Fuji FinePix S6500 Revisited

It still looks the part. And it has a ten times Zoom!

My nostalgic camera arrived today. It’s a FnePix S6500. I bought one in the early 2000’s when I was looking for a camera to take on trips. It worked very well, despite chunks of it dissolving when I accidentally got mosquito repellent on it. (I’ve no idea what the repellent did to my skin). I used it to take a bunch of pictures that I really liked, and then sold it (as you do) to fund another camera. I thought no more about it until I was going through my Flickr archives one afternoon and found a whole bunch of beautiful pictures I took when I was in Korea for the Imagine Cup in 2007. A quick ebay search revealed a nice copy, along with case, for twenty quids. So I bought it.

Another reason why I like this camera so much

The camera arrived today and I took it for a walk. It was a bit like going down memory lane.

My standard test shot looking good

It is only a six megapixel sensor (around half the resolution of a standard iPhone photograph). The zoom lens is impressive, but a bit soft when you zoom in and very hard to keep steady, what with there being no image stabilisation. Things get very muddy in poor lighting too. But it works a treat and the pictures look really nice with great colours. Just as I remember.

If you are looking for a camera that will produce more interesting pictures than your phone and look good around your neck, you should take a look. But if you do, remember that it uses funky Fuji memory cards, not standard SD ones. The camera I bought came with one already installed, which was nice. Otherwise you’ll have to track some down. Batteries aren’t a problem though, the camera uses four standard AA sized ones.