Fujifilm Finepix S7000 Digital Camera

Guide Rating -

I recently had the opportunity to test Fujifilm's new 6 megapixel digital camera. My first impression was this it was larger than I expected. Then I held it as if I were going to start shooting with it right away, and it felt very familiar. Though it is smaller than a compact 35mm SLR, it felt like I was holding the SLR that I had been shooting with for years. This digital camera is designed to fit into your hand, be controlled and shoot with the same speed, control, and feel of a 35mm SLR.

Ease Of Operation

First, I wanted to see how easy this camera is to operate. To test this, I took the camera right out of the box and started firing. I hadn’t yet examined the menu system, so I was shooting with all automatic settings. I discovered that this digital camera captures beautiful images without me needing to tweak the adjustments.

However, when I did start turning the knobs, the images just got better. The main control for auto, aperture priority, shutter priority, programmed and movie modes is a dial control on top of the camera. I found that I could easily move it with my thumb, which allowed me to change the settings on the fly and not miss a photo op.

Continuous shooting is easy to access as well.

With the push of a button and a quick mode selection using the jog dial, I switched back and forth between single image and continuous shooting quickly and easily.

One of the best features on this camera is the focus/zoom ring. This ring controls manual zoom and manual focus with the same action as an SLR. This is great for wedding and wildlife photography where speed, silence and accuracy are essential.

The only operational pitfall is the way images are deleted. Part of my field test was performed at a soccer match where the action occurred very fast. When I captured an image I didn’t want, I had to switch the camera to the playback mode in order to delete the image. This was cumbersome, because I didn’t have time to do this. Instead, I shot until the card was full and then went back to delete the images I didn’t want. Only then was I able to go back to shooting.

Image Quality

I am thoroughly impressed with the image quality this digital camera produces. The 6 megapixel images are some of the sharpest I have seen in a compact camera. According to the literature, this digital camera produces 12 megapixel recorded images, though it has a 6 effective megapixel CCD, due to the design of the CCD.

Fujifilm calls their technology the 4th generation Super CCD HR. You can read more about the CCD sensor here.

The color quality is further enhanced by a feature that I have been wanting for a long time. This color feature sets the color saturation level and can mimick the color saturation of black & white, color print and chrome/slide films. You can see some test shots here.

The Lens

The lens is a high quality, extra-low dispersion glass lens. It produces very sharp images with little light aberration.

If you're a parent who likes to shoot your children playing sports, you'll appreciate the powerful zoom. I photographed a soccer match and was able to zoom in close enough to capture the intensity on the girls' faces as they played, as well as some fun moments on the sidelines. You can view the test shots here. The images I captured were from the sidelines with the parents.

This digital camera also offers macro and super macro modes. The macro mode zooms into within half an inch of the subject. A word of caution though, when using this mode I strongly recommend the use of a tripod. Even with the tripod I found that the three shot continuous mode worked best for preventing blurred images due to camera shake.

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