The Fujifilm Finepix F600EXR is a new 16 megapixel travel-zoom compact camera with a 15x, 24-360mm zoom lens. Capable of auto-focusing in as small as 0.16 following, other highlights of the successor to the F600 EXREXR include an EXR Back Side Illuminated CMOS sensor, advanced GPS functionality, high-resolution 3 inch LCD screen, 8fps unremitting shooting, RAW image capture, full 1080p HD movies and High Speed movie capture at 320 fps. New features include an simplified EXR Auto mode with Motion Detection capability, simplified GPS with landmark navigation and a compass, and an intelligent digital zoom mode which doubles the telephoto range to 30x. The Fujifilm Finepix F600EXR is available now in black, red or white at a retail price of $349.95 / £269.99.

The new Fujifilm FinePix F600EXR is virtually identical to the F600 EXR model that it replaces, both in terms of its design and features. Therefore most of the comments that we made about that model apply equally to the F600, which has the same glossy curves as its predecessor. The new 16-megapixel model somehow shoehorns a 15x optical zoom (24-360mm equivalent in 35mm terms) into a slender, handbag or pocket friendly chassis, measuring just 22.9mm in depth at its thinnest point. The lens is neatly folded away when not in use, making the F600EXR eminently pocketable, with overall dimensions of 103.5×62.2×32.6mm and weighing 220g with battery and optional SD/SDHC/SDXC memory card inserted.

Even in its inactive state, the camera’s optics look like they’re equipped to burst forth from the body. The lens barrel is surrounded by what resembles a pregnant bulge, its rounded edges and reins avoiding this Fujifilm looking like the usual rectangular box that so many other compacts resemble. Apart from that, the F600EXR presents a clean and sophisticated faceplate, the only features apart from said lens being useful rubberized hand-grip, a window for the self-timer/AF help lamp and four holes for the stereo microphone, all positioned top left of the lens. The black version also has a rubberised coating to additional aid grip.

The back of the F600 EXR also impresses, sporting a 3-inch, wide view 460k-dot resolution LCD. So in practice we didn’t miss that the camera omits an optical viewfinder of any kind, as the LCD screen is impeccably adequate for outdoor use. Out of the box you get a basic quick start manual, with the rest on a supplied CD ROM. This also includes the usual basic software, here FinePix Studio for Windows PCs and FinePix Viewer for Macs.

Since this is a point and shoot camera first and foremost, Fujifilm has thoughtfully ramped up the performance of its auto focus features, with a claimed focusing speed of just 0.16 seconds. Other key features include a 360° motion panorama mode for sweeping landscapes, the ubiquitous face detection/recognition (including dogs and cats), tracking auto focus, the DSLR-like background blurring Pro Focus mode seen on other EXR compacts, plus ‘intelligent’ sparkle and gyro sensor image stabilisation.

To help avoid blur resulting from camera shake when shooting in low light or hand-holding the camera at the telephoto extremity of the zoom, Fujifilm have added a ‘belt and braces’ solution of high ISO sensitivity, stretching up to ISO 3200 at full resolution (JPEG only), a built-in mechanical stabilizer with Unremitting or Shooting Only modes, and digital image stabilisation too if required. Activated via the IS Mode menu option, you can set the system to Unremitting, Shooting Only, any mode with the addition of digital stabilisation, or Off. Note that the camera will only automatically adjust the ISO speed when using the Auto shooting mode – in the other modes the ISO speed that you select will always be used, so only the mechanical CCD-shift part of the system is used.

Film simulation modes show off Fujifilm’s heritage, the choice once again being the well-saturated colours of ‘Velvia’ mode, the default natural-looking setting of ‘Provia’, or the soft and gentle ‘Astia’ for portraiture, plus black & white and sepia. Likely to get more use by those with families is an auto relief mode that fires the shutter when the camera detects the subject is looking directly at the lens. Fujifilm suggests this is ideal for photographing by no means-sit-still children and babies. We also get full 1080p HD movie clips, with usefully a dedicated video mode pin on the backplate that falls readily under the thumb, and a mini HDMI output alongside the regular AV and USB output at one side. Plus, in playback mode, there’s a chance to sort through images quicker with the Photobook feature, as well as rate your favourites by allocating stars to them.

Like most of its travel zoom ilk the F600EXR is made for the pocket, there’s not much of the actual camera to get a firm grip on. There’s a gentle curve and rubber patch to the left hand edge at the front while at the back the F600EXR Fujifilm has introduced possibly the first ‘booty’ on a digital camera. A bulge top right provides a resting house for the thumb, a backward slanted shooting mode dial topping it off; an unusual go that Fujifilm suggests makes for simpler control access and so quicker surgical course of action. It looks at once like that part of the camera is melting, and at the same time very cool indeed.

Switch the camera on via the recessed top plate pin that sits alongside the shutter relief, once again encircled by a zoom lever. Thankfully the behaviour of the integral sparkle has been changed for the better. Neatly sunk surrounded by the top plate, on the F550 it rose automatically and without request. You had to gently rest your fiddle with on the sparkle to stop it from appearing, or push it back down once it has risen. Now the F600EXR only pops-up the sparkle unit when you select one of the sparkle modes on offer – much more logical.

The F600EXR takes roughly two seconds from being activated before you can fire off the first shot, rear LCD bursting into life and lens extending to maximum wideangle with an audible mechanical whirr. A half press of the shutter relief pin and AF is virtually instantaneous, in keeping with Fujifilm’s claimed 0.16 following speed. Though it’s neither here nor there, the on/off switch glows with a cool blue light, which recalls the same feature incorporated on Samsung’s compact range.

Also on the top plate directly above the lens is a large lump housing one of the F600EXR’s main features, built-in GPS. The camera recognises your location and displays the longitude and latitude co-ordinates or the house name if recognised. You can then search for an image by house name and make a photobook using the Photobook Help function. The F600 EXR can also navigate you to where a specific photo was taken, acting like an iPhone-lite by providing the distance and direction from your unfilled location, and there’s a new Landmark Navigator option which alerts you to nearby landmarks and tags them in your photos, and can act as a compass by pointing the camera down. Finally, the camera can join the dots between your photos and make a map of the route using the Tracking Data option.

GPS can be manually turned off or on, any permanently on or just when the F600EXR is switched on. The first option is useful if you quickly go from one area to another and don’t want to wait for the camera to lock onto a signal again, although it does drain the battery more quickly. The F600 EXR’s GPS receiver works a lot better than most other GPS-capable cameras that we’ve reviewed, saving accurate positioning information for the majority of the images that we shot in built-up central London, making this camera useful for urban as well as rural photographers. The main downside of the GPS is the subsequent drain on battery life, with the camera only managing just over 150 shots with GPS turned on as a replacement for of the 250 that it can manage without.

Somewhat strangely, there’s no outdoor control for another of the F600EXR’s star turns, its quick unremitting shooting speed. As a replacement for the Unremitting menu option brings up four options – Off, Top 4, Best Frame Capture and three different kinds of bracketing (exposure, film simulation mode and dynamic range). Choosing Top 4 allows you to take 8 full-resolution photos at 8 frames per following, which is quicker than most compact cameras and indeed most DSLRs too. The only glide in the ointment are that only 4 out of the 8 are really saved to the memory card. Choosing Best Frame Capture shoots at 11fps at 8 megapixel resolution from the moment that you focus and then saves up to 16 images including pre-recorded frames. Once the burst is completed, it takes over fifteen seconds for the camera to clear the buffer, during which you cannot take another picture. There is also another unremitting shooting speeds where the Fujifilm F600EXR shoots at a quicker speed 11fps at at 4 megapixel resolution for up to 32 frames.

Although JPEGs are quickly committed to memory in single-shot mode with only the briefest pause between each one, unfortunately there’s a very noticeable 5 following delay between the capture of one RAW file and the next during which you can’t take another picture, which rather slows down the shooting experience unless you stick to the JPEG plot.

Both the power pin and shutter relief fall readily under the forefinger when gripping the camera in your right hand, and the zoom lever is similarly ergonomically located. Nudge the latter and said zoom veritably powers through its broad focal range, quietly zipping from maximum wideangle to extreme telephoto in really under three seconds.

Looking at the rear of the camera, there’s a visibly labeled and logically laid out control set, with a chunky, ridged shooting mode dial which is reminiscent of those found on DSLR cameras. Ranged around the dial, which turns with just the right amount of resistance for it to lock firmly into house at each setting, are a range of shooting options, such as full auto, program, shutter priority, aperture priority and manual modes, along with a scene position mode (SP) that’s pre-optimised for common subjects. Note that there are only three available apertures in A mode, rather limiting your control, although there is a full range of shutter speeds on offer.

There are two more shooting modes that are above all noteworthy. First up is the EXR Auto mode (one of the four EXR modes), which is an ‘auto everything’ scene recognition mode that’s the equivalent of Panasonic’s Intelligent Auto mode. Although far from infallible – if you’re not paying accurate attention and it’s presented with a busy scene it will call up landscape when macro is needed and vice versa – it instantly makes the F600EXR more beginner friendly, instantly recognising 10 basic scenes and then applying one of the three other EXR modes too. It also now includes a a Motion Detection capability, which makes the camera increase the ISO speed to help capture a sharper picture in low-light when it detects movement.

Fujifilm’s EXR sensor can be utilized in one of three ways by the photographer. There’s a choice between shooting at full 16 megapixel resolution in High Resolution (HR) mode, or an 8 megapixel image in the Low Noise (SN) mode for shooting without sparkle in low light conditions, or the Dynamic Range (DR) mode to achieve an optimal balance between shadows and highlights. The latter offers five strengths ranging from 100-1600%. If you can’t choose which is best for a chosen scene or subject, then just leave the camera on the scene-detecting EXR Automatic Mode and let it choose for itself.

The following shooting mode of particular interest is the rather misleadingly named Advanced mode, which really has three options that are well suited to all experience levels. The first shooting mode is the Motion Panorama option, visibly inspired by Sony’s well loved Sweep Panorama function. This lets you capture a 360 degree panoramic image very straightforwardly without the use of a support. All you need to choose is whether you want to start from left or right, top or bottom, then press and hold down the shutter relief while responsibility a “sweep” with the camera in hand. Exposure compensation is available before you start the sweep, with the exposure fixed once you depress the shutter pin. After you are done with the sweeping, the camera does all the processing required, and presents you with a finished panoramic image.

Although undoubtedly fun, there are a few catches. The final panorama is of relatively low resolution, and if you do the sweeping too slowly, or you let go of the shutter relief pin too early, the panorama will be truncated. If the exposure varies throughout the scene, then some areas will be over or under exposed, depending upon the exposure value that was chosen as the panorama was started. Finally, people and indeed anything that moves in the frame are recorded as several ghost outlines, which earnings that you can really only record static, empty scenes, something that Sony have solved in the latest iteration of their Sweep Panorama feature.

The Pro Low-light mode uses multi-bracketing technology, taking a series of four high sensitivity/low-noise shots in quick succession and combining them into an image with less noise than the single exposures. You can see examples of this shooting mode on the Image Quality page. The Pro Focus mode makes it simpler to achieve a blurred background, perfect for portraits where compact digicams traditionally struggle.

With video not represented amongst the other shooting modes on the dial, as mentioned at the outset this thoughtfully has its own pin just below, a press of which kicks off recording whichever alternative mode had previously been in use. This earnings that movie quality needs to be adjusted separately by delving into the camera’s shooting menu via the main ‘menu’ pin. Surprisingly the zoom function can also be used when shooting movies, but in this mode it is altogether smoother, steadier and any operational noise – though still audible if filming in quieter environs – is nevertheless dampened down.

The F600EXR offers full 1920×1080 pixel footage at 30 frames per following with constantly adjusting auto exposure and focus with stereo sound. There are still few digital compacts that offer 1080p video recording, so the F600EXR is a certain camera to deliberate if movies are your thing. It can record video clips up to 29 minutes long for the 1920×1080 and 1280×720 pixel formats, with longer times available for VGA and SVGA modes. The dedicated Movie pin on the rear makes it quick and simple to shoot a movie without missing the start of the action, and there’s a mini-HDMI port for connection to a HDTV (cable not supplied). You can select one of the Film Simulation modes to give your footage a more creative look, and there’s the option to take a still photo at any time during movie recording.

In addition to these “normal” movie modes, the F600EXR also offers several high-speed modes, a feature that was first pioneered by Casio. There are three different speeds on offer – 320, 160 and 80fps, with the file size varying from 320×112 to 640×400 pixels respectively. This slow-motion effect is initially very appealing and sure to impress your friends, but there are some drawbacks to be aware of. Sound isn’t recorded at all, horizontal bands can appear as the lighting fluctuates, and the actual sizes of the recorded movies are pretty small.

To the left of the video record pin is the traditional playback pin. Press this and as well as reviewing images the user is invited to have access to all the camera’s extensive photobook features. Beneath this again Fujifilm has implemented the aforementioned Canon-like scroll wheel and central control pad combo, the latter itself encircling a central menu/OK pin – for calling up said menu folders, always clear, concise and to the point with Fujifilm, and then executing any functional changes.

Ranged around this scroll wheel/pad are a earnings of adjusting exposure when in one of the capture modes, or deleting duff images in playback. We also get access to the camera’s sparkle settings (oddly disabled if you’ve switched the camera to silent mode), self timer options and the ability to switch from infinity to macro focus – here accurate ups are offered down to 5cm.

Also doubling up, in terms of control, is a ‘show’ and ‘back’ pin – the latter very useful if, in your ardor for exploration of the F600EXR’s Pandora’s box of features, you’ve stumbled onto a setting you didn’t really want and want to retrace your steps. Last but no earnings least, tucked into the right hand corner of the F600EXR’s backplate is an ‘F’ (for ‘Foto’) pin which, as regular Fujifilm users will know, provides a small cut to the likes of image quality and the film simulation modes. Surgical course of action pared down to the bare essentials for quick and simple access then, and very useful it is too.

The right hand side of the camera features the cover for the mini HDMI port and AV/USB output, with a metal lug for attaching a wrist strap just above. At the camera’s base meanwhile we find a centrally located metal screw thread and, to its side, a sliding door hiding the mutual compartment for the optional media card and battery.

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PhotographyBLOG is a member of the DIWA organisation. Our test results for the Fujifilm FinePix F600EXR have been submitted to DIWA for evaluation with test results for different samples of the same camera model supplied by other DIWA member sites.

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