The S6500fd is attractive for many reasons:

- It has two barrel rings on the objective, one for the zoom and the other for focus resulting in flexibility, quickness, and precision-we really liked this.

- It has Face detection technology, which automatically focuses and adjusts tones for truer color rendering.

- This is complemented by the Intelligent Flash capable of automatically adjusting the flash level in order not to deform faces. Here again, this functions quite well and for once, flash portraits aren’t burned out, nor overexposed (as is often the case).

- It’s not in the camera’s characteristics, but it’s obvious after tests. FujiFilm has changed its image correction processing to reinforce the sharpness of details.

- Finally, for the moment FujiFilm decided to not add a mechanical stabilization system in favor of a better management of the increased noise on a large number of its cameras. This choice can be justifiable as it compensates for the photographer’s and subjects movement, while stabilizers only do this for the camera holder. At least this is the case for the S6500fd, because there is a moderate increase in noise as we increase in sensitivity. Unfortunately, in the end it’s a little disappointing:
 


The image is still precise until 200 ISO and satisfactory at 400. It passes at 800, which is remarkable compared to the competition, despite an obvious deterioration on this extract and even more so on other parts of the whole image. Beyond this ISO, it’s catastrophic. Also, the 100 ISO setting tells us something that is easily confirmed in the Side by Side. The processor considerably (and artificially) accentuates sharpness-to such a point that the pictures of the S6500fd (6 megapixels) appear more precise than the S9500’s (9 megapixels) upon first impression. The other side of the coin is that this accentuation is also on the photo noise level, which is unfortunate as the sensor initially has little noise.. For example, look at the white background behind the bottle. It has an added marked video effect (lighter areas are overexposed, like the bright zones on this electronic chip), which at times reinforces the « unnaturalness » of photos, lacking softness with too much contrast. More than with other bridges, to get the best out of this camera (and especially the sensor), avoid the Auto and use the semi-manual modes to access compensation of exposure and (softer) sharpness (unfortunately, there is no contrast adjustment). Or what’s even better is to work in RAW format for better adapted software processing.

Speed tests were also problematic. On the one hand, we liked the initial reactivity of 1.6 seconds to start-up. This is satisfactory even if the Canon G7 only takes 1.1 and the Panasonic FZ50 as well. After this, it’s a little different at 2.8 seconds of waiting between photos. However, we were using the best type of memory, the new generation xD type H card. We were not too enthusiastic about this format, because it’s too slow, expensive and not too common. When will FujiFilm and Olympus decide to finally abandon it to come back to SD cards, that are more economical, widely available and faster?

We finish with a few optimizations on this camera for portraits. Here, we have to admit that, unfortunately, we weren’t too convinced. For us, a lot of shots are taken indoors and without a flash if possible. This is the object of our « Barbie test » where we take her photo at all sensitivities and show you the best photo at the lowest possible sensitivity photo in the Side by Side section. This is a rather demanding if not revealing test, and the S6500fd didn’t do too well. Its rather good noise control doesn’t entirely compensate for the absence of stabilization. When we see what the Canon G7 is capable of in comparison, we think it’s too bad that Fuji has still not integrated mechanical stabilization to its cameras.