Snap Happy (Fujifilm Finepix A303)

Member Name: jonatkins

Product:	Fujifilm Finepix A303
Date:	22/05/03 (549 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Quality of Pictures, Ease of Use, Small & Neat

Disadvantages: No Video Clip Sound, Little Manual Control Offered

The way I see it there are two types of people that buy digital cameras, those who just want a replacement for their compact for taking point and shoot family and holiday snaps etc, and those that want to have a bit more control over their photography learning to make their own settings to take better pictures. I'm more than willing to admit that while being interested in photography when it comes to digital cameras I'm firmly in the first category.

I had decided towards the end of last year to ask for a digital camera for Xmas, as it fulfilled all my present requirements, i.e. it would come in a package that wasn't squashy, it would have plenty of buttons to press etc to keep me amused over the Christmas period and thirdly and strangely I really did want one!

Needless to say a lot of research was embarked upon, reading magazines (computer and photography ones both had a good selection of reviews and guides), Internet reviews and suppliers and friends recommendations etc. Once all the results were in I'd decided that I wanted a minimum of 2.0mp in a small and neat easy to use camera. The following shortlist was drawn up and I would have been basically happy to go for any of them:

Sony DSCP71, Nikon Coolpix 2500, Canon Powershot A40. and the Fuji Finepix A303

I went shopping and handled and tried all of these models and decided that the Finepix and the Nikon were the best to use, whereas the Canon and Sony seemed to be slightly better built. What it came down to was this: The Fuji came out on top for the following reasons, It was a 3.2mp model whereas the others were all only 2mp models, it used the new smaller memory cards that will in future come in higher size versions than the other (up to 1gb I?m told) and had excellent battery life from only 2 rechargeable at a time. Couple this with the fact that prior to Christmas Boots were offering an excellent deal on this particular model and the decision was made.


Christmas morning came and within 10 minutes of opening the box I had the batteries and memory card installed and was snapping away, and had soon filled the 16mb memory card that came as standard. Luckily enough the Boots deal included a free 32mb card, which will fit plenty of pictures at 1 or 2mp resolution on it as well. It?s only when you put the resolution on the highest settings that your memory cards fill up quickly and to be honest for normal day to day photos the 2mp setting is plenty to get good sharp prints at 5x7 size. (At the 3.2mp setting excellent quality is possible at A4 size, which is very impressive for this sort of camera).

Where this camera really scores is simplicity, you turn it on turn the dial to the camera setting point at your subject and press the button, it does everything else for you and very very consistently too. The only time you have to take a bit more care is in low light settings but to be honest all digital cameras suffer in low light compared with SLR?s for example and the A303 is still pretty good in those circumstances.

This camera also comes with a video setting where it will quickly fill your memory card with surprisingly good video clips, (you can get about a minute on a 32mb card) so it?s only really for fun and disappointingly this camera does not have sound coupled with the video feature whereas some of the other models did.

This is a minor quibble really as I certainly didn?t want it for making short films with. The only other minus point is that you don?t get a case and when you are spending upwards of £250 on a camera you don?t want to sling it in a bag loose, so you end up buying one separately. To be fair I don?t think any of the cameras I looked at came with a case, which seems to be at odds with the aps or 35mm compact cameras that all seem to come with them. (I imagine this is the manufacturers trying to recoup some of their development costs or just trying to make a bit more money
out of us perhaps).

I?ve been very pleased with this camera and find that I use it a lot more often than I ever used my SLR, which has to be a good thing. On the computer side, I have recently built a new pc and fitted a CDRW so am well on the way to filling my first disc with pictures. The software that comes as standard with the camera is very easy to use and makes transferring pictures from the camera very simple.

I wouldn?t hesitate to recommend the Finepix to anyone, and I think the only reason to look elsewhere would be if you needed the ability to take more control over your picture taking which this camera doesn?t allow you to do. I really am amazed every time I see some prints from this camera (I use the boots digital service which seems to be excellent), and that?s not because I?m easily pleased either! The first set I had done were only taken at 1.0mp setting and to be honest I couldn?t tell the difference between those and normal prints from a 35mm compact!

If you?re thinking of a point and shoot digital camera you would do well to have a look at this one?

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