This is one of the best super zoom compact cameras on the market it kills the competition in high ISO output. Does it have a weakness yes for me it would be the lack of optical stabilization, but with the excellent high iso output you can live with it. The other issue is the write time of a raw file. Other than those issues this camera still today out performs the competition, it is on par with most lower end dslr's in IQ and maybe better than some.

This is one versatile piece of kit.Superb but as mentioned in other review,forget auto.I only use mine in A S M modes.

Started with an Olympus D490 2.1MB with 3X zoom in 2001 and graduated to an Olympus C-740UZ 3.2MB with 10X zoom in 2004. By this year, it was apparent I wanted 28mm WA focal length (35mm equivilent) more than I needed 380mm tele and, after researching six P&S options, settled on Fuji's 28>300mm package.

No, first of all, it doesn't offer sophisticated stability control, other than boosting ISO...but I've taken satisfactory race car photos at 300mm with 35mm film Nikons, never realizing how handicapped I was. Have had no movement problems to date.

My main problem is learning to graduate from auto setting to taking advantage of the Fuji S6000's many, many optional settings for better photos. I've weaned myself away from the auto to P and am now experimenting with S and A preferences. Hey, it's exciting and it's getting better and better. What the hell more can I ask from a digicam that cost $258.00 after Fuji's generous rebate.

I've found the camera to be great for the price (I got it for $250 after $50 rebate, which is no longer available). I found that if I set it to auto, it always uses a high ISO unless I'm in bright sunlight. I set it to P mode and set the ISO to 100 or 200 and that solved that issue (but make sure to force the flash indoors or the pictures will almost always have movement in them). I've printed several 8x10 prints, and they came out very well. The 4x6 prints and 5x6 almost always come out great, but most any modern camera can make good 4x6 prints. Outdoors in bright sunlight is excellent also, but all cameras do great in bright sunlight. I needed a big zoom for sports, and have kids that like to take pictures with the camera, so this suits my needs very well. I really don't have any dislikes for the camera, except that I would like optical image stabilization for when I'm not using the flash. Bottom line, I would have preferred to buy a Nikon D40x, but I couldn't justify spending $1,500 to get one of those cameras plus a 300mm lens when this camera produces pictures that are great for as big a printout as I will ever use (8x10).

I love this camera.I get crystal clear pictures in low light.Having fun learning all the features.

this camera takes great pictures.it is easy to operate to get great pictures. has a zoom ring that is very smooth to operate. this was one of the first to have the face detection feature and it works real well. i sometimes wish the lag time was a little less but i can live with it. i would recommend this camera. some are making a big deal about the fact that it does not have image stabilization but i have been having excellent results even at full zoom and using digital zoom as well which lets you reach out a long ways. i don't know how you could ask for more.

The first time a must fully disagree with the Editor's opinion. Where are these many ultracompact with 28 mm in this quality? Where do you find a camera with this resolution (or do you still only simply count pixels mechanically??)? Where did you find a comparable camera with this excellent noise reduction until 400ISO? And all for 300 Dollar?

i have had this camera for just about 1 year and i recently took it to niagra falls where i took the best pictures with my family in all settings day and night the pictures allways came out just right in fact better then that with all the digital options it carry's like auto light filtering and the ability to freeze the background settings when objects are moving just a little to quickly makes every picture turn out perfect.

I really like the camera, I choose this camera as a stepping stone before I enter the SLR world. It takes great pictures and if you take your time to understand the setting, other than "Auto", you'll find that this camera takes very good pictures in its price range.
The low noise from 100 to 400 ISO is what sold me over the SONY H5.

absolutely the best camera for the buck , it has all the qualities of an slr camera. and the results are amazing. this camera has the manual optical zoom and focus that only SLR kits that are double the price can do.
the color and contrast is truly mind boggling.
NO other camera at this price looks and acts this good.all Canon,Nikon,Sony,Panasonic,etc camera s can compete with this camera .
Try avoid buying form resellers in NY( buydig,adorama,BH,etc) they are cheap but a hassle for your brain .
its better to spend more and get the peace of mind than to get an unbelievable deal and loose your money on these scammers

My wife and I (mostly my wife) exhaustively researched the hybrid market segment (SLR style but with fixed lens). You name the brand, we looked at it. We fully expected to end up buying a Sony, Canon, Nikon, or other Big Name, so it was a bit of a surprise to find that the overall best value for us was the Fujifilm Finepix S6000. Actually, we started zeroing in on the S5200, but were quickly pulled to the S6000. I won't go into the technical detail, but for under $500 you simply cannot go wrong with this camera. Here are the main pros: 1) SLR body size - this is a much bigger deal than you think, but you will appreciate the hand-comfort every time you use it. 2) Manual zoom — there's nothing, and I mean nothing, that compares with the ability to turn that zoom ring by hand to any tiny adjustment you want, versus the thumb-on-the-little-toggle-back-and-forth-till-you-get-it-right silliness. 3) The photo lag time and refresh rates, while not quite as good as the Sony, are better than most and very good. 4) Low light sensitivity is excellent — in fact, I often find myself switching to manual mode because I want the effect of lower exposure, which brings me to...5) Manual mode - Okay, so I learned to shoot on a Pentax K1000 (manual everything), but this camera has a great manual mode. Unfortunately, you can't avoid fiddling with some menu junk, but every other digital camera out there either doesn't have m-mode or is just as fiddly. 5) One word...RAW. For the uninitiated, shooting in RAW format allows huge flexibility in editing shots. To get this feature you're usually into a thousand-dollar camera. Lots of other features, and they're fine, but they're on par with the other products out there in the range. But overall, this camera is a gem to shoot with, and beats all the others hands-down in the ergonomics department, and I know this doesn't sound like a big deal but trust me, you'll thank me later: it's easy and natural to hold onto, with a black rubberized grip etc instead of that slippery metal style (whose design idea was that anyway??).

I just bought this camera 2 days ago. I've found only one user review of it at amazon so I thought I shoukd contribute.
First off, about me, so you'll have point of reference. I'm 32 years old, programmer. So, I'm more of a technical person. I owned a Cassio Q8000, Minolta DiMage 7i and now own a Nikon D70.
This camera is a gift for a friend.
About this Fuji. The lens is very nice and smooth. The zoom ring feels even better than on the D70's kit lens. The LCD is really big and bright. The viewfinder is also really big. The colors in the viewfinder are shifted a little to the blue side.
The camera is surprisingly light, but feels sturdy - not cheep by any standard.
It has a green light to help focus in low light. It's kind of nice - usually the light is read or white. There's a dedicated button to turn on/off the face detection feature. The FD really does work. Although it seems that the algorithm expects there to me 2 eyes and a mouth, so if the objects turns sideways, the camera looses the face;)
I don't have the memory for it yet - it uses xD cards. In the internal 10mb buffer it takes 6 pictures. About 1.5mb each.
The images are very decent - the colors and saturation are very true. I did notice some noise (at ISO100), but I'm used to the images from my DSLR.
The focusing is acceptably fast in the daylight. When the lighting is poor the focusing is still fast with the green light, but when you move the camera, the picture on the screen kind of lags behind the motion. So it gives the impression of being slow. When you press the shutter and the objects are turning yellow-green on the screen because of the focusing light, it looks a bit wierd.
I haven't read the manual - I don't want to breack the wrapping. So I might have failed to find some feature. Consider the below part questionable.
There's no button the set the white ballance. You have to press Menu button and then scroll there. You can't set WB for the auto mode - only for one of the PASM modes. There's no quick view button - you have to flip the record/playback switch. There's no delete button in playback mode - to delete you have to go through menu. Very nive playback mode otherwise. There's no wheel (on the D70 there are 2 wheels) so I don't know how to change the apperture/shutter in the PASM modes.
There doesn't seem to be a autoswitch between viewfinder and the screen.
The mode selector switch has a sequence off-play-record. So to get to the taking pictures (that's where you usually are going) you need to click trough the play. That's not a big issue.
Otherwise, a very goodlooking, well thoughtout, functional camera.