Fujifilm FinePix S6000fd

Model Design / Appearance
Shaped like a DSLR and sized like one too is the Fuji S6000fd. This digital camera tries to emulate a DSLR in almost every way. It has a cushy eyecup with a viewfinder, it incorporates more buttons and controls on the body than compact cameras, and it even comes in a more professional looking black colored body. This FinePix is designed for consumers who want the look of a DSLR without having to cart around multiple lenses and a backpack of accessories. Fujifilm’s marketing material addresses this by flaunting the fact that dust cannot get into the sealed camera body.

Size / Portability
There are plenty of protrusions from the front of the camera, but at its largest the FinePix S6000fd measures 5.2 x 5 x 3.8 inches and weighs 23.3 oz with the card and batteries. The batteries add a few ounces of weight because there are four of them. The xD card doesn’t weigh much at all. This FinePix isn’t a camera to carry around with one hand or to dangle from a wrist. The S6000fd comes with a neck strap and will still require two hands or a bag to lug it around. There is a large hand grip that will make it slightly more comfortable to carry around, but the sheer weight of it is still a hindrance in its portability.

Handling Ability
The Fujifilm S6000fd has a chunky right hand grip covered in textured rubber that makes handling comfortable. The weight of the camera will require more than just a right hand to grip the camera though; it will need to be supported beneath the long zoom lens as well – and there’s plenty of room for that. The front of the hand grip has two divots in it that wrap around the front for the fingers to rest in – similar to bucket seats for fingers.

The hand grip wraps around the back of the camera too and extends to a spot with nine bumps where the thumb rests and certainly won’t slip. The textured rubber material is also on the zoom and focus grips on the lens. There is also thick soft rubber cushioning the electronic viewfinder. Overall, handling the S6000fd is comfortable if you have strong wrists for its 23.3 oz of weight.

Control Button / Dial Positioning / Size
The number of buttons on the camera is more than a compact camera but less than a true DSLR. There are all sorts of dials and buttons, several of which are located at the top of the hand grip. The shutter release button is placed just where it should be at the front edge of the grip; it is surrounded by a power switch that rotates to recording and playback modes. Behind this feature are burst and exposure compensation buttons. These buttons aren’t very convenient because they have to be pushed in while also scrolling with the multiselector.

The large mode dial is on the back of the hand grip. On the side of the lens is a dial that switches between focus modes: single, continuous, and manual. The center of the button is the camera’s "one-touch" auto focus that works even in the manual mode. One of the easier buttons to use is the one-touch face detection button located to the top right of the LCD. In general, the buttons are properly sized and spaced and labeled. The only problems are the burst and exposure compensation buttons that have to be held while simultaneously scrolling with the multiselector.

Menu
The Fujifilm FinePix S6000fd has a menu system that splits the options up with the more frequently used settings located in a "F-Photo Mode" menu accessed by the "F" button on the camera. These are the options located in that menu.

This may be confusing to some users who like to have all their options on the screen at once, nicely organized of course. The rest of the menu items are found by pushing the Menu button. The following is the shooting menu that comes with several live previews beneath the overlay of text.

The setup menu is organized into four tabs; none of the tabs display more than can fit on one screen though, so there is no scrolling down and down and down involved. Here is the menu.

The menus in the Fujifilm FinePix S6000fd drive me a little crazy with ALL CAPITAL LETTERS, which I don't think are the easiest to read, but the organization is there. The split structure may also drive some users crazy. Another problem is that it is easy to cancel out of a menu feature and accidentally exit the menu system altogether. Overall, the menu system is just average.

Ease of Use
Ease of use is not this camera’s strong point. After hogging the S6000fd at the Fujifilm booth for a good long while, I wandered and watched other people pick up the camera. Many would pick it up, look through the viewfinder, watch the face detection technology work and maybe snap a picture or two, then look at it from arm’s length and put it down. Most people’s experience with the camera was brief and as a point-and-shoot. In my experience, the Fujifilm FinePix S6000fd wasn’t tough to figure out (I’ve worked with FinePix S-series digital cameras before, which may have helped) but some of the functions aren’t very intuitive. The menu system is split into a normal menu and a "F-Photo Mode" menu, which could be confusing. And some users may just think that there are too many buttons altogether to really get into this camera. The Fuji S6000fd does have an auto mode that really does turn this camera into a point-and-shoot with a very long lens. In general, however, this isn’t the easiest camera to use.