Fuji Fine kit (Fujifilm Finepix 1400 Zoom)

Member Name: SimonFinnigan

Product:	Fujifilm Finepix 1400 Zoom
Date:	11/07/02 (152 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fantastic image quality, Good battery life, Nice controls and screen

Disadvantages: The provided media is too small

I got myself a Fuji Finepix 1400 zoom camera a few weeks ago, because I was in the market for a new camera. My old digital camera was rubbish to be honest - it was 1.3 megapixel (which means the pictures it takes have 1,300,000 different dots in them) bt the image quality was appauling.

I saw the Finepix 1400 for £128, including delivery, and after reading round for some reviews I ordered it that very same day. The reviews I saw were harping on about how good the camera was, how the image quality was more like that from a reasonable 2 Megapixel camera - just singing the praises of the camera as a whole really.

When I got my camera (from www.internetcamerasdirect.co.uk incidentaly, although I have no affiliation with them) I was made up. You get the batteries you need (4 x AA batteries), the camera, software and a 4 MB smart media card. This isn`t enough to keep you happy for long, but it will give you chance to enjoy your new toy.

The first thing I would say to anyone thinking baout buying this camera is to do it, but only if you can afford some extras as well. The battery life in the camera is very good (I`ve taken about 150 pictures with the set of batteries currently in the camera), but I would still suggest you get yourself a few sets of good rechargable batteries. 1600mah or higher batteries will let you take 300-400 photo`s easily between charges, which is more than enough.

There are two other things you`ll need to buy if you get this camera. Firstly you should budget for a decent case - the LCD screen at the back looks as if it might be prone to scratches, so get a case to start protecting it as soon as you get the camera.

The other thing you`ll need to buy is some more Smart Media for the camera. Given that the high quality pictures take up 600K, you`ll soon run out of space on the provided 4MB card (after about 6 pictures actually). I got myself 3 x 64 MB cards (from www.7dayshop.com - again no affiliati
on but a very good cheap place to shop) and can now take about 300 of the high quality pictures without having to delete any.

The camera itself is a big heavy camera - not one of your namby pamby baby jobbies. You know you`re carrying it, but I donm`t feel it is too big or too heavy - more like the right size and weight to stop you losing it :-) The controls on the camera are nice and simple to use as well. You open the shutter on the front, and turn a dial on the top to "photo". Now you`re ready to take pictures. You can turn the display at the back on or off - leaving it on drains the battery but can make it easier to frame your shot. You can adjust the flash and mode - macro (for close up) or normal, red eye reduction and so on. You can also flick through all the pictures you`ve taken so far, and zoom in to check on little details. You can delete the pictures one by one or as a whole if you want to free some space up on your card - useful to get rid of those pictures you don`t really want and leaving space for more pictures you do want to keep.

In the end the choice of camera is a personal matter. I am very happy with this camera - it is cheap and fantastic quality IMHO. If you want a camera capable of taking holiday snaps or similar then I doubt you`ll be disappointed. Just don`t buy this camera expecting it to give the same performance as the £1000 6 Megapixel cameras on the market, otherwise you will be upset.

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