Fuji FinePix F60fd Digital Camera Review

Fuji FinePix F60fd

Digital Camera Review

1.9 For a $299 camera, the Fujifilm FinePix F60fd has some intriguing features, including a 12-megapixel sensor, 3-inch LCD, a nicely constructed metal body and aperture- and shutter-priority shooting modes for enhanced exposure control. Lab testing turned up some significant problems, though, including higher-than-expected image noise and positively pokey performance on most speed tests. To see how advanced camera capabilities and real-world performance balance out, read the complete review.  
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Fuji FinePix F60fd

Auto Mode (4.75)
The camera offers two auto modes. In SR Auto mode, the camera analyzes the scene it's seeing and attempts to fit it into one of four image preset categories: Portrait, Landscape, Night and Macro. Failing an identification, it defaults back to the standard Auto mode, which sets all image parameters for the user automatically except for focus response, ISO, image quality and FinePix color. The ISO in this mode can't be adjusted freely, but instead can be set for one of the three Auto ISO modes capped at ISO 400, 800 or 1600 respectively.

If you do want more control, there is the oddly named Manual Mode, which is not the traditional set-aperture-and-shutter-speed  mode we expect when we hear the term, but an automated mode that adds manual overide for exposure compensation, metering, white balance and auto focus mode.

Movie Mode (5.50)
Movies can be shot at two resolution settings, 640 x 480 or 320 x 240, at 25 frames per second in both cases. Movie size is limited to 2 gigabytes, which means a single 640 x 480 clip could stretch on for an excruciating 35 minutes. The sound is monaural, and sound recording can't be turned off, so be careful what you mumble while shooting family videos. Because of the sound recording, no doubt, changes in zoom are prohibited while shooting video, since the motor sound would be captured.

Drive / Burst Mode (9.00)
There are many options for continuous shooting, some of which even have practical benefits. The most important burst modes, of course, are those that use full camera resolution, which here includes:

- Continuous: Long Period mode (keep shooting till you release the shutter or you run out of memory)
- Continuous: Final 3 (takes up to 40 pictures, but only the last 3 are saved)
- Continuous: Top 3 (take up to 3 pictures while the shutter is pressed. What makes this "top" 3 is anyone's guess)

For these three modes, Fujifilm claims a frame rate of "up to 2fps." We came nowhere near this number in our lab tests in Continuous: Long Period mode, eking out just one photo every three seconds. Still, if you want to be literal about it, that performance does indisputably fit within the "up to" phrasing. And shooting in Top 3 mode did crank along at nearly 2 frames per second -- just not for very long, and the process of writing the three files to the memory card from the internal memory buffer where they were initially stored was excruciatingly slow.

In addition to these three modes, there are two additional choices at 3-megapixel-or-below resolutions with ISO automatically pegged to ISO 400 or above:

- Continuous: Final 12 (take up to 40 pictures while shutter is depressed, keep only the last 12)
- Continuous: Top 12 (take up to 12 pictures)

Here Fujifilm claims "up to 5fps" and, much to our surprise, that's almost exactly the result we achieved.

Playback Mode (9.00)

In single-frame playback mode you have three display options from which to choose, cycled by hitting the DISP button: image information displayed, clean full-screen image and a calendar view, which sorts images by date taken. You can browse through dates by pressing up and down on the 4-way controller, and through images taken on a particular date by pressing side to side. We like having calendar view so easily accessible: it's a very useful way of navigating through your images, but for most cameras you have to jump through hoops (like zooming out repeatedly, beyond the smallest thumbnail image display level) to reach it.

Speaking of zooming in and out, the F60fd offers thirteen levels of zoom during full-res image playback (zoom capability varies depending on image size), and while no specific zoom ratio is provided, it delivers a huge blow-up that's more than adequate for a detailed focus check. Zooming out beyond single-frame in the opposite direction yields multi-frame playback, first two images, then nine, then a hundred. The dual-image mode is particularly useful, since it makes side-by-side comparison of related images easy.

The slide show utility offers the option to use the usual straight-ahead jumps or fade-ins between frames, and for photos with faces, employ an automatic zoom into the detected mug shots. It's also possible to display several images at once during the slide show, dividing the screen into quarters, which might be interesting on a big-screen TV display.

The image editing options show a distinct lack of consumer-oriented fun. You can remove red-eye, rortate an image, copy, add a voice memo or crop a section and save it in a separate file. Wheee!

Custom Image Presets (6.25)
There are thirteen scene modes in all, available by setting the Mode dial to SP, then opening up the shooting menu. These include:

- Portrait
- Portrait enhancer (smoother skin, softer focus)
- Landscape
- Sport
- Night
- Fireworks
- Sunset
- Snow
- Beach
- Museum (turns off flash, all lamps and sounds)
- Party
- Flower (macro mode on, flash disabled)
- Text

Design / Layout Page 8 of 15 Control Options Fujifilm FinePix F60fd Digital Camera Review Navigation

 
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