A Good Buy (Fujifilm MX-1700)

Member Name: GeordieJohn

Product:	Fujifilm MX-1700
Date:	11/08/00 (55 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Compact

Disadvantages: Fine detail in pictures is lost

Having had my camera for around nine months now, I am quite satisfied with it. One of the best things about it is that it comes with a complete package: rechargeable battery, charger cum mains adaptor, soft carrying case. Mine also came with an 8MB Smartmedia card, not the 4MB I sometimes see advertised.

The zoom facility is very useful. As with most digital cameras, the LCD preview is invisible in bright sunlight, and the optical viewfinder doesn't give an accurate impression of how the picture will be framed.

As other people have commented, battery life is fairly short. In warm weather and if I don't use the LCD much, I can easily get 20 or more shots out of one charge. However, this type of battery performs poorly in cold weather, and you may find you need to keep the camera in a warm inside pocket when not in use.

Picture quality is reasonable but far from exceptional. For portraits it's ideal, a slight soft-focus effect and a slightly warm colouration contributing to a rather flattering impression. When photographing distant cityscapes, its limitations become clearer: fine detail in the distance is not resolved: church spires etc. look ragged or disappear.

Finally, as the camera has only a serial port (rather than the faster USB) for downloading images to a PC, there can be a long wait before you see your pictures.

Summary: