decided on fuji? which one to replace S3 IS?

[maddmatt02]

ok,, my girlfriends truck recently was broken into and her canon S3IS was stolen. only thing I know is she loved the camera, but she had a kodak easy share 612 I think before that(also stolen, damn theives) and liked it alot as well, pretty sure she like teh canon more. well we are going on a trip to vegas soon and shes bummed she doesnt have a camera. I decided Im gonna get her an early b-day present, I am really looking at the fuji S6000, is this a better overall camera? one thing I know is she always wished it was manual focus on her S3, and she likes the manual zoom as well. I figure after reading the specs the fuji is the better camera in all aspects except size/weight and image stabilazation. but its gotta be bigger of course with that lens.

however I see the S700 is coming out next month at a retail of 250. the 6000 has a retail of 500 and ican get it new, shipped for 308. so Im guessing ill be able to get the 700 for maybe 200-210 at first. I know it isnt manual zoom/focus like she likes but it is a bit cheaper and supports XD and SD. ive noticed that SD seem to be a little cheaper but not much. also is one generally regarded as having faster transfer rates then the other.

so would the 700 be good enough for the girl who had the Z612 and S3 IS, or should I spring for the 6000. I got no problem sopnding the extra 50-100 if its a way better camera which I think it is worth it but just wanted some feedback.

thanks

also one last quick ? that running man logo on the thumb wheel on the canon for action shots was nice, I see the fuji doesnt have that choice? s it dificult and/or time consuming toe manually set up the camera to take action shots or is it as simple as choosing manual and setting shutter speed and aperatue or whatever?

[payn817]

I've played with the 6000 at work. It's a nice camera, and I liked it better than the S3. The main selling point (for me) being manual focus and zoom.

If the fuji doesn't have sports mode (I think it does), you can set it to shutter priority and select shutter speed of 250 and you should be ok.

[maddmatt02]

alright, I will miss that little articulated LCD, one cuz you can hide it from damage and the other for taking pics at a weird angle with the LCD looking right at you from any angle. I was looking at a pnasonic last night, I think fz7 or something, as well as the sony H5, both have image stabilization. I like the fuji more, but is I.S. something really really helpful. she mostly shoots plant life up close, some animal life but not usually from to great a distance, and then sunsets, etc where zoom is usually pretty wide for the whole shot. stabilizations is most important for being very zoomed in correct? so if she wanted a clean shot from full zoom is it impossible without it? would she have to tripod it and set the self timer and leave it be while it shot the pic so it didnt shake?

[mpreece]

I have had several Fuji's and I liked them all. The 6000fd or the 9100 are both very good camera's. I have been reading up on the Olympus SP 550-UZ. It sounds like it is going to be one to check into. Very long zoom, and image stabilization.

[maddmatt02]

looked at it and it looked pretty good but its gonna be 499 when its released. plus its released only a couple weeks before we leave for the trip and thats if the release date doesnt get pushed back, not sure how camera release dates go but stereo stuff and video games seem to be pushed back now and again. any others around 275-350 I should look at? im starting to wonder if i should just not take a chance and get another S3 IS... would you pick the fuji over the canon