We bought this on the recommendation of a camera desk employee at a large, electronics chain store. He happened to be a professional photographer part time and paid his bills by working there. He brought out some photographs he'd taken with the Fuju Finepix s7000 and the results were fantastic.
We were most concerned with shutterspeed, since we tke pictures of our kids and they are always in motion. The photogrpaher told us that was the main reason why he'd purchased the camera; he said it was almost an instant switch, depending on how fast your reflexes were. Oddly, they did not sell this camera at the store he worked at.
Everything the man told us about this camera was true. It takes such high quality pictures that you can almost count the hairs on someone's head. The shutter is phenomenally quick and it has a black and white feature to take B&W pictures, which I like very much. The only problem with this camera is that the fast shutter and high quality drain the battery quicker than our old Kodak digital camera. But, you get the kind of photographs and capture that professionals get, so the trade off is worth having to lug around extra batteries. We invested in some Panasonic rechargeable batteries and they have served us well by saving us much coin. it also accepts normal, everyday batteries in an photo emergency. (like the time your sister tripped while carrying the cake and your brother laughed so hard coffee came out his nose and you whipped out the faithful Fuji and caught it, thus enabling you to circulate it on facebook for all to see and earn many lols) You can see some of the photos we took wit it in my photo section in my bio here, mostly of landscapes.
My favorite feature is the natural light setting; it gathers up the softer light around the subject, even in twilight, letting the natural colors be captured. It is so much better than using the flash (though that is available as well) as the people appear in the photo as they do in life, instead of white washed, blinded or sporting blazing red eyes which is always creepy. The only problem with the natural light setting is that it does not capture movement well, though it can make those long, swirling artsy type moving pictures you see from time to time in art galleries. The movement steady setting is better for capturing the instant motions, though use it during the day or in bright light as the flash will automatically pop up if there is not enough light.
It has a rapid shot feature, which fires off shots like you're the photographer at a model photo shoot, though like the natural light setting the motion is sometimes blurred. it does however serve to capture several stills or slow-moving objects very well.
All in all, a great investment; just remember to recharge your batteries whenever you are home and carry extras.
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