Easy as one, two three, (Fujifilm Finepix A350)

Member Name: marcellep

Product:	Fujifilm Finepix A350
Date:	04/12/06 (237 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Style, Quality, Compact Size

Disadvantages: None Yet

Up until the beginning of December 2005 I had been using a Fuji 2300 digital camera but unfortunately it became faulty and was beyond economical repair so I had to buy a new camera.

**What I was looking for? **

I had a budget of £200 to buy a half decent camera that would provide me with excellent quality pictures. Now it had to be easy to use, light weight and of course it had to be manufactured by the one and only Fuji. I wanted a camera that had a high pixel than 4 million as after reading many reviews that seems to be where the quality is better. Now the search began.

*Choosing the camera?

I got the good old faithful Argos book out and had a look through not convinced that I was getting the best deal and the fact that I was not able to see the camera for real before buying it I decided to forget about Argos. I went to my local boots store which has all the cameras on display and they allow you to handle them before buying. After spending the best part of an hour looking at two different camera one being this one and the other being the Fuji A345 which has a lesser specification, I decided to buy the Fuji A350 digital camera mainly because of the specification.

*Why I really bought this model over the others?

I loved the small sleek look that this camera was offering it look very modern it comparison to many other on the market. Full coated in a smooth silver finish I thought it looked the part. Not to mention the fact that it had one of the best specifications available within my budget of £200. The final decider for me was the fact it was produced by Fuji and of course that's who I wanted.

**Cost and availably

I bought mines from the boots shop at Edinburgh's Craig Leith retail park. Now boots was not the cheapest in pounds for the camera but due to the fact I got triple advantage points on that day made it very beneficial that I but it from them. I paid £149.99 for the camera and received triple points so I got 1800 points. The following places sell this camera too.

www.boots.com Brand new at £89.99(saving £33)

www.ebay.co.uk Brand New £110.00 and second hand from £69.99


**What's in the box?
Being a small camera the box is very small too, I was surprised how much was packed in to the box. Don't worry its not one of these boxes that when you take it out of the box you can't get all the bits back in. Obviously the camera comes in the box wrapped in a small plastic bag to keep in clean whilst in the box and of course placed in the right part of the egg box (inside) to stop it moving and getting damaged, you also have a superb instruction booklet which provides you with all the details and help you would ever need to know about the camera. You also have your software disk that you can't install in to your computer if required (I have not installed this), Usb cable that connects the camera direct to your pc which allows you to transfer pictures from the camera to the pc. You also have a quick start guide that consists of very basic instructions this will allow you to get the camera working real quick. In addition to the above you have a 16Mb XD memory card supplied with the camera, 2 AA batteries and a handy wrist strap. To summit all up you get everything that one shall need to get started.

**Setting up

This was made easy for me as I had a Fuji camera last time too but I am sure if you where using Fuji for the first time you would find it easy to set up for the very first time. After installing my batteries and memory card all what was left for me to do is select the quality required and set the time and date. Once these two things are done you are free to take pictures until your wee heart desires.

I was a little miffed to begin with as I could not find the slot for the memory card on the camera, I was convinced that Fuji had made a mistake and they had forget to add the sot to the camera during the manufacturing process. How wrong was I?? I know you think Robert wrong!! Never lol. Well the slot for the memory card is neatly positioned right next to the batteries which are enclosed under a little cover. Well done Fuji great idea.

Setting the time and date is very simple as you have a great large but clear LCD display to do it on, nice easy controls make the task even easier as all you need to do is scroll up and down until your happy with the dates/times then press menu/ok to save details.

As I mentioned above I have not installed the software that Fuji provided with this camera only because I have windows that allow me to transfer any pictures via USB without having to install any additional software.

I have covered the basic's of this camera when it comes to setting up but I can assure you that the setting up process is very easy in deed and I can say that Fuji have really made this camera user friendly.

**First use

I just about died when I first used this camera as I had only taken about 10 pictures and it said that the memory was full. I was like no this can't be the case, I was like how the hell can this camera only store 10 or so pictures on it. I soon realised that I was taking pictures on the highest setting being 5.2million pixels and of course I was using the memory card that Fuji provided with the camera which was only 16MB. I soon realised that I was going to have to spend more money and get another memory card for the camera. Forgetting about the memory problem that I now had I decided to transfer the pictures that I had taken on to my PC I was immediately surprised with the quality. It was super sharp and the detail to attention was just amazing, the pure quality of the first ever picture that I had taken on the camera had to be possibly the best I have ever taken with any camera I have had in the past. Now I know that this was on the highest setting but I thought I will definitely be taking pictures on the highest setting all the time. Ok now that I have taken a few pictures and even uploaded them to my PC I thought I should spend some time reading about the features and benefits (FAB).

**Taken pictures**

Ok I know I have spoken about taken pictures in the above paragraph but I have to explain in a little more detail. As soon as you switch on the camera the lens will automatically come out of the camera and that's you basically ready to take pictures. Well you can either use the viewfinder which I think can be a little hard sometimes and the fact that the camera is really small I think I look silly holding it to my eye, I know I am mad. On the other hand you have a superb LCD display which is a good size and the fact that it is crystal clear, I am still amazed with the large, bright LCD screen that this camera has. Any way back to taken picture obviously you can just get the object in sight and then click and hey presto your pictures taken and stored. But if you're like me and you often cut heads off or miss half the people out of the picture. Well this wee camera has a lovely option which will allow you to place a grid over the LCD, doing this show you where the centre of the picture is. Don't worry the grid will not show up on your picture when you print them out? It's as easy at point and shoot. Now I love the fact that you can review the pictures you have taken at any time before spending time uploading them. If you should decide you don't want to keep any of the pictures on the camera simply delete them.

**Uploading**

This is something that I thought would take a long time especially given the superb quality of the camera, how wrong was I. I uploaded 156 pictures to my computer in less than two minutes which I think is really good considering all these pictures were taken on the highest quality possible.

**Batteries**

O.k. you are supplied with two AA batteries with the camera but I am sure that they are test batteries. I had to replace the batteries within a couple of uses. I replaced them with Panasonic Extreme Power AA which has lasted until now and I have taken over 3000 pictures. I use the LCD display on every picture taken….

**Features**

There are so many features on this camera to which I will try and cover here~

• Autos flash ~ the setting that I always have on as I am never sure when to use a flash or not.

• Red-eye Reduction ~ Switch it on once and that's it done no more red eyes or that's what the instructions says. I can say that I have had a few pictures still come out with red eyes and NO that is not the morning after the night before.
Self timer~ used this a few times and been very happy with it, all I had to do was set the camera up in the correct position press the self timer and bobs your uncle you have a self portrait. 2 or 10 seconds options

• Movie recording~ found this in error actually but I was really happy with the quality of the recording. I recorded 23 seconds with sound. At this point I am not sure the max time allowed to record a video clip.

**Additional Information~

Resolution
2,592x1,944
2,592x1,728
2,048x1,536
1,600x1,200
1,280x960
640 x 480

File Formats~ Jpeg

Memory Cards~ xD Picture Card

Sutter Speed~ 2 to 1/2000 seconds

White Balance~ Fine, Shade, Fluorescent light (Daylight),
Fluorescent light (Warm White), Fluorescent light (Cool White) and Incandescent light

Lcd~ 1.7"

Shooting Modes~ Portrait, Landscape, Sports and Night modes

Dimensions~ 90.0 x 60.0 x 30.3mm

Weight~ 132g

**My conclusion**
I have to say that I would certainly recommend this camera to anyone at all; it's a lovely looking camera that is small in size but offers good value for money. I have been using the camera for a little over 1 month at the date of this review and I don't believe there is one thing I could fault on this camera. It's clear that Fuji rules the camera industry and I am certain that if Fuji continues to produce such a wonderful camera I will continue to recommend them. The LCD display on this camera is superb and the overall quality of the pictures is a little short of unbelievable. Go on go and buy it now. Picture below were all taken on this camera. Picture was taken outside and the lights on the christmas items are all flashing.... and moving

*A few extras I recommend to but these are in addition to the camera.

256 MB available from many outlets
Camera case to protect the camera whilst out and about.
Panasonic AA batteries

Thanks for reading

©Marcellep Dooyoo December 2006

Summary: A great camera at a superb price

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