Though Fujifilm still has a few tricks up its sleeve, the 6-megapixel FinePix S6000fd introduces only a couple of new ones. This latest entrant in the FinePix S series of megazoom, dSLR-style cameras introduces the company’s hardware-based face-detection technology and integrates most of Fujifilm’s current slate of imaging technologies.

However, it uses pretty much the same body design and the same 28mm-to-300mm 10.7X zoom lens as earlier models, such as the Fujifilm FinePix S9500. The manual zoom/focus ring on the lens barrel should continue to be one of the big draws for this series.

The camera’s face-detection chip isolates as many as 10 faces in a scene, then passes the info to the Real Photo processing engine, which optimizes focus and exposure for them. Fujifilm claims that its hardware implementation–other manufacturers are developing software versions–makes the feature very fast, so that there’s little lag imposed on shooting speed. I’ll reserve judgment on both performance and efficacy, since a tool of this sort is highly dependent upon implementation. For instance, the camera will automatically choose one face as being most important; if it frequently guesses wrong, then it may not be terribly useful.

Other RP technologies in the S6000fd include iFlash, which automatically adjusts flash intensity based on the scene–a feature that every digital camera should have–and the poorly dubbed Picture Stabilization, which does nothing more than adjust the Program AE to use a higher set of ISO and shutter-speed settings. In this model, Fujifilm pushes its SuperCCD HR as high as ISO 3,200. Finally, the camera’s Dual-Shot mode will snap two photos in succession: one with flash, the other at a higher ISO and shutter speed but without the flash. Basically, it sounds as if the S6000fd gives you a lot of ways to trade off between blur and noise. In my opinion, if you’re that conscious of the two, you’re better off with a dSLR. But maybe the $500 S6000 will prove me wrong when it ships in September. Check back to find out.

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