Fujifilm's 2002 vertical premium compact — 3.1MP SuperCCD, 3x 36-108mm equiv zoom, SmartMedia storage.
The Fujifilm FinePix F601 Zoom was a vertically styled premium compact announced in early 2002, one of the first cameras to carry Fujifilm's third-generation SuperCCD. It headed the F-series pocket line of the period and an example is held in the UK Science Museum Group collection as representative of early-2000s digital design.
Its 3.1-megapixel SuperCCD output interpolated files up to 2832x2128 (6 megapixels). The Super EBC Fujinon 3x zoom covered 36-108mm equivalent, backed by 4.4x digital zoom. Sensitivity was selectable up to ISO 1600, continuous shooting ran at five frames per second, and manual controls accompanied the automatic modes. Movies recorded at VGA 640x480 at 15fps. It carried a real-image optical viewfinder and 1.5-inch LCD, stored to SmartMedia cards (16MB bundled), and ran on an NP-60 lithium-ion battery in a 220g alloy body.
The F601's portrait-orientation body and metal build give it a distinctive character among early digicams, and the SuperCCD's punchy rendering has a following. It suits collectors of early-2000s digital and shooters chasing the interpolated SuperCCD look; expect slow writes and limited buffer by modern standards.
The critical used-market issue is SmartMedia: cards are long discontinued, capped at small capacities and increasingly failure-prone, so a working card and reader materially affect value. The NP-60 battery is third-party available. Check the optical viewfinder and LCD, test flash charging, and confirm the camera writes files reliably — SmartMedia contact errors are a common fault.