compared to the painful 15 seconds of the MX-700). The exposure settings have been refined. And I now have a 3 X zoom. Below are some comparison pictures. I'll add more as time permits.

FED-EX BOX COMPARISON (1.1 MB PNG file)

Here I shot the words on a Fed-Ex box from the exact same distance (about 2.5 feet) with both cameras. Obviously, the zoom lens gives the F601 a big advantage, but even the increased pixels almost make the difference in being able to read the text.

CAT PILLOW COMPARISON (547K JPG file)

Here I shot a pillow with a picture of a cat on it from about 8 feet and sized the same part of the image to the same size for each of the photo types. Again, the zoom gives the most dramatic increase in quality.