Time to buy a digital camera (Fujifilm Finepix 6800 Zoom)

Member Name: nashmills

Product:	Fujifilm Finepix 6800 Zoom
Date:	22/05/01 (714 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Easy to use, Picture Quality, Range of options

Disadvantages: Some blurred edges, No manual, Price

Ive wanted a digital camera for three years but I always held back because...

1 the quality of the pictures was fine on screen but poor in print
2 the price
3 the cameras just got better every month or so.

Well in recent months the pixel increases have flattened out around the 3 million mark and this is reportedly good enough for A4 prints.

The 6800 is in the 3 megapixel bracket. All this 6 megapixel talk is a bit suspect. Notice there is no mention of 6 megapixels anywhere on the camera. I dont think the difference is noticable.

I was also attracted to the cradle. Convenience is everything if you are going to use something regularly and this cradle system eliminates all the hassle for recharging and loading images onto a computer.

So how does it perform. Very well. the first picture I took, I immediately printed in A4 and it looked great. Very simple to use for anyone who has used a camera before. Im not sure how a novice might take to it. Shame there is no manual option for aperture or exposure but this is afterall a snappers camera and not a true SLR substitute.

All the options on the camera are simple to work and the picture quality is fine. Especially outdoors in good light. There is some blurring around the edges of the pictures but you have to look for it. I would not recommend this for a serious photographer or anyone looking to shoot landscapes. For portraits with subject in the middle, you will never notice this minor problem.

There's sample pictures on various sites if you want to check out this problem first.

The movie clips are fun and the picture is acceptable. Ive not used the voice recorder but the sound is ok on the movie clips.

The included software is fantastic. Easy to use and useful. Fuji have really done a good job on this. You can review all pictures quickly, delete the stuff you dont want etc.

Price for this camera varies.
Shop around. Use Fujifilms website for a list of suppliers. It will take you ten minutes to save a couple of hundred pounds. In addition one or two sites are bundling a 64mb smartmedia with the camera for £600. This is what I went for. I can take 56 pictures at the 3meg resolution on the 64mb card. Its plenty. Unless you are off on holiday it is probably too many but it means you can do a couple of movie clips at the same time.

I would recommend this camera to anyone wanting to take decent snaps without the hassle and costs of film.

The quality is still not as good as film but the convenience is fantastic.

One last word. I bought a new printer within a week to do my new pictures justice.

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