WARNING! Compact Flash.
In case you are bout to make a purchase, note that Compact Flash is not supported in this camera, even though it has a CF slot. xD and IBM microdrive only. See the forum thread:
Otherwise, here are some comments:
Ergonimics/feel of the camera in your hand really is good - camera is not too heavy but has a quality feel.
Digital viewfinder is excellent. I personally much prefer it to the separate optical viewfinder, and digital viewfinder does away with need for SLR mirror.
Fixed 6x lens is a compromise, with the focus length fixed to 35mm-210mm equiv, where I would have preferred 28mm min. One day I might try the wide/telephoto converters, e.g. using a TCON-17 to get 10x zoom. However, fixed lens should provide much stronger protection against dust entry which is a serious problem for the increasingly fine CCD's.
Regular AA NiMH batteries are a big improvement on the proprietary battery of my previous Canon. At first I thought Fujifilm was cheap not including a charger, but then bought my own 110/220v compact charger anyway which is better than would have been supplied (XP555).
Movie-mode (sorry purists) is outstanding, with 640x480x30fps to the full capacity of the card. I'm not aware of any other camera with this capability, and the Sony DSC-V1 has been reported as cheating with 320x240 scaled up to 640x480. I have a SanDisk Ultra II 1Gb CF card which works very well, but see the FAT16 comments below. Sound recording is ok but not great. Movie playback through the camera is smooth but the sound output through the tiny speaker is barely audible even at max volume. Maybe Fujifilm could have included a microphone and headphone socket...
Camera response feels quick in most actions, e.g. shutter delay, stepping through picture playback. Certainly better than the laggy previous generation of digitals.
Problems:
Pop-up flash on my camera doesn't appear to seat with a firm click when closed, and pops back up if nudged.
Camera does not support FAT32 on Compact Flash, so CF card limited to 2GB due to FAT16 format. No issue for photo's, but could be better for video.
Focus/Zoom ring around lens operates as an auxilliary 'zoom' contron when shooting in 'auto' mode, but this zoom-by-wire function is laggy, and too low geared, so several handfuls are needed to zoom in/out. Doesn't feel like a real manual telephoto zoom on an SLR at all, and I use the W and T buttons on the back & ignore the ring.
Position/depth of viewfinder does give you a bit of nose-smudge on the LCD, but this isn't too bad.
Low battery warning (there is no progess meter) simply does not work for NiMH batteries (i.e. the standard rechargeable AA's you would expect to use). This is a 'feature' not a bug, carried over from the S602 and common to some other cameras using NiMH cells. It is 'normal' for the camera to power down with little or no warning from the battery indicator.
Considering the S7000 has a fixed lens, the sealing of the camera could be MUCH better. JKirk dismantled his S602 (same body) and found it full of dust:
In case you are bout to make a purchase, note that Compact Flash is not supported in this camera, even though it has a CF slot. xD and IBM microdrive only. See the forum thread:
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forums.dpreview.com
Otherwise, here are some comments:
Ergonimics/feel of the camera in your hand really is good - camera is not too heavy but has a quality feel.
Digital viewfinder is excellent. I personally much prefer it to the separate optical viewfinder, and digital viewfinder does away with need for SLR mirror.
Fixed 6x lens is a compromise, with the focus length fixed to 35mm-210mm equiv, where I would have preferred 28mm min. One day I might try the wide/telephoto converters, e.g. using a TCON-17 to get 10x zoom. However, fixed lens should provide much stronger protection against dust entry which is a serious problem for the increasingly fine CCD's.
Regular AA NiMH batteries are a big improvement on the proprietary battery of my previous Canon. At first I thought Fujifilm was cheap not including a charger, but then bought my own 110/220v compact charger anyway which is better than would have been supplied (XP555).
Movie-mode (sorry purists) is outstanding, with 640x480x30fps to the full capacity of the card. I'm not aware of any other camera with this capability, and the Sony DSC-V1 has been reported as cheating with 320x240 scaled up to 640x480. I have a SanDisk Ultra II 1Gb CF card which works very well, but see the FAT16 comments below. Sound recording is ok but not great. Movie playback through the camera is smooth but the sound output through the tiny speaker is barely audible even at max volume. Maybe Fujifilm could have included a microphone and headphone socket...
Camera response feels quick in most actions, e.g. shutter delay, stepping through picture playback. Certainly better than the laggy previous generation of digitals.
Problems:
Pop-up flash on my camera doesn't appear to seat with a firm click when closed, and pops back up if nudged.
Camera does not support FAT32 on Compact Flash, so CF card limited to 2GB due to FAT16 format. No issue for photo's, but could be better for video.
Focus/Zoom ring around lens operates as an auxilliary 'zoom' contron when shooting in 'auto' mode, but this zoom-by-wire function is laggy, and too low geared, so several handfuls are needed to zoom in/out. Doesn't feel like a real manual telephoto zoom on an SLR at all, and I use the W and T buttons on the back & ignore the ring.
Position/depth of viewfinder does give you a bit of nose-smudge on the LCD, but this isn't too bad.
Low battery warning (there is no progess meter) simply does not work for NiMH batteries (i.e. the standard rechargeable AA's you would expect to use). This is a 'feature' not a bug, carried over from the S602 and common to some other cameras using NiMH cells. It is 'normal' for the camera to power down with little or no warning from the battery indicator.
Considering the S7000 has a fixed lens, the sealing of the camera could be MUCH better. JKirk dismantled his S602 (same body) and found it full of dust:
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www.digsys.com.au