s6500fd
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Fujifilm's face-finding FinePix: the S6000fd
With some extreme ISO action, and a flashy face-recognizing auto focus feature, Fujifilm has quite an alluring offering in their new FinePix S6000fd (known as the S6500fd globally). The 2.5-inch LCD and 6.3 megapixel CCD shouldn't turn too many heads, but the wide-angle manual control 10.7x zoom lens and the 100-3200 ISO sensitivity is nothing to sneeze at. Fujiflim's hardware-based Face Detection tech allows the camera to zero in on the sentient humans in frame -- instead of that wall behind them -- and does its focusing mojo in a mere 0.04 seconds. This, combined with other automatic enhancements, allows Joe Hobbyist to take advantage of the camera's advanced optics without having to fiddle with manual controls, promising better lighting and less blurring in more situations. Unfortunately, "Picture Stabilization," which merely bumps the ISO automatically is a lame substitute for actual optical image stabilization, but there aren't many other cut corners, and Fujifilm has managed to get the price pretty low. The S6000fd should be out in September for around $500.
