The FUJI MX 1700 digital camera is quite frankly a great buy, especially as they can be found for 300 pounds mail order.

Its about the size of a small Walkman and comes with a usefull carry pouch. Once in your hand, the MX 1700 hundred feels great. Its very solid and feels like it will last for years. The brushed aluminium look also adds to the quality appeal.

The camera comes with a 16mb smartmedia card. This is ok, but I found a 32mb card for approx 50 quid extra was a usefull extra. The picture quality can either be 640X480 or 1024X768. You also have the option of fine medium or low picture quality. As you can imagine, the lower the quality/size you go for the more pictures you can take. However I find the 1024X768 pictures much more satisfying.

The camera comes with a 3 x zoom and a 2 x digital zoom. The latter I consider a waste of time, if you have a copy of Photoshop or Paintshop Pro.

Some other features include a handy rappid shot facility. This enables you to hold your finger down and take 9 in a row, but only in 640X480 mode. This is great for action shots. There are also a number of filters and flash modes to play with.

The camera comes with a ni cad and charger. The battery life is very good and it charges back up in a few hours.

My only gripe is the time it takes to upload onto your pc. You really need to leave it alone for a good hour. A disk adapter is available to speed things up for an extra 50 quid.

You could spend more on a camera, but I really think the cost starts to out weigh the features beyond this price