Fujifilm FinePix F600EXR: Performance

PERFORMANCE
I was pleased with the performance of the F600EXR. It responded quickly to menu selections. Pressing the dedicated movie button started the movie recording instantly. The camera took about two seconds to start up. Shot-to-shot time averaged about 2.5 seconds without the flash and about 3.5 seconds with the flash in operation. The camera rarely had problems focusing, except in very low light, at the extreme end of the zoom, and when trying to focus on a very light-colored object.

Shooting Performance
As DCR's lab tests show, the shooting performance of the F600EXR is very good. The F600EXR turned in a particularly impressive result of 0.14 seconds for auto focus acquisition, which is the time taken between pressing the shutter button and taking a focused picture. This was considerably quicker than the scores from the Panasonic FH7, Sony TX100 and Nikon P300, three speedy cameras. The camera is not particularly quick in continuous shooting mode, though, as it was only able to take full resolution pictures at 3.5 frames per second.

Shutter Lag (press-to-capture, pre-focused)

AF Acquisition (press-to-capture, no pre-focus)

Continuous Shooting

The F600EXR uses an NP-50 lithium-ion battery, which is rated at an impressive 300 photos between recharging. In real life shooting, I found the battery life to be somewhat shorter, but I did access the menu frequently, which had an effect on battery life.

Lens Performance
The F600EXR has a versatile Fujinon zoom lens with a range of from 24 through 360mm (35mm film camera equivalent), and a maximum aperture of f/3.5 at wide angle and f/5.3 at telephoto.

Wide Angle

Telephoto

The camera has a digital zoom mode that can extend the apparent focal length to 720mm, though the same result can be achieved by cropping the image taken at maximum optical zoom. The lens can focus as close as to about 5cm from the subject in macro mode. I found the lens to be relatively free from distortion.

Wide Angle

Telephoto

Chromatic aberration (colored fringing) was well-controlled though it was sometimes present when shooting dark objects against a light sky. The lens had good sharpness, with a slight blurring towards the corners. I did not notice any vignetting. There was minimal barrel distortion at extreme wide angle and no pin cushion distortion at extreme zoom.