Let me set the stage a little; neither Lisa or I confess to being photographic experts and so we needed a camera that would take great shots in auto mode and yet still offer more high-end features and flexibility as we learn more and our experience grows. We've learnt a lot! Needless to say that we won't be back to many of the places we've fallen in love with for quite some time so every photo is precious.

By mid May 2004 we'd been traveling for over a year and had traversed more than 28 counties, before reaching Cape Town in South Africa and approaching Fuji about sponsoring us with their latest high end digital camera, the FinePix S7000.

Part of our sponsorship with fuji was to create this web page and to write a description and report on the the S7000. For Lisa and I though it was vital that the words be our own and the report be honest. If it reads a little biasasley...it is! This camera is simplyh 'bloody wonderful'. As yet we've not had a single problem and simply can't fault it.

Please bear in mind that much of the 'technical stuff' has come from the supplied manual or other sources, but we wanted to include it here as to more proficient photographers it will have meaning.

We picked up our shiny new S7000 mid May 2004 and instantly warmed to its practical design. The camera shows directly what it is made for: taking pictures. No ultra modern look or a fashionable design but a solid appearance, completely in black, with the 6x optical zoom lens dominating the looks of the S7000. We may not be professional, but with the S7000 nobody's going to know. The pleasant way the camera lies in your hand is striking straight away. The hand grip is solid and large which makes it possible to hold the camera in a comfortable way. Ergonomically the FinePix works well for us: the camera fits perfectly in one hand and the buttons lie well-organised. This may not sound important but when I'm (Simon) riding a 1100cc BMW and trying to photograph Lisa in front of me on her bike, ease of use and comfort score high, (disclaimer: please don't try that at home kids). The right forefinger rests on the release button and has direct access to the flash settings for the built-in flash. The right thumb can find its way blindly to one of the command wheels or both buttons for the optical zoom.

The FinePix S7000 has already proven itself a versatile camera having produced some impressive results, from some guesstimated point and click efforts from us. The camera has a solution for every thinkable situation whether it is taking an image for a presentation card, a web image or a poster print to put in a frame.

From switching the on dial, start-up time is reasonably fast, after 2.5 seconds the camera is ready for use. Zooming in from wide angle to telephoto and back again is pretty quick and can be set precisely. Adjusting the 6x optical zoom is possible in 19 EV (we've just found out what an EV setting is) steps, at the maximum telephoto range the zooming in stops for one moment and then automatically switches over to the digital zoom.

This digital zoom is possible until an image resolution of 6 Megapixels; at 12 Megapixels the digital zoom is turned off. Focusing is also pretty idiot proof. The camera reacts quickly in dim light conditions. A bonus which saves lots of messing around. The built-in AF assistant illuminator functions well and is a welcoming assistant! 'Hell', we'll take all the help we can get!

The FinePix S7000 is also very capable of capturing the sought after 'action shot'. Speed is the keyword whether it's zooming in, focusing or taking the pictures. Beside these fast skills the FinePix S7000 also excels on the continuous shooting. The camera is standard delivered with a pretty useless 16MB xDPicture Card. Beside the fact that this memory card has a far too low storage capacity, it is great to know that xDPicture Cards are available from 32, 64 up to a hefty 512MB size. 64MB and higher offers a faster data conversion which is an advantage and enables you to use the full speed that a digital camera like the FinePix S7000 offers. The S7000 is able to reach a speed of 3.3 frames per second with a maximum of 5 images at a resolution of 6 Megapixels! Beside that the camera offers the possibility of continuous shooting in a series of 40 images one after the other at a speed of 1.8 frames per second (resolution of 1M). This speed is guaranteed in combination with an xDPicture Card of 64MB and higher or a fast CompactFlash memory card like the SanDisk Ultra II CompactFlash. If you are upgrading from a previous digital camera and you already own CompactFlash cards you're sorted. Bottom line is the FinePix S7000 delivers an impressive performance!

The FinePix S7000 is equipped with a fast reacting 6x optical zoom lens. The focal length is the equivalent of 35-210mm to a 35mm camera. Using an optional wide angle converter (WL-FX9) and a ring the focal length can be decreased to 0.79x. This results in the favorite wide angle range of 28mm.

If you fancy a larger telephoto range can use the optional telephoto converter (TL-FX9) with which a focal point enlargement of 1.5x can be reached. This results in a range of 315mm. Beside the fact the camera is equipped with a large optical range the brightness of the lens also plays an important role. The minimum brightness of f2.8 is important when making pict

ures under difficult light circumstances and enables quick focusing.

In case of dim surrounding light, the AF assistant illuminator, situated right above the lens, will give a helping hand to enable setting the correct focus.

Activating the camera brings out the zoom lens (3 – 4 cm) which from that point zooms internally. A separate lens cap is delivered with the camera to protect the lens from being damaged. The optical zoom lens is a high quality lens and performs great. The brightness is perfect, in wide angle as well as in telephoto. To date its worked faultlessly.

The minimum focal range lies in between 10 and 80 cm, which is a fine performance (we've been told) for a camera with a 6x optical zoom lens. Beside this distance the FinePix S7000 is capable of capturing an image at a distance from 1cm. The 'Super Macro' function has allowed us to capture the kind of 'wow' factor photos we normally only see in glossy magazines. The very 'upclose' detail of an emerald green insect feeding on flower nectar is only one example of the world the macro setting has allowed us to explore. The world of macro photography is fascinating and a complete world in itself!

The resolution of 6 Megapixels, or 6M as Fujifilm puts it, is sufficient to print poster size images or enlargements of a crop. If you still want to go bigger, you can switch over to a 12M (12 Megapixels) resolution! It's worth mentioning though, that the 12M of the FinePix S7000 is not equal to the resolution of a 12 Megapixels CCD.This higher 12M, interpolated resolution results in higher details. The images stored in JPEG format look fine and the final print for us is indistinguishable from a "real" one.

Beside the high resolution value, the quality of the video clip is remarkably good. Normally if you've seen a video clip made by a digital photo camera you come to the conclusion that it's a nice function but of a low quality standard. The Fujifilm FinePix S7000 is the exception! The quality is very high, a resolution of 640x480 and an image rate of 30 images per second guarantee a high quality clip which can be played on a big size television screen without any problems. For us this is a big plus as we can now record parts of our journey with moving clips without the need to carry around expensive video gear with the added risk this would involve. Thanks Fuji.

At the back of the camera Fujifilm's famous F-button is situated, which gives quick access to some typical photographic settings, like resolution, ISO and FP Color mode. Choosing the chrome setting results in a more vivid image with a higher contrast and colour saturation. For example: a deeper green and a bluer sky when taking landscape images. The b/w setting allows us to instantly capture the fashionable black and white shot without having to tinker with the photo on the laptop.

The Fujifilm FinePix S7000 gets its energy from standard AA batteries, preferably type NiMH. For us this was a big plus as all our electronic gear runs from AA batteries. A conscious effort when planning our kit.

If you haven't already got a good battery charger then picking one up is probably a good idea along with an extra memory card. We've not found the the S7000 to power hungry in general Fujifilm has the energy management of their digital cameras under control. One set of NiMH batteries with a capacity of 2100mAh gives us around 300 images with the LCD monitor on. In any case a set of NiMH batteries is sufficient to make it through the day. The batteries have to be inserted in the large compartment at the bottom of the hand grip. The compartment is covered by a firm lid. The cover opens in a certain way so the camera doesn't have to be removed from the tripod to be able to change the batteries. The storage is well supported at this camera, both xDPicture cards and CompactFlash can be used.