Fuji FinePix F60fd

Focus
Auto Focus (7.50)
When using auto or scene modes, the camera defaults to a center-weighted focus scheme. If face detection is turned on, of course, the camera hunts for faces (up to 10) and sets focus and exposure accordingly. In manual, aperture-priority and shutter-priority modes, the user can choose between center focus, multi focus (detects high-contrast subjects near the center of the screen) and continuous focus (maintains focus on subject as long as the shutter button is halfway depressed).

The odd power management F-Mode menu choice, available in all but one shooting mode, asks the user to choose just one of three options: Power Save (lower monitor refresh rate, dim after 10 idle seconds), Quick AF (reduces focus time) and Clear Display (enhanced LCD image quality). This all seems peculiar to us: why can't we have to choose all three?  Still, if  forced to choose between the three flavors, we'd go with the Clear Display, which at least makes a noticeable difference. In our informal testing, the Quick AF didn't speed AF performance much, and restricted the close focus range to 1 meter (3 ft. 3 in.).

The closest focus distance in macro mode is about 2.8 inches (7cm).  A quarter shot from this distance takes up only about one third of the picture width, which isn't especially impressive.

The auto focus assist illuminator, located directly under the flash, was quite bright and worked well  at extended distances We did run into low-light situations, though, where the camera could successfully focus, but only after repeated attempts.

Exposure (5.00)
You want some exposure compensation, we got your exposure compensation right here. Specifically, in the Manual and Aperture priority/Shutter priority modes, with a range from -2 EV to +2 EV in 1/3 EV increments. This is a control we would like to have seen implemented in the scene modes as well. It's easy enough for newbies to ignore, but the option to tweak image brightness is often all it takes to push an automated but slightly misguided exposure setting into the visual comfort zone.

Metering (7.00)
You have to love a consumer camera menu that lists metering mode options in an on-screen category called PHOTOMETRY. The verbiage may be highfallutin, but the choices are standard enough. MULTI attempts to use automatical scene recognition to set exposure, AVERAGE averages the exposure value for the entire frame, and SPOT meters only the center. Here again, control is only possible when shooting in Manual, Aperture Priority or Shutter Priority modes.

Shutter Speed (4.00)
Some annoying limitations show up here. A top shutter speed of 1/1000 second is unimpressive. As for long-exposure shooting, the maximum you can eke out is 8 seconds, but that requires fiddling with custom presets. User-controllable shutter speed in shutter-priority mode stops at 1 second, which is odd if the camera has the mechanical capability to shoot slower.