Not bad at all (Fujifilm Finepix A202)

Member Name: Tybalt348

Product:	Fujifilm Finepix A202
Date:	09/06/04 (234 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Decent value, Easy to use, Very well made

Disadvantages: Could do with a few more pixels

The Fuji Finepix 202 is an entry level camera from Fuji (surprisingly enough), currently selling for around £100 typically. I bought mine since I wanted a relatively cheap but good quality digital camera, compatible with Apple iPhoto, and this came highly recommended by the man in the shop (Harry's Photo Digital - no idea if it was Harry himself who sold it :))

Unpacking the camera, you find it comes with all the usual extra bits and pieces you would expect - a set of batteries (dry, not rechargeable), a 16Mb XD memory card, a wrist strap, a USB cable and a few CDs with software on them. It also comes with a manual and a quick start guide, neither of which I ever even looked at. The camera itself appears solid and well made with a nice silver finish and a very responsive, tactile feel to the buttons, which all make a nice click to let you know they've been pressed properly. Nothing worse than buttons that leave you wondering if you pushed them hard enough or not....

After attaching the wrist strap, popping in the batteries and the memory card I went out taking pictures. The camera really is so easy to use that you'll never need to look at the instruction manual if all you want to do is take pictures. I know it can save video files, but I've never tried. Image quality is pretty good, but you'll definitely want to use the top quality setting for the most part, since it is only a 2 megapixel camera. The 16Mb card manages to hold about 24 pictures on that detail level, and obviously you could store more with a bigger card. The camera does have a zoom feature, of sorts. It's not a proper optical zoom, and doesn't work on the 2M resolution, only partially on 1M and only works fully on 0.3M. Something of a cheat, and somewhat redundant to me.

I haven't installed any of the software for it, since I'm using it with my Apple iBook and iPhoto software. You just plug the camera in and it downloads the p
ictures for you - totally hassle free and totally reliable.

I'd definitely recommend the camera to anyone who just wants a fairly cheap camera for taking simple pictures with. It's definitely not a serious photographic tool, but does a fine job of taking decent photos, it's very easy to set up and seems very well made.

Think of it as the photographic equivalent of a Toyota Corolla....

Summary: