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I have read several reviews of both the digital cameras, but can still not make up my mind on which one to buy !!!
Would appreciate any views that users of these cameras have ?
Or links to your portfolios so I can see some samples...
Many thanks and merry christmas,
Andy
both superb cameras cos they are basically the same (s7000; you may want a bigger memory card)
in the some 8-9 months ive had my 602 its put in a sterling service, its very user freindly and would reccommend it to anyone.
one thing though if you intend to, maybe sell some of your work i would opt for the 7000, although depending on the write time of the memory card, a 12m image may take quite a few minutes to store to the card (currently a 6m image takes around 20 seconds with a 15x compact flash card), i think the 7000 uses xd memory cards but i dont recall seeing the write speeds of these (there sopposed to be fast, so its probably not much of an issue)
one more thing is the fact that you cannot focus the camera in dark or badly lit situations(i suspect the 7000 is similar) this is due to the digital view finder; the images always seem to turn out ok but sometimes i have to judge how far to turn the focus ring to get a good result, its a minor niggle that i have learnt to live with,
at the end of the day and thinking about it i would probably splash out on a 7000 because its the newer model its got the better re-sale propects and if its owt like the 602 for performance its gotta be a winner
I opted for the S602 pro with 1G microdrive and very happy with it. The 7000 takes the SecureD cards (and MD) rather than SmartM (and MD)on the 602; My previous camera had SM so going for the 602 I didn't need to buy new SD cards.
Watch out for the write speeds, It can be painful if you want fine quality, you can use the 5 continuous shot function, but then have to wait several mins before you can take any more.
The 602 on fine gets around 59 shots on a 1G MD, so feel the 340Mb card, just isn't enough. (unless you have several)Think if you want 12mill pixels and wait longer to save the files and need to buy more storage?
7000 has the 4th gen CCD although the 3rd gen on the 602 I can't fault really.
If want the latest kit get the 7000, if you want a good deal get a 602. still not sure, toss a coin and you will end up with a great camera.
Thank you for your reviews Simon & Stephen. I have seen quite a few pictures taken with the S602 (and both of your portfolios are excellent)but on looking around there doesn't seem to be much difference in the price of the S7000 (about 450) and the S602 (about 400 ish) So I think I'm drawn to the S7000 because of the the 6m pixel without the need for interpolation. Also it has the option of shooting in raw mode.
I wish to do some night shots and after looking at your portfolio Simon I hope I can produce prints half as good !
It takes XD memory cards as well as compact flash/microdrives. Are microdrives slow at recording because they seem cheaper than the compact flash cards ? Also the xd cards must be quicker as they are the most expensive, is that right ?
Many thanks
Andy
Hi,
I have just recently parted company with my S602 and purchased a shiny new S7000 and I can tell you - it is well worth the upgrade.
For a start off, you can actually save MORE pictures to the card in top/fine mode now, due to Fuji changing the picture format (was .TIF on the S602 and is now .RAW on the S700), I can save 81 pics instead of 59 on my 1GB MD card.
The lesser-quality picture settings on the S7000 save around the same number as the S602.
As for the speed at which the files save, there has never been ANY slow down on both my S602 or the new S7000 when in top/fine mode. You can click away and the camera buffers the pictures up as you take them and saves them at it's own pace, so you don't have to wait between shots.
Another difference between the cameras is the switch from SD to XD media - a logical choice when Fuji are one of the main driving forces behind the XD format.
One other improvement between the S602 & the S7000 is the Macro setting. You can now take pics as close as 1cm away.
For some examples of the types of shot you can produce with both of these cameras - take a look at my PORTFOLIO.
hey welcome to epz dazza, xd is deffinatly the future.
andy the microdrives, i belive are slower and they use more precious battery power than sm,cf or xd.
one thing dazza about the macro or should i say super-macro is that its always been capable of 1cm, this was one of my main buying points for the 602.
just a note
simon
Hi Siderath.
Thanks for pointing out the 1cm on the S602 - I can't say as I ever got as close as 1cm with mine - but I do seem able to with my S7000 now. Weird!
Anyway, you right about the MicroDrive cards being a bit slower than SM/XD - but in terms of /MB between the formats you have to look hard to beat the MD.
Hi All - I have just checked in the S602Z manual and it is spec'd at 1cm for Super Macro, but it does say approx.
The S7000 came out shortly after I bought my S602Z, for which I was a bit peeved.
However, I waited 4 years before upgrading from my first digital. The S602Z was the first digital to meet my requirements and I bought it when price had fallen to what I could afford.
If you always wait for the latest you will never upgrade.
That S602 meets all my current needs, and I am quite pleased with it.
If I was buying new at the moment I would choose the S7000.
I would always buy the new model as being technically more proficient ie incorporating latest design improvements. Also gives longest Maker support for the camera during its lifetime.
Microdrives are slower, and being a micro hard drive is susceptable to mechanical damage e.g. an accidental knock whilst the head is writing. Just think of having a gigs worth of pics on the drive and it crashed. This definately not a funny situation from my experience with std 3.1/2" HDDs.
Just Jas
If they ever bring out a version of the S7000 with a PC socket, I'd be tempted
I have just purchased a used S602 for half the price of 7000.
As I don't print larger than A4, S602 meets my needs.
Only feature - I wish I had - is USB2. Now I purchased a USB2 7in1 reader as it takes very long to transfer the pictures directly from the camera's 2 GB microdrive over USB 1.
By the way, my magicstor 2.2GB microdrive beats 32 of 47 CF benchmarks using S2 PRO according to the results from:
www.robgalbraith.com/bins/multi_page.asp?cid=6007-6014
my microdrive is faster and cheaper than most CF cards. Don't believe in those rumors that microdrives are slow and fragile, they have moving parts etc. Before it breaks down, you would upgrade to a new camera and a new card format anyway.
Why stick with old technology? Is it cheaper and more advanced? NO!!! CF technology is coming to the end. CF is unstable, every different card performs different in different machines. See these benchmarks with S2 PRO:
Lexar Media 256MB 12X Lexar I 1325K/sec
Transcend 256MB 30X 1282K/sec
Technology has no religion!
I have just purchased a used S602 for half the price of 7000.
As I don't print larger than A4, S602 meets my needs.
Only feature - I wish I had - is USB2. Now I purchased a USB2 7in1 reader as it takes very long to transfer the pictures directly from the camera's 2 GB microdrive over USB 1.
By the way, my magicstor 2.2GB microdrive beats 32 of 47 CF benchmarks using S2 PRO according to the results from:
www.robgalbraith.com/bins/multi_page.asp?cid=6007-6014
my microdrive is faster and cheaper than most CF cards. Don't believe in those rumors that microdrives are slow and fragile, they have moving parts etc. Before it breaks down, you would upgrade to a new camera and a new card format anyway.
Why stick with old technology? Is it cheaper and more advanced? NO!!! CF technology is coming to the end. CF is unstable, every different card performs different in different machines. See these benchmarks with S2 PRO:
Lexar Media 256MB 12X Lexar I 1325K/sec
Transcend 256MB 30X 1282K/sec
Technology has no religion!
Andy
I have just updated from a 602pro to the s7000, i was very happy with the 602 and results very good, however since useing the s7000 i do feel that at the 6m setting the results a brill, i have used the 12m setting but did not find any need as viewing the results sometime seem worse. The only down side to the change is that you can only go upto f8, but you get around that little problem.
Alan
I just moved to a S7000 from an Olympus C-4040. I'm sticking to the 6Mpixel setting since anything higher reduces the quality when cropping. A program such as genuine fractals is much better for this. Overall I'm very pleased, there is a great range of manual controls and they do become intuitive fairly soon. The only thing is low light performance is not as good as the Olympus (F2.8 vs. F1.8).
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