Fantastic Prosumer Camera

Author's Rating:

Pros: SLR feel, long zoom, macro, user-friendly

Cons: No auto-focus assist lamp, fixed (non-moveable) LCD screen

The Bottom Line: 
Wonderful camera for enthusiasts and hobby photographers

Author's Review
This is the second digital camera I have owned. Since receiving my Nikon Coolpix 2000 for Christmas, I have been searching exhaustively for a more featured digital camera to give me more photographic options and features. After discovering digital, my 35mm Canon film camera with its interchangeable lenses has been sitting idle in my camera bag.

My search for a higher-level digital camera was an extensive one. For four months I searched numerous websites, owner forums, and really got to know a few of the digital camera “experts” at three of my local camera stores (who allowed me to use many of their digital cameras). Having seriously considered about 6 different cameras in the “prosumer” class, the fact that I finally ended up with the Fujifilm Finepix S 602 Z Pro (black version) should tell you something about this camera.

One thing I did find is that many of the staff at my local camera stores knew nothing about this camera and simply wrote it off because it used AA batteries. Their loss. I have two sets of NiMH AA batteries and a charger that cost me about half of what a lithium battery would cost. I also like to know that I don’t have to charge the batteries in the camera and I can purchase more in emergencies if necessary.

I have owned the camera for only two weeks and have already taken about 500 pictures in my relatively easy quest of getting to know my new camera. So far I am very pleased.

Camera Body and Controls

One of the main things that attracted me to this camera was it’s feel. It is very reminiscent of an SLR. The body is not metal, but it seems to be very durable with no parts that seem flimsy or easily breakable. I have fairly large hands, so the size of the camera felt very comfortable for me.

The controls are extremely easy to use and very intuitive. There is little need to go into the menu system for any of the more common functions that might be needed for average shooting situations. The ‘shift’ key also provides a shortcut to many of the commonly used functions. There is a focus ring around the lens body for manual focus, has a nice feel and is a necessity for night shooting.

The tripod mount is perfectly placed in the middle of the lens barrel and all of the control buttons are “hard” rather than “soft” buttons. The camera has an audible beep confirmation function that lets the user know when they’ve pressed a button, but this function can be turned off if desired.

The viewfinder is not a true through-the-lens, but just a smaller version of the LCD screen on the back of the camera. I wasn’t crazy about this, but as I searched is this price range, I found either a electronic viewfinder of lesser quality or a rangefinder. The only way to get a true TTL viewfinder is to go full SLR and I wasn’t prepared to spend that kind of money. Now I have grown used to using the viewfinder and appreciate it a lot in bright sunlight when glare can be an issue on many LCD screens. The only thing I would have liked is a moveable LCD screen (Nikon Coolpix 5700), or a swivel body (Sony DSC F-717) for greater flexibility when shooting at ground level or other difficult angles.

Taking Pictures

Start up time is important since a photo opportunity often passes very quickly. The 602 is reasonable in this regard. It does take a few seconds to start up (compares favourably to other cameras) and once ready to shoot will go into sleep mode after either 2 or 5 minutes (user defined) of not being used. It recovers nicely from sleep mode and is ready for shooting after a single press of the shutter release. Moving between record and play modes is done by the switch around the shutter release button and is very quick.

The auto focus system is very quick (slower at full zoom), and shot to shot times are very good. Continuous shooting is also available, but I haven’t had an opportunity to take full advantage of this feature yet. One nice sub-feature of continuous shooting is that it will take shots (about every 1/3 of a second) until you release the shutter release button and then only store the last five images. I anticipate this will be good for sports where you can follow the action and then let go of the shutter release once the desired event takes place (shot, tackle, etc.) I’m looking forward to using this feature.

I have used my camera in 3 meagpixel mode at “fine” image quality. The images are spectacular at this quality and write to my 128 Mb CF card in a reasonable amount of time. There is also the option of using smart media as a storage format (which seems to work better than CF when shooting video), but I don’t have a large capacity smart media card yet.

In AUTO mode, the camera performs well as a point and shoot camera. The colours are true, skin tones are good and images are sharp (without any extra sharpening turned on). The 602 can also be used in PROGRAM mode, which is similar to AUTO mode, but uses predetermined combinations of shutter speed and aperture to produce similar exposures; shutter priority, aperture priority, and full manual modes. There are also scene selections that can be made for portrait, landscape, sports, night shots, and black and white.

The indicators on the LCD screen (viewfinder is the same) are all very clear and useful. In PROGRAM, Shutter priority, aperture priority, and manual modes, there is an exposure scale (somewhat akin to a light meter) at the bottom of the LCD that lets the user know if their picture will be over or under exposed.

When using the manual focus, there is a ‘focus-check’ button that magnifies the center portion of the screen to allow you to ensure that you have a sharp focus on the subject. In manual mode, it also provides an on-screen visual confirmation that focus has been achieved (handy in low light situations).

The macro function is one of the best that I have encountered. There are two settings, ‘macro’ and ‘super macro’. Both are very good and the detail I have achieved at close range is incredible. I have only had minor distortion at very close range with the super macro.

There are two self-timer settings at 2 and 10-seconds. Although I purchased the “black” version of this camera that allows the attachment of a cable release, I find myself using the 2-second timer more frequently when it’s on the tripod. I purchased the black version because of the cable release option and I fully intend to use it in other situations.

The pop-up flash is quite good for normal indoor shooting and has a good red-eye reduction function. Slow sync can be used in the night scene mode and by selecting it manually. It also has a universal hot shoe that can be used with external flashes that have adjustable apertures. It works fairly well with my Vivitar flash, but I haven’t perfected the combination yet.

In play mode, the zoom buttons can be used to zoom in on (magnify) the image and the arrow keys allow movement around the image. The magnification is amazing and is handy to ensure the quality of focus when in the field. Zooming out provides a view of nine images at once.

Movie mode is the best out there right now. It works with sound, but not zoom and records at 30 frames per second for a smooth, continuous image. It will continue recording until the memory card is full.

Batteries and Software

It is an absolute necessity to have NiMH rechargeable batteries for this camera and I would strongly recommend having two sets, one in the camera and another fully charged as back up. The battery low indicator doesn’t give much warning when the batteries are almost exhausted. At that point, there is usually just enough juice left for the camera to shut down. If you try to power it up again, you will be left with the lens barrel extended and no power. Batteries last a good length of time and although I haven’t measured the actual amount of time they last, they have lasted over 150 shots in one afternoon with lots of power on - power off, zooming, and viewing of shots. That also included the downloading of all the images onto my computer, which took about 5 minutes or so to complete. I don’t know if the viewfinder draws less power than the LCD screen, but since they’re both LCD, I would imagine that it doesn’t make much difference. The important point to note is that both LCD’s are not active at the same time; users much choose one or the other.

Transfer of files from camera to computer is done via USB. The time it takes to transfer images is not lightning fast, but it’s not turtle slow either. Based on the size and quality of the images, I have no problem waiting. The only thing I would recommend is to make sure the batteries are relatively fresh before uploading a large number of pictures.

The software that comes with the camera is okay, but I wouldn’t say it’s excellent. As far as I know, there is no program provided to allow the stitching of images (for panoramic shots), so I use the one that came with my Nikon. Also, when viewing individual images at full screen size (double clicking on a thumbnail), there is no way to move from image to image without closing the window and opening a new one. It would be nice to be able to scroll from image to image at full screen. I found myself using ACDSee to view the images.

The camera also comes with a watered down version of Adobe Photo Shop, but honestly, I haven’t used it much with the images from this camera. I also have the full version of Photoshop but I have only used it once to edit an image from this camera.

Other stuff

The camera comes with a video cable that allows hook up to a TV for viewing of images. It works pretty well, but the images don’t look great and there is no way to rotate an image that was taken in portrait orientation. The neck strap and lens cap that come with the camera are both good and there is even a holder for the lens cap that’s attached to the neck strap. It comes with a 16 MB Smart Media card and while I still have it in its slot in the camera, it’s only there for backup should I fill up my 128MB card.

One other factor I considered before buying was cost of accessories. With some of the other competitors, in order to achieve the zoom in this camera, they would have needed an adapter and an extender right off the top. With this camera, I have the zoom and will eventually buy the wide angle lens, but for now, it works very well.

Conclusion

I am extremely pleased with my S 602 Z Pro and would recommend it to anyone who wants a versatile camera with a long zoom without having to worry about changing lenses. It’s certainly not for professional photographers, but for hobbyist or an amateur, it’s a fantastic camera with lots of flexibility and full manual capabilities. After looking carefully at a dozen cameras in this class, I found this one to be the most user friendly and feature-filled. While I haven’t tried it at it’s full 6 megapixel mode I am very pleased with the quality at 3 megapixels. I've heard that the image looks a little "over-processed" at 6 megapixels, but if I'm displeased, I will update my review. Check out Fuji’s description of their Super CCD brochure at

http://www.fujifilm.com/JSP/fuji/epartners/bin/3rdGenSuperCCD_2.pdf

Durability may be an issue down the road as the case is plastic, but so far, it seems to be quite sturdy. While it is only a 3 megapixel camera (in reality), if you don’t plan to make enlargements bigger than 8x10, you won’t need much more camera than this. Since Fuji has reportedly discontinued this camera, I would imagine that there are great deals to be had out there and if you’re in the market, I’d highly recommend picking one up. I was able to get $160 off the sticker price.

I mentioned before that I looked at a number of cameras. Here is a list of the cameras I seriously considered. If you would like my short impression of each, please comment on my review with your email address or epinions name, and I’ll send my brief comments to you along with why I didn’t choose it.

Sony DSC F-717
Canon G3
Nikon Coolpix 5700
Olympus C-5050 Zoom
HP Photosmart 850
Olympus E20
Minolta DiMAGE 7Hi