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Fujifilm Finepix Z10fd
by Karonher
I don't take that many photographs other than the normal holiday and party photos that everyone takes, so had never really bothered to get a good camera. I was worried about getting a digital camera as I thought they would be difficult to use so did not want to spend a great deal, but did want a camera that looked good, was easy to use ... and provided good pictures. Not asking much am I?
This is a 7 2 megapixel camera and I paid £89 for it in 2008. Despite buying a better one for a holiday to Shanghai I have since gone back to using this when I know I need a reliable camera. I carry it with me every day and while it is a bit chipped around the edges the blue is still as bright as when I bought it.
It was easy to use from the start and the photographs were clear and within days I got used to the idea of being able to hold the camera up and not right in front of my eyes. It is just a quick click of the controls to see of you are happy with the picture or if you want to delete it. Deleting is easy and the good thing is that you are given a second chance so here you have to click twice to delete so there is no reason you should delete one by accident.
You can also lock pictures so as if you want to delete a lot at once the good ones don't go. When I need to have photographs of locations for the mystery shopping I do it is helpful to be able to delete quickly as often I take 4 or 5 at a time to make sure the companies are happy with them. Every few months I just check the ones I want to lock and then delete the rest
As it is made of metal it is slightly heavier than many more modern cameras but not so heavy that it causes a problem when carrying it around. It fits easily into a small going out bag so I can take it everywhere with me.
It helps that there is a selection of flash options, meaning that I can choose off, auto flash or slow so even if I am outdoors at night the picture quality is good when downloaded.
The lens is a 3 time zoom and this again is easy to operate as it is just a matter of clicking on one button to increase and then the opposite one to decrease. Although focus adjustment is automatic there are slight problems with taking something very close as it is extremely blurry when downloaded.
The display is 2.5" so clearly big enough to get a good view of what you have taken and I find I can see right away if I need to retake. Recharging the battery is easy as it just slips out and is placed into a cradle that gets plugged into the mains.
Width 9.1 cm
Depth 1.9 cm
Height 5.7 cm
Weight 110 g
This is a camera that I will easily give 5 stars and I hope that in the future when I do need to change again, I can find that it is still on the market
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Olympus µ[MJU:] 700 Digital
by lorrainek858
I owned my Olympus camera for a few years, and it has been my little partner in crime for many holidays and nights out to the pub. It is a really sturdy camera, but unfortunately mine was lost on my last holiday to Paris, so I had to go buy a new camera last year.
The Camera
This little camera is quite light weight and ... easy to carry around, it has a metal body that is quite stylish my camera was silver, however you can also buy this camera in black, orange and blue.
Taking Pictures
Taking pictures on this camera is simple, there is a normal picture shooting setting and an anti shake picture setting which came in really handy, especially in the pub when I couldn't get everyone to sit still for long enough to get their picture taken.
The camera is 7.1 megapixels and I found that the picture quality comes up really clear and crisp.
The flash on this camera is very bright, you can choose a regular flash, a red eye reduction flash (which is a double flash) and also to have no flash at all when taking pictures with this camera.
There is also lots of different modes (23 in total) for taking pictures on this camera, some of these include Daylight, Portrait, Panorama, Museum, Beach, Snow and Night time, just to name a few. It is quite easy to browse each of the different modes and also they are really nicely described so you know when it is best to use each mode.
Taking Videos
This camera can also take videos using the video camera recording function, these videos are full colour and include sound. They are shot easily and come up clear and crisp on screen. I didn't really use the video camera for much when I owned this camera, however I did take a few videos at various concerts and was really impressed with the quality of the videos when view them back and also uploaded them onto my computer.
Viewing Pictures
Pictures are laid out easily in a photo gallery, you can browse through them easily and also view videos that you have taken, with sound, on this camera. The pictures can also be viewed by what date they were taken, as long as you have updated the camera's date and time in advance which is a nice feature as it means you can organise you pictures by date if you wish to.
Uploading to the PC
It is easy to upload your pictures and videos onto your PC, you just simply connect the camera and PC by using the lead that is supplied in the box. Then you can copy and paste pictures over from the camera files to your own personal computer files. It doesn't take a lot of time or a lot of computer knowledge to upload pictures when you are using this camera.
Internal Memory
This camera doesn't come with a lot of internal memory, I decided that I would buy a little Olympus memory card for this camera. I bought mine on Amazon and it was a little cheaper than buying it in the camera shops.
Battery Life
I found that the battery life on this camera was quite good, it never failed me when I was on holidays and taking pictures all day, though on these days I needed to charge it every night. When using this camera for just the odd day away or trip to the pub, I found that the battery could some times last three weeks to a month, so it all depends on how much you use it on how much you'll need to charge it.
Price and Availability
You can buy this camera for around £150-£190, which is a fair price in my opinion as the picture quality is great, there are lots of different features and it is really simple and straight forward to use.
Overall
Overall I think that this is a great camera, it is easy to use and comes with a great range of features. It is great value for money and I would recommend it to anyone who doesn't want to spend lots of money, but needs a good quality camera. Overall I would give this camera 5 out of 5 stars.
*also on ciao under lorraine90
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Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ3
by xisorosix
I purchased this abroad in the summer of 2007 and remember paying around £200 for it. Before that I'd used disposables or film cameras. The camera was pretty new having only been announced at the end of January of the same year. I was a complete noob and didn't know much about cameras, viewing this one that the sales assistant was trying ... to sell to me with great scepticism. I finally bought it and soon used it very regularly, I also got the extra surprise of receiving some freebies with purchase: lovely camera case, wipes, miniature tripod...
It has a lovely Leica lens with the camera being one of the best zoom cameras back then for this size at 10x optical zoom, combined with a wide angle lens of 28mm. The screen size is absolutely lovely and takes up most of the space at the back of the camera being at around 6 x 4.5cm. The camera is extremely compact and not very bulky at, I make it, 10.5 x 5.5 x 3.5 cm at the thickest points. It's also pretty portable at 232g and it fits into all my bags with no problems - I like to take photos regularly!
The sensor resolution is 7.2 megapixels which is up from the previous 2 models in this line, the TZ1 AND TZ2. There is also nice features such as the image stabiliser and the ability to take videos of 840 x 480 pixels quality at 30 frames a second. The sound quality is also pretty good and I've been satisfied when playing back clips including one from a piano concert. I wouldn't have minded if the camera couldn't take video clips, since it's already very good.
I also like the built in lens cover that is really slick - it protects the lens and opens up fluidly whenever you want to take a photo. The pictures are displayed in a really nice and clear way - you can click through the dates very quickly to find specific photos you took and then choose to view these sets of photos in various sizes alongside each other in grid form; this makes it super easy to find the picture you're looking for. Despite having it for such a long time, there are still some functions that I don't really use such as the white balance adjustment function. Like other similar cameras you can pick different modes by just using the dial at the top e.g. flash, portrait mode, night scenery mode, sports mode, fireworks mode etc.. There are also several other modes that I don't use.
It's pretty intuitive to use with the zoom button located where the camera button is. The dial is pretty self explanatory and the other buttons are labelled in a non-confusing way. The camera can also shoot continuously for 3 frames/sec or 2 frames/sec which has been really handy when you think you might just miss something! Another handy feature which is great for group photos, or if you like taking pictures of yourself, is the timer mode which gives you either a 10 seconds interval to get everyone into position, or a 2 seconds interval.
The battery life is fairly good with one charge lasting me around 2 weeks at a time where I'll either sporadically take the camera out when a photo opportunity arises, or use it for a few hours at a time when I go for long trips. The charging time is over an hour, so when I'm in a rush I'll only manage to get a quarter of the full charge (around 20 minutes) - this has been good enough for a day trip when used wisely!
The camera is available in three colours: blue, black and silver. I have the silver version and it looks pretty good apart from the scratches on the metal in the lens area since I managed to drop it a few times from about a metre... painful... the camera has still performed like normal although I have noticed that the lens takes longer to come out/retract back into the casing which can be annoying when you REALLY want to take a picture quickly. The metal body of the camera has no doubt offered really good protection overall though.
I used to transfer photos via a USB cable connected to the camera and this could take forever, with the risk of me knocking the camera by accident... thankfully I bought an SD card reader for around £1 (I've reviewed this) which worked like a dream and is doing very well still.
I definitely think this is a brilliant camera even if it's 5 years ago since it was first announced. I will only buy a new camera to replace this when it is really on its last legs, but at present apart from the lens retraction being slow, it's working perfectly and I have no complaints.
NB* When this camera came out it was awarded a host of prizes including: the TIPA "Best Superzoom Digital Camera" award and the EISA "European Compact Camera" award in 2007.
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