Its quite a bulky camera but has a nice professional feel to it, although it has got a vast array of features and controls it can still be used as a point and shoot camera, but one of the main advantages as far as I am concerned is it use of 4 AA batteries, I normally use rechargeable ones for my days in the hills and just carry a spare set with me but these are rarely used. If I am away from home for a while such as my trips to the Alps I just use  normal disposable batteries which you can purchase anywhere. During a weeks trip I would expect to use two sets which I think is very good as I certainly don't want to have to be carrying a charger around with me. Weight is everything at my age. It has a Microdrive in so it can hold around 500 pictures at a 3 million pixels, more than adequate for my use but on long trips in the Alps I have taken some 64mb cards as backup

At the heart of the FinePix S602 Zoom lies a 3rd Generation Super CCD sensor 3.1 million effective pixels, capable of delivering an amazing 6.0 million recorded pixels thanks to its unique honeycomb design and advanced signal processing. The new generation of Super CCD boasts even better colour reproduction, even lower levels of noise and class-leading, ultra high sensitivity (up to 1600 ISO*) for the ultimate in richly detailed, high resolution images.

From delicate skin tones to bright blue skies and noise-free shadows the new sensor and signal processing system deliver picture-perfect results in every shooting situation.

Professional quality 35-210mm equivalent 6X optical zoom lens

Multiple exposure modes including aperture and shutter priority AE and full manual control

Manual focus

High-speed shooting at up to 5 frames per second

Four programmed exposure modes: Auto, Portrait, Scene and Night Scene

Hot shoe for external flash