Manual Control Options
The FinePix S6000fd is tailored to enthusiasts who will appreciate the manual control it has to offer. Manual, Aperture and Shutter Priority, and Program modes complement the manual control options in the menu: custom white balance, an expansive ISO selection, manual focus, and perks like flash compensation all make this Fuji a crowd pleaser.
Focus
Auto Focus (7.5)
This Fujifilm digital camera’s main feature is its face detection auto focus system that can recognize, track, and focus on up to 10 faces at a time. A designated button to the right of the viewfinder activates the system, which works in most shooting modes (not modes like movie, night, and text). When the system sees a human face, a green box appears around it. The face detection system works quickly, which Fujifilm attributes to the fact that the system is hardware-based, rather than Nikon’s slower software-based face priority auto focus system. Canon recently introduced some cameras with face recognition technology; their system focuses on up to 9 faces at a time and is equally as speedy.
When the innovative face detection auto focus system isn’t activated, the through-the-lens contrast detection auto focus takes over. The left side of the lens has a switch that moves between Single and Continuous control modes, while the shooting menu contains Center, Multi, and Area auto focus modes. The first two modes favor the center. The Area auto focus bracket can be moved around the frame; this is done by pushing the one-touch AF button while also scrolling around with the multi-selector. That is just fine though, as the S6000fd has manual focus anyway.
The manual focus is located on the same switch as the Single and Continuous auto focus modes. In the center of the switch is a one-touch auto focus button with an icon that looks like a bowtie. The icon could certainly be improved, but the idea is that if manually focusing is taking too long and the photo moment is just about over then users can push this button to quickly focus before the shot.
Normally, the FinePix S6000fd focuses from 1.3 ft to infinity. In the macro mode, this changes to 4 inches-9.8 ft at the 28mm focal length to 3-9.8 ft at the 300mm focal length. The super macro mode shortens the focus even closer to 0.4 inches to 3.3 ft. The macro modes are accessed with the left side of the multi-selector.
In low light, it sends out a green auto focus assist lamp and still does decently. It has trouble in low contrast situations, but many cameras do. The system is quick, but not as fast as the AF system on a DSLR. There is a High-Speed Shooting option in the shooting menu that reduces the amount of time the auto focus system takes; it doesn’t provide any less reliable results but sucks the batteries dry faster. The auto focus system lags behind when zooming around in the movie mode, which looks a little strange.
Overall, the auto focus system does a decent job. The face detection auto focus system is icing on the cake.
Manual Focus (5.0)
The Fujifilm FinePix S6000fd appears to have been designed with manual focusing in mind. The left side of the lens has a switch that must be moved to the “M” manual position before the focus ring on the lens will actually register. When users begin to move the focus ring, the center of the live preview is magnified. This is fine when viewing on the LCD screen, but impossible on the electronic viewfinder because of its poor resolution. The magnified view is easy to see when the camera is mounted on a tripod or other stable surface, but it bounces around when holding in the hands and makes it hard to see the subject. If subjects are off-center too, it will be hard to see them unless the “focus check” is turned off within the setup menu.
Exposure (8.25)
Full control over the exposure is available on the S6000fd. The shutter speed and aperture can be changed in the manual mode, and most other modes have access to the exposure compensation scale with a standard +/- 2 EV range in increments of 1/3. In the live preview, users can view a histogram with a few pushes of the Disp/Back button. In the playback mode, the exposure compensation button can be pushed to show a histogram, full file information, and the photo with blinking highlights that are over-exposed. A range of exposure modes abound, and should please just about any level of user.
Metering (8.0)
The Fujifilm FinePix S6000fd uses a 256-zone metering system that is controlled with the following modes: Multi, Spot, and Average. These options are available in the shooting menu under the Photometry heading. There is a live view as users scroll through these options, but it is sometimes hard to see because of the translucent gray box filled with menu text.
ISO (9.5)
The “F” menu contains the ISO selection, which is larger than what is offered on most digital cameras. The FinePix S6000fd has options for 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600, and 3200. The camera uses the higher ISO sensitivities for its Natural Light and Picture Stabilization scene modes; these allow easy photography in low light. This FinePix is equipped with noise reduction technology, so check out the ISO tests in the Performance section of this review for more details.
White Balance (8.0)
In the shooting menu, a white balance item makes 8 options appear when selected. These 8 modes are displayed on the far right side of the LCD screen, with the live preview on the left: Auto, Custom, Fine (daylight), Shade, Fluorescent 1, Fluorescent 2, Fluorescent 3, and Incandescent. The custom white balance mode provides on-screen directions; all users need to do to get accurate colors is push the shutter release button while in this portion of the menu.
Shutter Speed (8.0)
In both the shutter priority and manual modes, the shutter speed can be changed by pushing up and down on the multi-selector. The range is very wide: 30 seconds to 1/4000th of a second in the manual mode. This should satisfy most users of this camera, but a few may be irked at the omission of a bulb setting. The range is shortened in the priority and program modes; its longest exposure is only 4 seconds.
Aperture (8.0)
In the manual mode, the aperture is a bit tougher to adjust than its counterpart. The exposure compensation button must be held down while scrolling up and down with the multi-selector. In the aperture priority mode, only the multi-selector is used. The widest the aperture can get is f/2.8 at the 28mm focal length. When the lens is bumped even a tiny bit, it jumps to f/2.9. There are plenty of aperture choices: f/2.8, f/2.9, f/3, f/3.1, all the way to f/4.9. These tiny increments can be accessed by setting the aperture as wide as it will go, then zooming in very slowly. At the most telephoto 300mm focal length, f/4.9 is as wide as it gets. With the multi-selector, the following apertures are offered throughout the range: f/2.8, 3.2, 3.6, 4, 4.5, 5, 5.6, 6.4, 7.1, 8, 9, 10, and 11. The minimum aperture in the manual mode is f/11, but the range stops short at f/8 in the aperture priority mode.
