Fujifilm Finepix F60fd Review
Review Date: December 9th 2008
Author: Mark Goldstein
Leave a comment about this review
|
Image Quality
All of the sample images in this Review were taken using the 12M Fine mode, which gives an average image size of around 4-5Mb.
The Fujifilm Finepix F60fd's image quality is above average. The Fujifilm Finepix F60fd's main drawback in terms of image quality is noise, with ISO 400 showing obvious levels of noise. The noise and loss of detail gets progressively worse as you go from ISO 400 to ISO 800 and finally the completely unusable 1600 setting (the fastest settings of ISO 3200 and 6400 are both very noisy and drastically reduced in resolution). The Fujifilm Finepix F60fd handled chromatic aberrations excellently with limited purple fringing effects appearing only in high contrast situations. The 12 megapixel images were just a little soft straight out of the camera and require some further sharpening in an application like Adobe Photoshop (you can't change the in-camera sharpening level). The Fujifilm Finepix F60fd's maximum shutter speed is 8 seconds, which is good for night photography, and the quality of the after-dark images is excellent, although the white balance was wrong in our test shot. Macro performance is below average for a modern compact camera, allowing you to focus as close as 7cms away from the subject. Anti-shake is a feature that sets this camera apart from its competitors and one that works very well when hand-holding the camera in low-light conditions or when using the telephoto end of the zoom range. The built-in flash worked well indoors, with no red-eye and good overall exposure.
Noise
There are 7 ISO settings available on the Fujifilm Finepix F60fd. Noise is readily visible in images taken above ISO 200, leading me for the most part to steer well clear of ISO 800 and 1600 (the fastest settings of ISO 3200 and 6400 are both very noisy and drastically reduced in resolution). Here are some 100% crops which show the noise levels for each ISO setting.
ISO 100 (100% Crop) |
ISO 200 (100% Crop) |
 |
 |
ISO 400 (100% Crop) |
ISO 800 (100% Crop) |
 |
 |
ISO 1600 (100% Crop) |
ISO 3200 (100% Crop) |
 |
 |
ISO 6400 (100% Crop) |
|
 |
Sharpening
Here are two 100% crops which have been Saved as Web - Quality 50 in Photoshop. The right-hand image has had some sharpening applied in Photoshop. The out-of-the camera images are just a little soft at the default setting ideally and benefit from some further sharpening in a program like Adobe Photoshop. You cannot change the in-camera sharpening level.
Original
(100% Crop) |
Sharpened (100% Crop) |
 |
 |
 |
 |
File Quality
The Fujifilm Finepix F60fd has 2 different JPEG image quality settings available, with Fine being the highest quality option. Here are some 100% crops which show the quality of the various options, with the file size shown in brackets.
12M
Fine (4.36Mb) (100% Crop) |
12M
Normal (2.91Mb) (100% Crop) |
 |
 |
Chromatic Aberrations
The Fujifilm Finepix F60fd handled chromatic aberrations excellently during the review. There's slight purple fringing between areas of high contrast, but it's only noticeable on really close inspection, as shown in the examples below.
Example
1 (100% Crop) |
Example
2 (100% Crop) |
 |
 |
Macro
The Fujifilm Finepix F60fd offers a Macro setting that allows you to focus on a subject that is 7cms away from the camera when the lens is set to wide-angle. The first image shows how close you can get to the subject (in this case a compact flash card). The second image is a 100% crop.
Macro Shot |
Macro Shot (100% Crop) |
 |
 |
Flash
The flash settings on the Fujifilm Finepix F60fd are Auto, Slow Syncro, Forced and Suppressed. You can also turn Red-eye Reduction on and off via the Face Detection options. These shots of a white coloured wall were taken at a distance of 1.5m.
Flash Off - Wide Angle (35mm) |
Auto Flash - Wide Angle (35mm) |
 |
 |
Flash Off - Telephoto (105mm) |
Auto Flash - Telephoto (105mm) |
 |
 |
And here are some portrait shots. Neither the Auto setting and the Red-eye reduction modes caused any amount of red-eye, although the latter rather drastically changed the eye colour.
Flash On |
Flash On (100% Crop) |
 |
 |
Flash - Red-eye Flash |
Flash - Red-eye Flash (100% Crop) |
 |
 |
Night Shot
The Fujifilm Finepix F60fd's maximum shutter speed is 8 seconds in the Night scene position with the Long Exposure menu option set to On, which is good news if you're seriously interested in night photography. The shot below was taken using a shutter speed of 8 seconds, f/2.8 at ISO 100. I've included a 100% crop of the image to show what the quality is like.
Night Shot |
Night Shot (100% Crop) |
 |
 |
Anti Shake
The Fujifilm Finepix F60fd has an anti-shake mechanism, which allows you to take sharp photos at slower shutter speeds than other digital cameras. To test this, I took 2 handheld shots of the same subject with the ISO speed set to 100. The first shot was taken with anti shake turned off, the second with it turned on. Here is a 100% crop of the image to show the results. As you can see, with anti shake turned on, the images are much sharper than with anti shake turned off. This feature really does seem to make a difference and could mean capturing a successful, sharp shot or missing the opportunity altogether.
| Shutter Speed / Focal Length | Anti Shake Off (100% Crop) |
Anti Shake On (100% Crop) |
| 1/4th sec / 35mm |  |
 |
| 1/4th sec / 105mm |  |
 |
|
PhotographyBLOG
is a member of the DIWA
organisation. Our test results for the Fujifilm Finepix F60fd have been submitted to DIWA
for comparison with test results for different samples of
the same camera model supplied by other DIWA
member sites.