The Fujifilm F60fd has relatively few external controls, just 11 in total, which is surprising considering that this camera offers nearly a full range of photographic controls. You can directly access the various flash, macro, self-timer and delete options by clicking on the four buttons around the navigation pad. As with most other Fujifilm digital cameras, the Fujifilm FinePix F60fd has a Menu button on the rear of the camera which, as you would expect, gives you access to the software menu system. This lets you set various parameters including auto-focus, white balance, continuous mode and so on. There is also a small grey button with an F on it, which opens what Fujifilm call the Photo Mode menu. This allows you to control the power management, file quality, ISO speed and colour settings (B&W, Chrome or Standard). I’m not really sure why these 4 settings alone should fall under the heading of Photo Mode, and things like white balance are just part of the standard menu.The F button does give quick access to a few features, but you do have to memorise what another button does.
The F60fd has a few interesting features up its sleeve. The Scene Recognition mode (SR Auto on the mode dial) is the most important new feature on offer. It can automatically detect a particular scene, without having to rely on you to choose the correct Scene mode. The F60fd can recognise the Night, Landscape, Portrait and Macro scenes, and it then sets the appropriate shutter speed, exposure and white balance. This technology is similar to several other manufacturer’s systems, although not as advanced as Panasonic’s market-leading Intelligent Auto mode. In practice SR Auto mode works well, correctly picking from the four supported scenes, although it does activate the very noisy continuous focusing to help detect the scene.
