Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
6 Months

Summary:
This is a wonderful camera with features that are normally found on higher end camera's; such as the 3x optical zoom, the 2' LCD that is video quality, and the rechargeable battery. The LCD is wonderful even my new DC240 can't match the quality. While my DC240 looks like it's recording from a WebCam with awful frame rates, the Fuji's looks like it is from a high-end camcorder so it's video quality. I was surprised to find a rechargeable battery with this camera, it lasts a good while and I love using it. The additional AC power adapter was also included so you can use that instead of draining the battery (and also needed to charge the battery-done within the camera). I love this extras because they are typically extra purchases for cameras. Now onto the picture quality for this camera. 640 x 480 resolution is pretty low end but they look great. Most of my pictures are excellent and you see very little pixelation of the picture unless you zoom in. And often times you zoom out to reduce the picture size and it looks beautiful. You get a 2MB smartmedia with the camera and you get a decent amount of pictures from it at fine mode (I can't remember how many exactly but it's around 20-30), best option is to add an 8MB card (the maximum it can take). With this option you get 90 fine mode pictures, you really don't need this much so there is no really need to worry about not having enough room on the smartmedia, but there will still be some naysayers that say this is not enough so I included this as a weakness. I don't have a MAC but the fact you can use this camera with one is a nice bonus, especially because a lot of cameras are not made for Macs, strange considering Macs are used for processing high-end graphic design. There are a ton of cables included with the camera and there is no need to buy anything else (this is a nice touch because I hate bringing home a new toy and having to go right back out to pick up a few more cables to get the thing on the road). Finally the software, it's pretty easy to use and doesn't require reading the manual unless you use the included graphics editor. I use Adobe PhotoShop and it works great with the camera. One warning when loading the software drivers onto the computer make sure you don't replace the current Twain on your computer with the one that comes with the camera. If you do you won't be able to use PhotoShop or similar editors to acquire (or put it directly from camera to editor). You will only be able to do that on the included downloading program that comes with the camera. Otherwise two things may happen, one the editing program will freeze up or two you entire computer will freeze up, not good either way. To wrap up, this is a great camera not at $499 (because you can get higher resolution cameras with less features at this price) but at a lower price about $200-$300. It's simple to use and great for those just getting into digital cameras. It was a good experience for me, especially since I tried an ePhoto smile from AFGA first and it almost turned me off of digital cameras altogether (read my review). Options like the 2' LCD is rare even with higher up cameras since most come only with a 1.8' (not a big deal but it just looks different with something bigger. The rechargeable battery is great because digital cameras drain batteries like crazy and buying tons of batteries or even a rechargeable battery can be expensive. Finally, the AC adapter, I don't even get one with my much more expensive DC240 and is nice to use when I don't want to drain my battery.

Strengths:
2' LCD monitor (video quality), 3x optical zoom with autofocus, rechargeable Lithium-ion battery, comes with an AC power adapter, optional MAC capability, picture quality great even with a 640x480 resolution, and all required cables are included with the camera.

Weaknesses:
640x480 resolution (but pictures looks as best as possible at that range), Twain that comes with software (Windows) is outdated, battery is charged within the camera (but you can still use the camera, either charge it or use it), and the maximum amount of smartmedia it takes is 8MB (but you really don't really need more-90 pictures on fine mode).

Similar Products Used:
Afga ePhoto Smile, Mustek VDC 300, Kodak DC240

Customer Service:
Haven't needed it yet.

Overall Rating
 3 of 5

Used product for
2 Months

Summary:
Buy one second hand as an excellent introduction to low end digital photography

Strengths:
Good looking easy to use very easy to download pictures easy to resell good quality pictures for resolution restriction excellent Fuji technical backup via internet

Weaknesses:
640x480 resolution quite large

Similar Products Used:
Fuji DX10 Panasonic PVDC 1080 Canon Powershot A5 Casio QV100

Overall Rating
 3 of 5

Used product for
2 Months

Summary:
This camera pops-up on discount/clearance sales on the internet periodically, and is a good purchase at $150 or so. Has square pixel technology, which does give it a good 640 x 480 picture. optical zoom at discounted price, is a very good feature.

Strengths:
Ease of use. long-life rechargeable battery decent included software good picture quality for 640x480 For the money, if you can find it discounted/on-clearance, a good basic camera for web pictures, etc. See on e-bay for under $200, picked one up on clearance for $129

Weaknesses:
It is still just 640 x 480, but that is just a fact that you know going into the purchase

Similar Products Used:
entry level Kodaks, Fujis, Epson

Customer Service:
n/a

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Summary:
I purchased this from onsale for $209 back in March and have taken approximately 200 pictures with it. I havn't had any problems. All the pictures look great. I like the rechargeable battery. For a low res (640x480) camera, this one is excellent.

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Summary:
I haven't had much experience with digital cameras, but if the quality of the pictures taken with this camera is anything to go by, the future looks promising! Even when view on the monitor or printed by a colour inkjet printer (Canon BJC610 on glossy paper at 720 x 720, 7 by 5 inch prints) they look good! The Fuji has outstanding colour resolution, very natural colour which need little if any tweaking with graphic packages. The 3x zoom lens is sharp but the optical viewfinder is mis-aligned, so for accurate framing it is better to use the inbuilt LCD screen. The LCD screen is very good with a fast refresh rate (Canon Powershot 350 which I compared the Fuji to is particularly slow) and good colours. It has lots of good useful features not normally found in cameras of this price (currently down to £135 in the UK) eg Li-ion battery and charger, 3x zoom lens, tripod socket, manual focus, manual exposure, manual white balance, manual flash output for when taking close ups. Bad points, no lens cap or case included in the price. It can sometime suffer from jpeg compression-induced errors in complex image areas if photos are taken at the 'normal' low resolution setting, always better to take photos with the 'fine' setting. Also in the UK spec camera, the Fuji does not have a TV out socket. The software included (Picktureworks PhotoEnhancer) contains all the essantial post-production tools which work by a brillant 'enhance by example' interface. The download program is straighforward and there's a Twain driver too. All in all, this is an excellent easy to use camera which considering its low (640 x 480) resolution is high on image quality!