Fujifilm Finepix S1000fd - Design
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One of the best assets of the Fujifilm S1000fd is its overall design. The camera is relatively small in stature – not much larger than a typical point and shoot digital camera (excluding pocket cameras, of course). The overall dimensions of the S1000fd are 4.1 x 2.9 x 2.7 inches, and it weighs in at around one pound with batteries, memory card, neck strap, and lens cap installed. I found the camera to be relatively comfortable just dangling from my neck, although the neck strap could be a bit more comfortable.
The S1000fd feels very comfortable in-hand and while shooting. The controls are located in the right places around the body of the camera, which speeds up its operation greatly. While the camera fits my hands nicely, I think that anyone with very large hands may have a little more trouble handling the S1000fd. As I always say, you should make sure a camera feels comfortable in-hand before purchasing it, so stop by your local camera shop and test it out before buying it online.
I love the large 2.7-inch LCD display on the rear of the camera. It's big enough to show a decent amount of detail on-screen, although you'll never get the full-effect of a 10 MP photo until you see it on a larger scale. The screen isn't great in the sunlight – it washes out big time. Luckily, the S1000fd has a nice electronic optical viewfinder just above the LCD display for those times when using the display is not an option, such as at the beach.
If you've ever owned a Fujifilm digital camera, then the controls should be pretty familiar to you. Even if you've never owned a Fujifilm camera though, the controls are easy to figure out after a little bit of exploring the buttons and dials. As you navigate through the various shooting modes (auto, manual, scenes, shutter priority, etc...), the camera gives you a short description on-screen of the best shooting conditions in which to use the selected shooting mode. I found this little feature to be very helpful.
The S1000fd has a nice pop-up flash for shooting at night, and it also sports a tripod mount at the bottom of the camera. A tripod is almost essential with this camera any time you expect to shoot at the full 12x zoom, otherwise the photos will almost always turn out blurry.
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