I was looking for a digital camera at the £300 mark, and had a number of
criteria
- USB connection
- Optical Zoom lens
- Lens cover
- 1.3 Mpixel

The FinePix1400 met all these criteria. It has a 3x optical zoom, a clear LCD and excellent build. Because it takes 4 AA batteries it is a little heavy, but this gives it a reassuringly solid feel.

By looking at other digital cameras I was aware that battery usage could be a problem, but I didn't realise quite how poor. I got through 4 new duracells in one evening
of use (taking 30 odd pictures).

The camera is a joy to use, and is comfortable to hold. Unfortunately I found that the image quality just wasn't up to scratch in low light conditions. Either you are so close to the subject that you get flash 'burn' or if you are too far away (I found over 1.5 metres or so) that image quality really suffers from pixelation.

If you are going to mainly use the camera in brightly lit conditions, and have at least two sets of rechargeable batteries it really is a nice camera, but the flash really is hopeless which means that it's not too good for
indoor shots in dull places e.g. pubs

I am rating it with 3 stars because it only has 2 failings battery usage - which all cameras suffer from, and the flash