It’s been a while since camera makers have introduced significant new features that appeal directly to consumers—sure, there was red-eye reduction, face detection, smile detection, and panoramas, but most new features in point-and-shoot cameras are more evolutionary than revolutionary. So it’s nice to see Fujifilm continuing to think outside the box with its new FinePix F600 EXR—it’s a slim 16-megapixel point-and-shoot camera with good low-light performance, strong automatic features, and motion detection. But it also offers Landmark Navigator, a feature that takes a tip from augmented reality applications to offer suggestions of things users might want to take pictures of, based on their current GPS coordinates.
Landmark Navigator was introduced on the FinePix F550 EXR, and uses a database of about a million points of interest stored in a local database. The camera then displays nearby famous sites on the camera’s 3-inch LCD display, showing users the relative location and distance of nearby landmarks, along with their basic category and type—handy for travelers who’ve never been to a particular spot before. The camera also sports a Photo Navigation feature that geotags locations so users can find their way back to places they’ve photographed, and even plot a route of their travels using Google Maps and Fujifilm’s own MyFinePix Studio application.
As a camera, the FinePix F600 EXR sports a 16 megapixel resolution with a back-side illuminated CMOS sensor for strong results in a wide variety of lighting conditions. The F600 EXR offers a substantial 15× optical zoom (with intelligent digital zoom) and a new EXR Auto mode with motion detection. The auto mode automatically recognizes and switches between settings for a whopping 99 scene types, but the camera also offers advanced photographers, including a high-resolution priority mode, high-dynamic range photos, and a signal-to-noise priority mode which doubles up pixels for improved low-light results. The FinxPix F600 EXR also offers a panorama mode, full HD 1080p video capture, SD/SDHC/SDXC card support, and 33 MB of internal memory to bridge media swaps.
Fujifilm hasn’t revealed any pricing or availability information for the FinePix F600 EXR, but it Fujifilm’s pricing for similarly-capable cameras are any indication, a retail price around $350 wouldn’t be unusual. Similarly, if Fujifilm’s release plans follow normal patterns, it should be on sale by October. It’ll be available in black, silver, champagne gold, and red.
