Fujifilm Finepix S7000 Zoom

It's hard to imagine a better designed digital camera than the Finepix S7000. With well-placed controls and decent hand grips, it really is a delight to use.

The S7000 doesn't have an optical viewfinder, but the electronic version gives an SLR feel. Meanwhile, a ring at the front of the lens allows quick access to zoom and manual focus.

At full wide-angle mode, barrel distortion is quite apparent. Similarly, maximum telephoto mode also suffers from a pincushion effect, but it's nothing unusual with large 6x optical zoom lenses. The Super Macro of just 1cm, however, exhibits barrel distortion.

Aperture and shutter priority with a full manual mode is available, along with the usual selection of manual controls. However, ISO settings are a little lacking as you only get to choose from ISO 200 or 400 - at 3megapixels or lower you also get ISO 800.

Although you can capture images in both jpeg and raw formats, there's no built-in tiff mode to speak of, but there is a bundled software converter.

During testing, image quality was impressive. Although the S7000 has an effective 6.3megapixels, the Fujifilm Super CCD uses interpolation trickery to push it up to 12.3megapixels. Our tests showed the Super CCD did a good job of increasing the resolution.

Annoyingly, Fujifilm has supplied an inadequate 16MB XD card with the S7000. Unless you're happy with storing just three high-resolution images, you'll need a larger card.

Although the S7000 is expensive, it's capable of taking some stunning shots and is packed with features. In short, it's a great prosumer digital camera.

Best price: www.pcw.co.uk/bestprices

Contact: Fujifilm 020 7586 1477
www.fujifilm.co.uk

Specifications:

• Max resolution 2,848 x 2,136 (4,048 x 3,040 interpolated)
• 6x optical zoom
• Focal length 35-210mm (35mm equivalent)
• Macro 10cm (1cm Super macro)
• 1.8in LCD monitor
• XD Picture card, Microdrive, CF I/II
• 121 x 81.5 x 97mm (w x h x d)
• 500g
• 1yr warranty