Solid performer, perfect for experienced enthusiasts (Fujifilm Finepix S602 Zoom)

Member Name: web_bixa

Product:	Fujifilm Finepix S602 Zoom
Date:	20/08/03 (125 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Versatile, Great picture quality, Fantastic video performance

Disadvantages: Supplie memory card too small, Non-compressed TIFF output only available at 2832x2128, SHIFT key awakward to use

With the current trend for digital cameras to look as small as possible, it's nice to see a camera that looks, and feels, like a traditional SLR. The Fujifilm eschews some of the more glamorous stylings of its lower-end stablemates, in favour of a body that's comfortable to hold, resulting in greater stability when taking photos.

Fuji's 3million-pixel CCD sits behind a superb 6x optical zoom lens. If you're the sort who likes to tweak all sorts of parameters when taking your pictures to produce the best-quality photos from the outset, you'll be in heaven ? you can ramp up the ISO sensitivity up to 1600 if you feel like it. For myself, that's a bit of overkill ? but the different manual modes, which give you control over specific aspects of the camera while maintaining the others automatically, or a godsend.

Auto-focussing is quick, even in low light levels. Switching to manual mode brings a couple of surprises: the focussing ring is electronically switched, so although you're focussing in a manual style, there's an almost imperceptible delay the first time you use it. After a couple of shots, though, you don't really notice. There's a quick autofocus facility while in manual focus mode, as well, which is a real boon.

The S602 also features a number of multiple-frame capture methods; it takes time to work out which mode is the most appropriate in your specific situation, but switching between them isn't too tricky.

Where the S602 really stands out for me, though, is its video capture. I've used digital cameras before that have some form of AVI capture, but this is the first I've used that can capture 640x480 VGA at a full 30 frames per second. The picture quality is tremendous -- although I'd advise buying a 1Gb MicroDrive if you are going to be taking videos on a regular basis. While recording video you can't alter zoom levels and have to rely on the camera's auto exp
osure settings, but if you can't justify buying a fully fledged digital camcorder just yet, the S602 will be an effective stopgap measure.

Summary: