Great little camera (Fujifilm Finepix A210)

Member Name: antibus

Product:	Fujifilm Finepix A210
Date:	09/07/04 (159 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: small and light, good photos, easy to use

Disadvantages: battery indicator could be improved, display poor in bright light, webcam poor

This is my second Fuji Finepix, the first having come to a sad end on a trip to Robben Island, when the promised 'light spray' on the boat turned into a deluge.

I opted to replace my previous model, a Finepix 2600 with the A210. The specs are pretty much identical: 3x optical, 10x digital zoom, 2megapixels (they've done something clever to bump up the effective pixels recorded), and the same modes of operation -- auto and manual providing scope for adjusting white balance, as well as a great macro mode.

The pixel spec may look low compared to newer models coming out but: I've made perfectly good 10 x 8 prints, and mostly you will send pictures by email anyway, right? You will only wind up making them smaller to save bandwidth anyway.

Having had the 2600 before and quite closely studied its user interface, I can say that a number of small improvements have been made:

Noticeably, the macro feature is now available from a button press rather than buried in a menu, and the flash mode (on/off/auto/red-eye) is also now through button control. This is pretty safe, as one doesn't tend to accidentally press these buttons. The screen can also now be turned off by a button press rather than through a menu, though can also be disabled that way.

The menu system has fewer layers, though some options may be missed due to a need to scroll through longer lists and sideways to bring up further option menus. They are also prettier and animated (not annoyingly).

There is also now a video out connection, which is handy for playback on a tv. The card is the newer xd card as opposed to the slower smartmedia. Battery life is pretty good. A day's shooting with the screen mostly off is quite possible, and with a spare pair of batteries in hand (recharger not supplied with this model but now widely available) there is no need to worry too much. I do still manage to run out of juice, because the battery low war
ning only tends to come on when the situation is desparate. My first step when setting up is to turn off the annoying beep confirmation of button presses.

Video is without sound, and not high resolution, not particularly recommended on this count, but this camera takes great photos in auto mode, particularly close-ups and
macro mode. There is a slight tendency to wash out in bright light, but this can be corrected by post-processing (on a pc) so it is not a great worry.

As a webcam, I do not recommend this camera. It is not good in low light at all, but I consider this a bit of a gimmicky feature anyway.

The provided software allows basic image editing operations, cropping, brightness adjustment, red-eye etc. The ImageMixer software allows you to mix still photos video and music, which is very nice, until you try to burn a cd and find it doesn't work. (The software should produce VCD format CDs.) I advise testing whether it works with your cd burner before investing days producing shows, as I did. Even though my burner was on their list of supported drives, and even though I installed their updates, the software would not burn a cd. Big waste of time.

The screen is of average size for a camera of this sort and handy for reviewing your pictures, or even playing them back as a slideshow (another new feature) but of limited use in bright light (outside). There is a tendency when using the tiny viewfinder to have your face up against the screen, but it is not uncomfortable. (Just means you may find yourself wiping the screen a lot to keep it clean.)

Best of all, it fits easily in your pocket and is light, ready to whip out. The operation is quiet (when the beep is turned off). The recharge time inbetween photos is adequately quick.

This is a great little camera. Don't be put off by the low price! It is less than half what I paid for the same spec a year ago.

Summary: