By Leonard Goh
09/09/2008
URL: http://asia.cnet.com/reviews/digitalcameras/0,39005881,43891123p,00.htm

It was widely regarded that the FinePix F100fd succeeds the F50fd, but we were told by Fujifilm that was not the case. Instead, the just-released F60fd is the true successor. Shutterbugs will be pleased by the aperture-/ shutter-priority controls and large 3-inch LCD. For novices, the company has incorporated scene recognition function for easy, automatic shooting. However, we were quite surprised to see that the image quality at high ISO was not up to Fujifilm's standard, and the menu navigation system was somewhat cluttered without the scroll wheel seen on its predecessor. That said, the F60fd is still a relatively capable shooter and a cheaper alternative to the more powerful F100fd.

Design

The F60fd's plain looks may not stand out of the crowd, but its solid build is something noteworthy. The right end is slightly raised to provide a better grip and the rear buttons are positioned to facilitate one-handed operation.

The F60fd lacks the scroll wheel found on both the F50fd and F100fd which we really liked as it made menu navigation much easier. Instead it features the standard four-way directional pad that is somewhat not as intuitive.

For the F100fd, we mentioned that the flash was too close to the edge and there were occasions where we covered it with our fingers. This problem is rectified in the F60fd as the flash is now located in the top center position.

This point-and-shoot is available in either black or silver, but we prefer the latter. We find the silver accents on the darker version too contrasty for our liking, but that's up to personal preference.

Features

Following recent digicam trends, Fujifilm has added scene recognition technology to the F60fd. In this mode, users have limited control over the camera, which decides the mode (macro, portrait, night and landscape) to use upon analyzing the scene. This worked well when we tested it, but the focusing could be a little faster, especially for macro shots. Face Detection 3.0 works in conjunction with this mode, and when it detected a profile, whether side or front, the point-and-shoot automatically went into portrait mode.

Although Fujifilm's press release states the F60fd has full manual control, we received clarification from the company that this function is limited to just shutter- and aperture- priority modes. The two modes are mapped to one notch on the mode dial and we had to call up the camera's menu to toggle between these two options. These two features gave us somewhat a false sense of control. For example, in aperture-priority mode, we were able to adjust not just the aperture settings but also exposure compensation. When we pushed the exposure up a notch, the shutter speed changed, too. While this means we can possibly shoot at a desired exposure setting, the shot may not turn out well exposed. Even so, we were still glad to have certain amount of control over our shots especially when faced with tricky lighting situations such as high-contrast scenes.

There is a faux manual mode, which essentially lets the shooter handles the exposure calculation and leave some room for adjusting ISO settings, white balance, burst shooting mode and type of autofocus.

A nice improvement on the F60fd is the 3-inch LCD, which is larger than those seen on its predecessors, including the F100fd. However, it retained the same 3x optical zoom lens the F50fd sports. The focal length didn't change, too, starting from an acceptable 35mm to 105mm. We would have preferred if it came with a wider lens.

The F60fd sports a dual memory card slot and it can accept either SD/SDHC-format flash media or xD-Picture Card. We really like this implementation as it allows flexibility on the kind of memory media we want to use, unlike Olympus' cameras, which still keep to the brand's proprietary xD-Picture card format.

Performance

In our Lab tests, the F60fd's performance was typical for shooters in its class but still faster than the F100fd. It took a hair less than 2 seconds to startup, and the shutterlag measured 0.05 second. Time-to-first-shot clocked in at 2.7 seconds.

For a camera in Fujifilm's flagship F-series, we expected the F60fd to speed past the rest of the pack. However, it behaved pretty much like any other point-and-shoot camera. Focusing was slow in dim-lighting and the exposure meter tended to slightly underexpose our shots at times.

The Lithium-ion battery has a battery life rated for approximately 230 shots. We spent a good weekend shooting with it and snapped about 200 shots before the battery indicator started to blink.

Image quality

We found the shots taken on the F60fd to be best when the ISO sensitivity was set between ISO 100 and 400. At these settings, the images were clean with little signs of digital artifacts. Colors were vibrant but not too saturated and details were properly rendered, too, although we detected very slight hints of smearing at ISO 400. But these shouldn't pose a problem for printing pictures up to 8R size or larger.

It was at ISO 800 that we discovered the images shot didn't quite reflect the F-series' capability to deliver quality high-ISO shots. The noise-suppression level was too high and this caused the image to look as though it was smudged by water. There wasn't any option in the shooter to reduce or to switch off the noise reduction, too.

Needless to say, we are not fond of images taken at ISO 1,600 and above. The images started to display grain-like texture which marred details and we found that images snapped at high ISO also looked darker than those captured at ISO 800 and below.

But one redeeming point about the F60fd would be its Portrait mode. This setting optimizes and smoothens skin tones for a better look when you are taking portrait shots. Even bumpy skin looked a bit smoother when shooting in this mode. Our guess is that this feature will probably appeal most to those who take plenty of self-portrait shots and want to look their best.

For better night shots, it is advisable to activate the Long Exposure option as this allows the shooter to leave the shutter on for a longer period of time for a more visually appealing twilight scene. But do remember to use a tripod when you are taking such shots to avoid blurry images.

Conclusion

It was quite disappointing to see that the image quality from the F60fd was not up to par with Fujifilm's standard. Although the shooter does have a larger display and swanky new scene recognition technology, we would have liked it better if it stuck to its original formula of delivering high-quality snaps. The F60fd retails for S$499, but if you have S$100 more to spare, we think the F100fd may be a better option. Hopefully the next iteration of the F-series can rectify the noise-suppression problem and offer the high image quality consumers have come to associate Fujifilm with.