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CNET editors' rating:
3.5 stars
Very good
Detailed editors' rating - Average user rating: 4.0 stars out of 109 reviews
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Product summary
The good: Powerful 6X zoom lens; comprehensive exposure controls; dual memory slots; unusually nice video quality.
The bad: Extralarge grip and widely spaced controls; longish 5-second start-up; poorly implemented RAW capture; live histogram doesn't reflect exposure adjustments.
The bottom line: Serious shooters who don't mind the Fujifilm FinePix S7000's heft will get a powerful zoom, a smorgasbord of features, and good photos.
Specifications: Resolution: 6.3 megapixels; Optical zoom: 6 x; Display type: 1.8 in LCD display; See full specs
CNET editors' review
- Reviewed on: 03/12/2004
- Released on: 10/15/2003
The mode dial (left) lets you select a recording mode or access the setup menu. You use the command dial (right) in conjunction with various buttons to change settings quickly. Pressing the nearby drive-mode key enables continuous shooting and autobracketing.
You enter the well-labeled and logical menus via two activation keys, which are initially confusing but turn out to be reasonably efficient. A four-way pad on the camera back enables navigation. We were happy to see discrete controls for exposure compensation; autoexposure lock; focus, flash, and drive modes; and macro focusing. And the handy Shift button to the left of the lens offers fairly direct access to selected functions, including white balance. But as with other FinePix models, we have to gripe about how Fujifilm buried the RAW setting in the S7000's setup menus. We'd rather have it in the image-quality menu, where we could get to it quickly.
Exposure and flash compensation are readily accessible via controls on the grip. The shutter button is threaded for a cable release.
By the screen's upper-right corner are two buttons: one for switching between the electronic viewfinder and the LCD, the other for toggling between informational and grid views. The F and Menu keys access separate menus; once you've gotten used to it, the arrangement makes operation more efficient.
You zoom with this toggle or (when you're not focusing manually) the lens-mounted focus ring.
Holding down Shift enables the other buttons' secondary functions, letting you make even more adjustments without entering the menus. You can review current settings by pressing the Info key, and the switch below it activates single autofocus, continuous autofocus, or manual focus.
The FinePix S7000 accepts CompactFlash, Microdrive, and xD-Picture Card media.
Exposure options include fully automatic operation; the standard program, aperture-priority, shutter-priority, and manual modes; four special scene modes; autoexposure bracketing; multi, spot, and average metering methods; exposure compensation to plus or minus 2EV; and flash-exposure compensation to plus or minus 0.6EV. Manual exposure is reasonably efficient, with a useful metering display. In any exposure mode, the FinePix S7000 can show you a live image histogram, but it doesn't reflect your exposure adjustments, which is just pea-brained. For white balance, there are six presets, two custom choices, and an automatic setting. You can adjust in-camera sharpening levels or go with the Chrome look, which boosts contrast and color saturation. The FinePix S7000 does not offer advanced color-management options, such as selectable color spaces, which are beginning to crop up in competing prosumer models.
Because of the unusual mathematics of Fujifilm's Super CCD HR technology, the FinePix S7000's 6-megapixel sensor produces 12-megapixel photos, but the camera can also save JPEG shots at four lower resolutions. You'll get the highest photo quality by shooting uncompressed 12MB RAW files, which you can convert to RGB TIFF on your computer with Fujifilm's very rudimentary RAW File Converter, a program included in the package.
While it can't compete with MiniDV camcorders, the FinePix S7000 has an impressive movie mode that records 640x480-pixel, 30-frame-per-second MJPEG video with monaural sound. Your media card's capacity determines the clip length. Like all Fujifilm cameras, the FinePix S7000 works as a PC Webcam, too. The Fujifilm FinePix S7000 performs well but not exceptionally so. The lens has two zoom speeds, and it's quiet and easy to control with precision. Autofocus is fairly quick and decisive in normal outdoor and room lighting, but since there's no AF-assist lamp, the camera often gives up in very dim conditions. Manual focus works reasonably well. The focus ring feels smooth and is adequately precise, and either the LCD or the electronic viewfinder (EVF) can magnify the frame's center area, which definitely helps you judge focus.
You'll need to separately purchase rechargeable AA nickel-metal-hydride batteries and a charger, but they're worth the money. On one charge of our four 1,850mAh cells, we got 740 shots, half of them with the flash. Fujifilm's in-camera battery discharging will help you get the best performance out of your rechargeables.
The EVF is among the better ones we've seen, offering a sharp, smooth, and colorful image. The 1.8-inch LCD is also crisp, and using it in outdoor light is easy. Both views offer virtually 100 percent of the actual scene.
The FinePix S7000's nearly 5-second start-up is a bit longer than we'd like, but the camera is fairly quick in other respects. Shutter delay, including autofocus time, is decent at a little less than 1 second. Shot-to-shot time for both JPEG and RAW files is approximately 1.5 seconds, about 5.5 seconds with the flash. The Top 5-Frame mode takes 5 pictures at 3.3 frames per second. In Final 5-Frame mode, the camera records up to 40 photos at 2fps and saves the last 5 captured before you took your finger off the shutter release. And shooting in the 1fps Long Period continuous mode grabs you up to 40 photos at 3-megapixel resolution.
Fujifilm lists the flash's maximum range as 28 feet at ISO 800. That translates to 14 feet at the camera's minimum ISO of 200, which is about average. First, some math: the Fujifilm FinePix S7000's Super CCD HR has 6.3 million physical effective pixels, but their unique shape and layout yield the highest photo quality at an interpolated resolution of 12 megapixels. It's a bit confusing, but in the end, the camera compares best to other consumer models in the 6-megapixel category or thereabouts.
Our test shots were good, with a handful of moderate flaws. In general, our flash and ambient-light exposures came out very nicely, and colors were vibrant, even, and pleasing. With the exception of one or two apparently random overly red faces, our human subjects ended up with natural skin tones. Automatic white balance was not as reliable as in other cameras we've used, especially under overcast skies. We occasionally had to compensate for it in Photoshop, though making the correction was fairly easy. In deep shadows, we noted a few modest magenta color casts, another problem that's solvable but sometimes irritating.
Sharpness and detail were good, but they were compromised by artifacts, even in photos we captured as RAW files. While the noise level at ISO 200 is low for this class of camera, light sensitivity can't be set below that. The FinePix S7000's ISO 400 photos were moderately noisy, less so than those from some competing cameras. Photos at ISO 800 are limited to 3-megapixel resolution, and ours were certainly noisier than those produced by large-sensor dSLRs, but the prints came out quite usable at small sizes. What all this means in practical terms is that maintaining optimal quality will limit your print sizes more than the 12-megapixel output would suggest.
The FinePix S7000's lens unfortunately suffered from worse than average lateral chromatic aberration, which showed up as magenta and greenish fringing that got worse toward the frame's edge. The trouble spots were hard to see in even 11x14 prints, but we found them when we looked closely. Moderate purple fringing was somewhat more visible in prints.
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