Fuji S602 is excellent! (Fujifilm Finepix 602 Zoom)

Member Name: pcwillows

Product:	Fujifilm Finepix 602 Zoom
Date:	04/09/02 (6050 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Dual Memory, Ergonomics, Picture Quality

Disadvantages: Occasional Red Over Saturation, No battery power warning, Poor AF in low light

The S602 is an amazing camera. It has full function SLR stlye controls with shutter speeds from 15 seconds to 1/10,000th. It has full manual controls with Aperture and shutter priority settings and a fullyAutomatic setting.
It has a built in flash which I have so far found to be excellent. It has fully controllable White Balance settings with various presets and a couple of spaces for manual settings you can save. It handles just like any SLR and the hand grip is really comfortable.
A good feature of this camera is the dual memory type slots. It will accept both CompactFlash II and SmartMedia cards. The features of this camera are far too numerous to mention here but include burst mode shooting, multiple exposures, auto and manual bracketing.

The picture quality is second to none with a good range of picture quality settings to choose from. A 6 mega pixel shot will cost you around 17MB of card space, where as the main setting I use to print up to 10x8 inch photos will use around 1.3Mb, fitting around 50 pictures on a 64Mb card. The camera comes supplied as standard with only 16Mb SmartMedia. Cards are not expensive though. You can pick up a 64Mb CF or SM card for around 15 pounds if you shop around!

I really cannot rate this camera highly enough. I use it as a professional photographer and traded in two Canon EOS kits at the time of purchase in May 2002. I have not picked up a film camera and taken any pictures with one since!
I can guarantee if you buy one of these cameras you will not be disappointed. The only point I would make though is that if you're an action photographer you may struggle with this camera as the auto focus is a little slow in such situations. For example you may struggle to take close up pictures of race cars etc... unless you spend time setting up a manual focus on a certain point of the race track.

The zoom is good on this camera and the zoom equates to about 210mm on a
normal SLR camera and the lens quality is excellent. The noise filter works wonderfully in low light situations and you can take some very good astrophotographs with this camera too.

Please note though that the only minor items I have found so far is the fact that the autofocus system struggles a bit when light conditions are low. But when I say this I mean like after sunset! Also, you don't get any warning when the batteries are dying. The camera will just die!

However, battery life for this camera is astounding! It takes 4 AA batteries and I use rechargeables. The 1700mAh ones I use will take around 280 pics assuming half are with flash. If you don't use flash you can do around 600 pics on one charge!!!! Simply amazing! The only thing is with the basic kit you don't get rechargeable batteries or a charger or a mains adapter but they aren't expensive!

My complaints really are nothing to moan about! I have taken over 10,000 pictures with this camera since I bought it in May and have had NO problems at all.

All I can say is if you think you'll like the camera, YOU WILL! Don't take my word for it though, go buy one, you won't regret it! Like I said, I'm a pro and I haven't picked up a film camera since May 2002. I take this everwhere!

Update:
Based on comments about my review I would just like to add a few things.

Someone asked if it was easy to use as I was on about using it as a semi-pro. YES any one can use it!!! No disrespect but even my missus can use it and she can't even set the video!!! If you wish you can just set it to Auto and point and shoot. Or as I said, you can fiddle all day. It's all driven by easy to follow menus which can be viewed through the viewfinder or on the LCD. The menus are accessed via one of the thumb wheels on top of the camera and also buttons on the side. They are clear and easy to follow and they are all t
itled so you know exactly what you have selected.

The advantage of digital is that it doesn't cost a penny to develop! You can start of simply by using Auto settings and just play around. You can't hurt it! Go and buy one!

Summary: