Finepix f60fd, a Natural Evolution of a Great Little Camera

Author's Rating:

Pros: Compact size, solidly built, easy to use controls, lots of auto modes with manual override

Cons: Can't charge off the USB port, operational speed depends on flash memory card speed.

The Bottom Line: 
This camera is good value for money, is easy to use with auto modes which really work but offers enough manual flexibility for those who feel like getting creative. 

Author's Review
I strayed from Fujifilm cameras after a very positive first experience. I heard the Sirens’ call of tiny, pocket cameras and my old Fujifilm was large, bulky and just a little goofy but it took great pictures. I know the current owner and it is still working and still taking great pictures at about the 10 year mark. After the purchase of a looks great but doesn’t deliver camera of another brand I decided to go back to Fujifilm. The Finepix f60fd was my camera of choice for re-entering the fold and it has proved to be a very rewarding experience.

The basics

The f60fd is a small, pocket camera. It is not a big SLR with SLR-like features that the user can fiddle with all day but it offers the seasoned photographer lots of flexibility or the ability to put it into one of several auto modes and just have fun with it.

Some Basic Specs:

12 Megapixel

Large 1/1.6” Fujifilm Super CCD

3x (35-105mm) Fujinon zoom, f/2.8-5.1

ISO 100-6400 (ISO 3200-6400 at lower resolution)

3.0", 230K-pixel TFT LCD

Shutter Speeds: 8-1/2000 seconds

Shooting Modes: Auto, Natural Light, Natural Light with Flash, SR Auto, A/S Priority, Manual, Movie

Scene Presets: Portrait, Portrait Enhancer, Landscape, Sport, Night, Fireworks, Sunset, Snow, Beach, Underwater, Museum, Party, Flower, Text

Additional Features: Face Detection 3.0, Dual Image Stabilization, Continuous Shooting, Portrait Enhancer Mode

The latching door on the bottom allows for insertion of the battery and the memory card. This camera is compatible with SD and SDHC (High Capacity) cards (more on these in a moment). I am still wishing for a camera which will charge off the USB port when plugged into a computer. This one, alas, does not but Fuji has provided an ingenious, tiny battery charger which holds the battery and plugs into a wall outlet. I see this as a compromise but it beats the heck out of the power supply and dock which Casio forced me to carry around.

The camera is made of alloys and composites. It has a good feel to it. It feel solid, stable, well-built. The lens assembly retracts behind a door which closes to keep out dust and this mechanism is particularly smooth and fast. Buttons are placed sensibly and unlike many cameras which are cryptic and present the user with “Gee, what does this do?” opportunities, the controls are easy to master.

Controls

Most of the back of the camera is taken up by a brilliant 3.0” display with 230,000 dots of resolution. It’s gorgeous and easy to see even in strong light. FujiFilm’s user interface continues to be easy to use. This camera continues the tradition of a selector wheel to select operational modes quickly and without the need for a lesson in code to sort out multi-function buttons. On top and out back, the control arrangement on Fuji's latest is lifted directly from the F50fd predecessor, with power, zoom toggle, shutter, and dedicated image stabilization buttons up top, and a mode dial, d-pad controller, and four dedicated buttons on the rear panel.

Shooting and Using

This can be as easy as point and push the button or the user can shift into aperture or shutter priority, use a number of “scene selection” modes, zoom, capture video and audio. It comes up ready to work quickly. In fact, it is surprisingly fast compared to other cameras. Auto Face Detection allows this camera to adjust focus to maximize face clarity (Fujifilm was a pioneer in this field) and with auto scene selection turned on, it can sense if the user is shooting a portrait, sports action, landscape, architecture, etc. What’s more, in this camera, these features actually work where in most competing models they are cute ideas which tend to stay turned off so they don’t get in the way. Fujifilm got it right and these features work and work together in any combination the user selects. They really improve the quality of the photos. Add in real, working picture stabilization and I find myself leaving these features on so the camera can do my work for me. If I’m in an Ansel Adams mode, I can fiddle away and experiment but I can put it back in my set of auto modes simply and easily without wondering, “How did I have that set again?” It’s just easy.

It would be possible to go on for pages about all of the features and functions and how each can change the photo which is taken, but in the interest of brevity, let’s just say there is a lot of capability there for someone who really knows technical photography but this camera also lets the casual user tap into the rich set of smart auto modes to look more like a pro. In fact, this camera is so good that I think the seasoned pro will find it to be a great backup or “notepad” camera for taking quick shots to study for inclusion in more detailed projects.

Old school photographers will know that Fujifilm is known for its brilliant color. Reds, blues and greens get a boost which makes them jump. This is a trait carried over into their digital cameras going back to their very early models. I am pleased to say this is still a present feature although the f60df has the ability to make changes to the color rendering from default mode which is a neutral balance to “f-chrome” (color boost) and monochrome. The “f-chrome” mode will be the one Fujifilm wet process users will like. It provides that eye-popping color, but can be turned off for shoots where one wants a neutral balance.

Memory Cards

Like most new cameras, they come with a slot for a memory card but no memory card. The user will need to select a card suitable to his or her needs. One thing to keep in mind is that there are new high speed SD cards on the market which read and write at about 10x the speed of the standard cards. With 12 Megapixel cameras and above, this is no longer a fine point. Large photos (if set to max resolution) take time to write to the card or read back onto the display or upload to a computer. If speed is not all that important, go for the cheap card. There is about a 4x difference in price for a given capacity, but the extra money does buy performance and this camera can take advantage of it. It’s fast and can exploit fast memory. This becomes critical when taking photos of high speed events such as sporting events or when doing multi-frame shooting (press the button and let it snap as quickly as possible). For this kind of shooting, a high speed card will make life a lot easier. A 2GB standard card is about $10. A high speed, 2GB card, about $45. Performance costs.

Yet, this camera can accept any SD card so you can use your old, slow cards for landscape shooting on a trip and switch to a high speed card for speedboat races. The camera has the full range of the SD memory cards covered.

Battery Life

Fujifilm says that the battery will last through about 250 shots. From my experience so far, this seems to be on target. The battery runs down at a predictable rate. Use of the display and the flash will of course cause a faster battery drain but the battery level gauge is accurate and allows the user to know when to charge the battery.

Software

The f60fd is shipped with pretty good PC photo management software and drivers for PCs and Macs. It’s okay software if you don’t have something better. If you have any of the Adobe Photoshop products installed, that’s about all you will need on a PC. On a Mac, iPhoto or Aperture will handle accessing the camera and downloading the photos and then personal creativity takes over. The included software is really for those who have no software tools present. This makes the camera usable and helps organize photos, but for those already using using a higher end application for photo management, stick with it.

I/O

The camera has a USB 2.0 interface, an AV output and a DC power input for charging the battery with an aux adaptor. Again, I wish this camera could charge off of the USB connection but with such good battery life, using the tiny wall charge is not that big of a deal and it beats traveling with a dock or a power supply. Just don’t forget and leave it in the wall of a hotel room

Final Impressions

It is possible to go on for pages about all of the features, settings and how to use them. That’s what the manual is for and the manual is pretty good. To wrap it up simply, this is an excellent camera which is easy and fun to use. It doesn’t need a cheat sheet to figure out cryptic buttons, icons or features. This is not a ground-breaking product, but a natural evolution from the 40fd and 50fg which came before it. This shows that Fuji got it right in the beginning and just keeps refining what was a good core product. The new features such as image stabilization and auto scene selection are great and really work. This is not a cheap camera but it is well worth every penny of the $300 price. The lens, CCD array and the firmware which processes the images into photos are all exceptional. If you know a lot about photography, you will enjoy using this camera. If you are not an expert, you will still enjoy using it and will still get excellent results.