Perfect for use with eBay! (Fujifilm Finepix A330)

Member Name: Deru

Product:	Fujifilm Finepix A330
Date:	29/12/07 (102 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great picture quality, Easy to use, features, Low price, build quality, battery life

Disadvantages: Slow shutter speed.16MB memory card. Lacks accessories

FUJIFILM FINEPIX A330 3.2MP DIGITAL CAMERA

The 3.2mp count is a bit on the low side these days but the A330 still performs well and the pictures it takes is still excellent quality. It originally cost me £99 but should be a lot less if you find it today. The camera is silver, charcoal grey with a spot of metallic blue. It's made of plastic, and metallic in some areas. It has a viewfinder, flash, 1.5" LCD display and a sliding lens cover, which is used to turn the camera on and off. It's light, even with the two AA batteries inside weighing around only 200g. The LCD screen is burrowed down so it's not as easily scratched since it's not as exposed. I've not dropped the camera so don't know how durable it is. Battery life seems pretty good and lets you take over 150 pictures. I would recommend buying good quality rechargeable batteries to save money. The camera has a discharge batteries function so you can discharge the power so you can recharge the rechargeable batteries from empty, which makes them last longer next time they are used.

ACCESSORIES

The A330 came with a hand strap, 16MB card, 3.5mm jack to Video Composite cable, and a 1m USB cable and cradle adapter. The video cable is used to connect the camera to your TV to view your pictures on your TV. To do this, just connect it up and switch to view mode. You can set the camera to flick through all your pictures automatically and it can even to cool transition effects between images.

The camera did not come with a camera case but I managed to get a £9.99 thrown in for free since the sales person wasn't able to price match the price down to £93.99. The DC power adapter and cradle need to be purchased separately, although they are both optional. The cradle adapter included is used with the cradle but it's only for those who buy the cradle. It would be better to use DC power if uploading pictures directly from the camera via the USB cable or if viewing pictures on the TV. I don't' have any complaints here since the price is pretty good.

MEMORY

The camera uses the slightly more expensive XD picture memory card. It has no internal memory but comes with a 16MB Fujifilm branded card. 16MB is tiny in terms of digital photography and can only fit 33 pictures at the lowest setting or 10 pictures on the highest and various other numbers with the settings in between. Anyway, I bought a 128MB XD card for £22 (fits 275 low quality pictures or 84 pictures at the highest setting) at the time but they're cheaper nowadays.

SHOOTING MODES

- Night - As it suggests, this is for taking pictures at night time.
- Sport - For moving objects using a quicker shutter speed.
- Portrait - For portraits of people. Skin tones show up better.
- Scene - Provides crisp clear shots of the sceneries such as buildings and mountains. Flash does not work in this mode as it's assumed you're taking pictures in daylight.
- Manual - Lets you set exposure compensation and white balance settings.
- Movie - Record AVI movies 320x240 (max time 60 sec.) or 160x120 (max time 240 sec).
- Automatic - Everybody's favourite mode. No nonsense, just point and shoot!

TAKING PICTURES

Turn the camera on, wait 4 seconds and just point and shoot in Auto mode. You can press the Display button to mark the centre with a cross and box, press again to display a grid. Pressing the button down half way focuses on whatever is in the centre. This auto focus means that the camera does the hard work for you and you can take pictures from any distance from your target. It's really simple to use. As with most digital cameras, you can turn the flash on and off. You can set it to automatic so it decides whether there's enough light for a shot. On top of that, there's also a red eye reduction option so the people in your pictures don't look like they've been possessed by Satan.

Unfortunately, the shutter speed is not as fast as I'd like it to be. I did a little test with a remote control car. Pressed the button half way and then fully when it got to a line in the middle that I had drawn, but the A330 was unable to capture the car before it got out of the frame. It caught the trail of light though. Even in 'Sport' mode, the picture taking speed is not up to scratch.

It takes about 1-2 seconds after taking a picture before you can take another. This isn't too long but some other entry level cameras have a 'burst' mode where it takes consecutive pictures quickly by holding down the button. This is good for more chance of catching certain fast moments.

The view finder and the pictures this camera takes aren't as wide as some of the more expensive cameras so you will just have to step back for group pictures with lots of people. Some picture modes (i.e. Night) have a very, very slow shutter speed so you will need to hold the camera very still or use a tripod. It takes a painfully slow 5 seconds to take pictures with those settings. Move and you spoil the picture. Once the pictures are taken, they will be in JPEG format with the .jpg extension.


SOME OF THE FUNCTIONS

The camera has 3x optical zoom and 3x digital zoom. Optical zoom zooms in with hardly any quality loss whereas digital zoom simply enlarges images thus decreasing image quality. After zooming to the maximum of optical, it then goes into digital zoom.

The most important function for me is the Macro function, which allows you to take clear close-up pictures. I think this is excellent quality and ideal for taking pictures of small items close-up. Great for those pictures for eBay. The Trimming and magnifying functions allows you to trim your pictures to get rid of bits you don't want. Additionally, you can delete frames, protect them, set print order, and do lots of other things with this camera. You can even use it as a webcam! It has an excellent number of features, although I didn't see the option to stamp the date and time on the pictures.

PICTURE QUALITY

The picture quality is excellent. Night mode images are bit blurry and orangey but it picks up what it can't in normal modes. Pictures in normal conditions look superb. Pictures taken at the maximum quality setting are 2016x1512 pixels and are approximately 1.5MB in size. Pictures taken using the lowest setting are1280x960 pixels and are around 700KB in size.

Video quality isn't that great and movie length is limited. This feature is more a gimmick than anything else and it doesn't even record sound which is a real let down.

TRANSFERRING PICTURES

Transferring the pictures to your PC couldn't be easier. Just install the software, connect the camera to an available USB port, turn the camera on (if not already on) and browse the removable drive that appears and move/copy your pictures across to your computer. Transfers are quick via the USB connection but not as quick as USB 2.0. You also have the option of transferring the pictures directly from the card using a card reader. This means you don't have to waste your battery power if you don't have the DC power adapter. It would also be quicker if you had a USB 2.0 reader.


VERDICT

It's a bit dated now with only 3.2 megapixels but it still takes great pictures. It's not for the professionals but superb for eBay listings, holiday snaps and general family and friends snapshots. The number of modes makes it great for all sorts of situations although not so good for fast moving objects. The shutter speed is a bit slow for that, even when in 'sport' mode. The time from turning on to the time of taking pictures is pretty good. I would have liked more accessories to be included but it was probably not possible for that price at the time. However, if you were to find this camera today, it would be a lot cheaper. Picture quality is superb and the Macro function is excellent for close-ups. Overall, it's an excellent camera for the price and I definitely recommend it to those who want a basic or entry-level digital camera for fun or general use. If not this one, then definitely one of the newer models from the Fujifilm Finepix range. They go up to around 10MP now.

Thanks for reading!

Summary: A bit dated now but is still a fine entry level digital camera

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