Megapixel.net Digital Camera News and Reviews

In an era when thin is in, the chunky Fujifilm Finepix S8000fd is a bit of an anomaly. Granted, no digital camera packing a monster 18x optical zoom (27-486mm equivalent) is going to match the runway lines of an ultracompact purseshooter, but when you hold this 17.8-ounce Fuji in your hands, you get the impression that svelte wasn't in the vocabulary of the camera's designers.

The black unit with silver accents is boxy. It measures 4.4-by-3.1-by-3.1 inches with its zoom fully retracted into its body. That's fine with me, as I found the snapper easy to hold and, more important, easy to keep rock steady.

Controls for the camera can be conveniently reached and are logically organized on the unit's body.

On top of the bytecam, at the end of its hand grip, is a circular dial with a fob for controlling the unit's zoom lens. The dial's location and design allow you to securely grasp the camera with three fingers and comfortably manipulate the zoom with a fourth.

Behind the zoom dial is an ample slider control for toggling the camera on and off. The design and placement of the slider make it easy to find and finger, which distinguishes this Fuji offering from many cameras where you have to hunt for the power button as if it were an egg on Easter.

Behind the power slider are two buttons. One toggles the unit's face detection and red-eye removal technologies. When face detection is activated, the camera will automatically remove red-eye from subjects in a shot. The second button toggles the unit's Dual Image Stabilization feature. It's used to offset camera shake that can blur pictures.

To the left of the face detection and stabilization buttons is the mode dial. Here are the modes that can be accessed from the dial.

· Auto. Camera chooses all settings for the shot, save for F mode. F mode gives you control of image quality, light sensitivity (ISO) and color. However, only auto ISO settings are available from F mode when the camera is set to auto.

· Picture Stabilization. Camera will use a fast shutter speed to offset camera shake. Dual Image Stabilization also can be used to counter camera shake, but it does that with a combination of shifting the unit's CCD sensor and using higher ISO settings.

· Natural Light. This mode optimizes the camera's settings for shooting images in low-light conditions without a flash.

· Natural Light with Flash. In this mode, the camera will snap two photos in rapid succession--one with the flash, one without. The mode can come in handy when shooting a subject that's backlit.

· SP1, SP2. These settings on the mode dial access the unit's 13 scene modes (see specification section). All settings appear in both modes. However, the last setting used will be "remembered" in the mode. So if you're doing some sport and portraiture work, you can can set SP1 to the pre-set for sports and SP2 for portraits. Then you can quickly move between the modes to use the settings without navigating through menus.

· Program AE. In this mode, the shutter and aperture settings are set automatically, but other settings--metering and auto focusing modes, white balance, continuous shooting and such--can be modified.

· Aperture Priority. This allows you to choose an aperture for a shot and the camera will choose the shutter speed. As in Program mode, you can modify a number of other settings before shooting.

· Shutter Priority. This lets you choose a shutter speed and the camera will pick the correct aperture.

· Manual. You can choose both shutter speed and aperture for the shot.

· Shutter Priority. This lets you choose a shutter speed and the camera will pick the correct aperture.

At either end of the camera's top are mounts for the strap that's included with the product. Out of the box, a tether for the lens cap is attached to the left mount. As a photographer who is always misplacing lens caps, I found the tether arrangement very thoughtful.

The camera's battery compartment, which holds four AAs, is in the bottom of the unit, as is a centered tripod mount.

On the left side of the camera, there's a speaker and a compartment that houses a plug for an AC adapter (not included) and a mini USB port for connecting the unit to a computer. An AV/out cable packaged with the bytecam also plugs into to port and permits the unit to be connected to a device with RCA connectors. At 11 o'clock from the speaker is a button for popping up the camera's built-in flash.

On the right side of the unit is a compartment for an xD or SD memory card.

At the front of the camera is a combination AF illuminator and self-timer LED, as well as the DSC's lens. The Fujinon 4.86-84.24mm (27-486mm equivalent) 18x zoom extends 2.25 inches from the unit's body in telephoto mode.

A 2.5-inch LCD is located at the rear of the camera. Above it is a .24-inch electronic viewfinder. The optics of the viewfinder can be adjusted by rotating a knob recessed into the left side of the device. I found the knob difficult to manipulate while holding the viewfinder to my eye.

The LCD and viewfinder both have resolutions of 230,000 pixels and coverage areas of 97 percent. However, while the LCD is sharp and gives you a relatively realistic view of a scene, the viewfinder has an oversaturated video quality to it. While optical viewfinders will give a photographer a better view of a shot, the advantage of an electronic viewfinder is that it can display--as the one in this Fuji does--all the information that appears on the LCD.

On the right side the viewfinder is a button for toggling between EVF and the display.

To the right of the LCD is the camera's arrow dial. The dial can be used to move left, right, up and down through the system's menus. In shooting mode, pressing the arrow points gives you quick access to some commonly used functions. At 12 o'clock, the arrow point can be used to brighten the screen. At three o'clock, you can page through the unit's various flash modes. At six o'clock, you can access the self timer. And at nine o'clock, you can page through the DSC's macro menus. At the center of the dial is a button for making menu choices and displaying shooting menus on the LCD.

The arrow dial is surrounded by four buttons.

There's the "F" button at one o'clock from the arrow dial. It displays menus for choosing ISO, picture quality and color settings.

There's the exposure compensation button at five o'clock. In addition to allowing you to increase or decrease the light in an exposure, it's also used to display the histogram of a shot, as well as shutter speed and aperture settings.

There's a button at seven o'clock for backing out of menus and paging through display views.

And at 11 o'clock, there's a button for entering playback mode, where you can display shots you've taken on the snapper's LCD.

Although the unit's controls are logically clustered and easily manipulated, they're not always as intuitive as they might be. For instance, having two scene settings--SP1 and SP2--is handy, but without reading the camera's documentation, you might think that the mode spots are a means for accessing different settings, not a quick way to access a scene mode without scrolling through menus. Having a separate button for backing out of menus instead being able to do so from the arrow pad is disconcerting, too. That's also true for having to use the exposure compensation button for making changes in shutter speed and aperture.