Fujifilm FinePix S602 Zoom > Reviews (16)

I've owned my S062z for about six months now. I needed a new camera as my beloved 35mm SLR became terminally ill after being considered to be 'baggage' as an airline security measure ! As a keen amateur photographer, and occasional 'semi-pro', I needed something which would allow me full control over the picture taking process when I needed it but could also take quick snaps if that was all there was time for.
I had considered getting a digital camera ever since they first appeared, but was waiting for the technology to mature sufficiently to yield reasonable value for money. It seemed like the time was ripe, so I surveyed the market.
Ignoring the extreme budget end, reasonable cameras seemed to start at about £200 - £300 for a two-megapixel model. The 'megapixel' number gives some indication of the picture quality you can expect, though there are other factors (more later) to be considered. Downloading some examples from various manufacturers websites, I quickly decided that I needed better.
The 'professional' end of the market prices around £2000. Cameras in this sector seemed to have the quality and features I required, but I couldn't commit that much money to the purchase.
This left me surveying the 'middle ground' where prices range around £400 to £700. Three cameras emerged as possibilities: Nikon 5700, Minolta Dimage 7i and Fuji Finepix 602 Zoom. The Fuji rapidly stood out as the obvious choice for me and I have no reason yet to regret it. Here's why:
PICTURE QUALITY: At the end of the day, taking pictures is what you buy a cameera for. The S602z seems able to take digital photographs as good as ANYTHING I have seen. I can only better it by taking a 35 mm slide on professional slide film, and scanning it using a specialist slide scanner. Although the £2000 professional models have interchangeable lenses, the Fujinon lens on the S602z is well up to the job. It has a 6x OPTICAL zoom, which is important. Digital zooms reduce the image resolution as you zoom in, optical zooms don't. If you can't change the lens then you need a good zoom (or at least I do). The actual imaging device, a 'Super CCD' is astonishingly good. Resolution is adjustable, either side of the baseline 3 megapixels, and it can produce 6 megapixel images of stunning (for a digital camera) resolution. What is often not metioned in reviews are the other aspects of image quality: colour and contrast. Colours come out bright and vivid, and the contrast range which can be captured is surprising. This is where 'quality' differs from just 'megapixels'. The result is pictures with that 'lush' quality often associated with better-quality photographic film, as opposed to the rather 'spartan' quality yielded by many digital cameras I've looked at. Skin tones, never particularly easy, are very well portrayed. I have taken pictures with the S602z Indoors and outside, in bad weather and good, using flash or avilable light. Every time this camera made the most of what was on offer and didn't even get fazed by awkward artificial light.

The 'quality' setting can be adjusted on the camera. The higher quality settings use up more memory in the storage card, where the lesser quality settings allow more pictures to be stored in a given space.
BUILD QUALITY: The S602z is very well made by digital camera standards. I get the impression that I can look forward to many years of use without anything going wobbly or falling off. I guess this is somewhat reflected in the price, but it is comparable the the better SLRs made by Cannon, Nikon, Minolta, Contax, Olympus and others. It isn't particularly light, but it isn't a 'massive brick' either. Straight away you get the impression that this is a quality piece of equipment. Even the case which comes with it is nicely made.
RUNNING COSTS: Unlike many other models, this camera uses 'AA' cells (four), where often a proprietory battery is fitted. This means that purchasing a few extra sets of batteries - I'd recommend Lithium-Ion ones - and a charger doesn't impact the budget too much. This is important as the motors for the zoom and focussing, view screem and flash can consume quite a bit of current. Fortunately there is a pocket on the soft case which can hold two spare sets of batteries. The camera will also run off external power (either a mains adapter or large battery pack) if required. In place of the traditional 'film', the S602z can use a choice of digital storage media. It has slots for both Compact Flash and SmartMedia cards, and can use both together if you like. These are more economical than Secure Digital cards or Sony Memory Stick and widely available. The Comact Flash slot will also accept a Microdrive if you have the funds.
LOOKS: I can't say that this influenced my purchase decision, but the S602z certainly looks 'the business'. In two-tone grey with silver and black details, it never fails to impress as a 'serious bit of kit'. It is similar in design to a modern 35mm SLR, unlike the 'plastic box' designs from some other manufacturers. If you like your technical toys to look expensive then you won't be disappointed.
FEATURES: One of the reasons I bought the Finepix S602z was that it had most of the facilities I needed. Here is an extensive, but not exhaustive, list:
Optical Zoom: I consider this vital so that you can frame pictures correctly while not losing quality. 6x. Excellent. The control for this is on back of the camera, where your right thumb falls naturally if viewing through your right eye.
Resolution: 6 megapixel images might fill up the memory card quickly (so carry several) but the quality justifies this. You can easily choose (adjust) to other resolutions as required for each picture if you want to. Marvellous.
Flash: You can force the flash to fire (fill-in), switch it off (available light) or let the camera automatically sort it out. The built-in, pop-up flashgun copes well with portraits and small groups. There is a standard hot shoe if you want to use a more elaborate flash system.
Exposure: As well as fully-automatic, there are a variety of programmed and manual modes for when you need that level of control.

The camera has a number of metering modes which can cope with most lighting situations. There is an exponsure compensation button to cope with backlit or spotlit pictures, and an auto-exposure lock button. Manual and 'priority' adjustments are selected via the 'mode' switch (see below) and the 'command wheel' situated on the top plate next to it. I have found the 'auto bracketing' function to be very usefull on a few occasions. When set, this automatically takes shots either side of the selected exposure in rapid succession so you can select the best exposed picture later.
Focussing: The automatic focussing copes quickly with most situations unless there is little ambient light. A switch on the left of the camera allows manual focussing via a traditonal sort of focussing ring round the lens. There is also a focus lock button, a focus check button, and spot focus available from the menu. What more could you need ? Well, there are a few times when I'd like to be able to set focus to a specific distance but there is no distance scale. There is a closeup button on the left of the lens barrel which appears to move the lens elements around to allow closer focussing. With judicial use of this, the focussing ring and the zoom control, you can take pictures of postage-stamp sized objects about an inch in front of the lens.
Tripod Mount: The S602z is fitted with a standard tripod mount below the centre line of the lens. A symbol in the viewfinder lets you know when you are shooting with a shutter speed too slow for hand-holding shots.
Continuous Shooting: This is like having a motor drive or power winder on a conventional camera, but on the S602z the speed depends on the shutter speed you have chosen. Very handy for capturing wildlife or fast actionsports, it is set by a button on the top plate and various menu options are avialable: continuous, first 5 shots, last five shots and 'auto-bracketing (see 'Exposure' above).
Movies: Using the mode selector on the top plate, it is possible to select movie mode which captures video at 640 x 480 resolution with sound at 30 frames per second. This equates to almost two minutes on a 128 Mb storage card. Okay, not much of a camcorder, but as this is essentially a still camera I consider it to be a bonus.
Sound: The camera can capture short sound clips to go with a picture if required. The sound is mono and the quality is only 'okay'. At first I couldn't see the need for this, but now I sometimes find it handy to have a short 'voice memo' to explain some pictures with a caption.
Power: As stated above, the camera is powered by normal 'AA' cells (Li-ion). There are power-saving and auto-off facilities, and an indicator lights red when the batteries are running low. A 5v power source (mains adapter or battery pack) can be plugged in when needed. The camera is powered-on by a 3-position switch mounted conventionally around the shutter release. 'OFF' is clearly marked. A red camera icon is the 'taking pictures' position. Between the two is a green arrow symbol representing 'playback' - view pictures you have already taken.

Mode: The 'mode' switch comes into play when the camera is on the 'taking pictures' setting (see 'power' above). It has eight positions: SET - access to general camera settings and image quality, M - manual exposure mode (shutter speed and lens aperature are both displayed), A - aperture priority mode (aperture is displayed), S - shutter priority mode (shutter speed is displayed), P - program mode (speed and aperture are displayed), A - fully automatic exposure, SP - scene position (you choose between portrait, landscape, sports, night or black&white), Movie - capturing video. The actual adjustments which these selections allow are performed via the 'command wheel'. Both the mode switch and the command wheel are situated on right of the rear of the top plate, a natural and conventional arrangement I feel.
Storage Media: The camera will accept Smart Media, Compact Flash (type II slot) or Microdrive. A 16 Mb Smart Media card is provided but this is only of marginal use as at the full 6 megapixels resolution and highest image quality each frame takes 18 Mb. Both types of card are readily available in various capacities, though those of 128 MB, 256 Mb and 512 Mb would probably be of the most interest to serious users. At present 128 Mb Compact Flash cards seem to offer the best value for money, though Smart Media cards are even less bulky to carry.
Viewfinder: The eye-level viewfinder (EVF) is electronic and shows the image from the lens and CCD. This is my preference as through-the-lens viewing is necessary for close-up work. Optical viewfinders are fine for portrait and landscape work, but close-up they do not show the same view as is being photographed. The viewfinder has a rubber surround for those who have to wear glasses, and a 'dioptre' adjustment for those who won't. A button on the back panel switches the display over to the 1.8-inchLCD monitor which can be usefull for candid photography and close-up work. There is also a 'display' button which lets you choose a plain view, an overlay with details such as control settings and frame number, or a fine grid overlay which can be very handy for accurately lining-up architectural or technical shots. Both viewfinder and display offer a bright clear image, while the overlaid information is easy to see without being too intrusive.
Self Timer: The camera has a self-timer facility for times when you want to include yourself in a group shot. It can also be usefull to avoid vibration when using a tripod.
Playback: The playback mode is selected from the power switch which surrounds the shutter release button. This is where you can view the pictures (or movie) currently held on the storage card. It is possible to zoom in, display 'photographic information' about each (eg: exposure histogram), crop or delete unwanted images. I tend to take many more pictures than necessary, just to make sure, and then delete unwanted ones as soon as the opportunity arises. This is one area where digital photography scores highly over conventional photography.

Instead of having to stand the cost of developing many rolls of expensive film for just a few really good pictures, you can 'recycle' the storage used by digital photographs moments after taking them. Just be carefull not to erase the images you want to keep !
Video Out: The S602z has an 'AV out' socket for connection to a television set or video recorder. This means that you can view the pictures you have taken on a television or even copy them to video tape if you want to. I often use it for connecting to a portable LCD TV for either viewing pictures or use as a remote viewfinder. This is very nice if you are into wildlife photography or want to do some self-portraits. An appropriate lead is supplied.
USB Out: The camera can be hooked up to a PC using the supplied USB cable. This gives the potential for using it as a webcam or downloading the pictures you have taken ready for printing or sharing across the internet. There does not appear to be any provision for controlling the camera from the PC. My own preference is to read the images from the storage media cards using a reader connected to the PC as it is simpler, but the USB connection works.
Remote Control: The one thing I would have really liked on this camera would be a remote shutter release facility. This is really usefull in situations like wildlife photography when you don't want to be too close to the subject, or for tripod work where you need to avoid vibrations. I haven't seen this facility on any other digital camera, though, and it can be 'got around'. Vibration can be avoided by using the self-timer, and a PC and long USB cable will let you use the camera as a webcam and capture wildlife shots straight on to the PC.
Menu Control: Apart from the various controls situated around the camera, the extensive features of the S602z are controlled through a system of menus which are displayed on the LCD screen upon pressing the 'menu' button on the back of the camera. While not completely 'intuitive' it is quite easy to learn set up and adjust the cameras manu options and controls, format and manage storage cards, edit pictures already taken and generally manipulate all the various features above. The owner's manual describes everything clearly and in sufficient detail for you to soon feel that you are in control of the camera and not vice-versa.
Ergonomics: This camera is just so nice to use you don't want to put it down. The controls (and there are quite a few) are sensibly laid out in a similar manner to a conventional photographic camera. It sits comfortably on the palm of your left hand, and snuggles into your right palm while fingers and thumb curl around the textured grip and gently land on the major buttons and knobs. It is full of those small thoughtfull features, which reveal themselves to you as you get used to it, typifying a well designed product. It looks good, feels good, and does good pictures. It even sounds good ! - yes, it makes a 'camera shutter' noise when you fully depress the shutter release button.

This is actually usefull, as first touch of the shutter release just pre-sets the optics. Further pressure actually takes the picture. The weight of the camera is reasonable, and not having a camera too light actually makes it easier to hold steady.
Soft Case: The camera was supplied with a soft case which looks very nice. It is adequate for protecting the camera from dirt or scuffs while carrying it around, but was a little disappointing. It is difficult to remove the case quickly when a picture opportunity presents itself, and then you have to find somewhere to put it. It is a shame that something like the 'action cases' which used to be supplied with conventional SLRs, where the top and front quickly unclipped and folded down, didn't come instead. Neither does this case offer sufficient protection, I fear, for extensive travelling. Whether hiking, cycling or travelling by plane, I would be happy with something offering the protection of more padding than this. A small, well-padded, easy-access 'gadjet bag' is on my shopping list. Enough said.
Software: A CD of software is supplied with the S602z. This contains a driver for the USB connection, their own software for connecting the camera to either download pictures or use like a webcam, and one of the smaller Adobe packages for photo editing. This software is supposed to be suitable for either an Apple Mac or a PC. Unfortunately, the assumption has been made that a PC user will be using some version of Microsoft Windows. Other PC operating systems such as Linux, BeOS and Lindows seem to have been excluded. I did check with the retailer that an appropriate CD wasn't missing from the package. Given the rising numbers of users of non-windows systems, and the fact that many major hardware manufacturers do provide at least drivers for Linux, this is a major omission. I did try to contact Fuji on this point, but to no avail.
IN USE: The Fuji Finepix S602z has so far accompanied me to a family wedding, the motor show and a family holiday. It was on hand during Christmas and New Year, and has recorded my DIY efforts around the home and car. Armed with a good supply of batteries and storage cards, it can be used all day long to take digital photographs in a wide variety of conventional and unusual situations. Partnered with a PC, storagecard reader and good quality printer it is capable of results which range from 'acceptable' to 'delightfull' - though this does depend on how you manipulate the image between camera and printer (photo editing). Without a PC it is possible to view pictures on a television set, or the storage card can be taken into many conventional photographic processing shops for printing. If this is the case, then it is very handy to be able to post-process the images to some extent in the camera. The fact that this digital camera is so similar to a conventional photographic camera has obviously helped me aclimatise to this new, but maturing, technology. Novice photographers need not be afraid, however, as the fully automatic settings can adequately cope with most of the more usual photographic encounters.

The small and minor miggles I have - remote shutter release, soft case and software - are trivial when stacked up against the mountain of positive aspects to this mid-priced digital camera. The 'bottom line' is that it allows both novices and experts to take excellent digital photographs and enjoy the experience.
CONCLUSION: I can only give the S602z my whole-hearted recommendation. It is suitable for anyone who is sufficiently enthusiastic about taking pictures to pay the price, as if you only want to take some 'quick snaps' then you would not be considering this price range. Of course, I would always recommend that you compare it with its rivals in the camera shop before comitting yourself to purchase. The only reservation is that I don't think it would be so easy to use for someone who was either strongly left-handed, or could not use their right eye, unless they are prepared to use the display screen instead of the eye-level viewfinder all of the time. I feel that experts will quickly find their way around this camera with ease, while those less experienced will find the owner's manual to be a reasonable guide. Remember to add batteries, storage cards and a padded case to your shopping list.