ok but not great
Written: Feb 24 '04
|
Product Rating:
|
|
| Ease of Use: |
 |
|
| Durability: |
|
|
| Battery Life: |
 |
|
| Photo Quality: |
 |
|
| Shutter Lag |
|
|
|
Pros: Cheap, optical zoom, decent resolution, good pictures
Cons: xd card, poor web cam, no tv out, no mic, bulky
The Bottom Line: All things considered I think you'll be better off with something else. It's not the worst cam tough
|
|
|
| bobbyslav's Full Review: FUJIFILM FinePix 2650 Digital Camera |
This is my second digital camera, I had a similar HP 2.1 megapix one before, but returned it because it didn't have an optical zoom. That was one of the main reasons i decided to keep this Fuji. The other one was the price and the resolution. 2.0 mp is plenty for digital photos to use on the web and occasional printing. If you do want good quality pictures though a higher resolution would be much better.
For the most part I do like this cam. It's fairly easy to use and takes decent pictures. It is kind of tricky though to get the best out of it. It has to modes of focusing - one is automatic - you push the shot button all the way right away and it is supposed to focus automatically as it shoots. The second way is so called manual - you push the shot button half ways and it focuses on whatever is in the center of the screen, which is also indicated on the screen with a little square that zooms on the object. I've found to get better result with the manual focus every time. Especially when using the self timer. Even so though a lot of the time some or all of the objects in the final image come out slightly blurry and out of focus. The light balance could be better too. As far as image quality goes I'd have to say the HP took better picture, but it was less convinient and also cost about twice more for the same resolution and less features.
There are several other things I am not to crazy about on this cam. First the memory card. It is some obviously new format - xd card, or something like that, which seems like only fuji uses and makes. Thus it is not really compatible. I've yet to find a photo printer with memory card slots, or a memory card reader for your computer, which accepts those cards. Plus they are kind of expensive and not easy to find. On the positive side the card that camera comes with is slightly larger than most other brands. Larger in terms of capacity I mean. I think you get something like 32 mb compared to the usual 8 in other brands. As far as physical size this card is tiny and seems durable so it's not a bad thing but wish it was more popular with other equipment.
The other thing I am missing is the video out so you can watch the images on your tv. A mic to record voice to go with the video clips would've been nice too, but I guess you can't expect too much when you don't want to spend too much.
Now my main complaint. One of the main reasons I even bought this cam was the fact that you can use it as a web cam for video conferencing as well. I had an old web cam which is not very compatible with my new windows XP computer and my computer freezes all the times when I turn it on. So I was very excited to have a new web cam as a bonus to having a digital cam. However, the sensitivity of this cam is not very good, because there is never enough light in the room for it to pick up a good image, and its own flash would not light up during the web cam mode. So in the end one of the most important features on the cam to me is pretty much useless, because you need pretty much a spot light in your face to get a viewable image in the web cam mode. Very disapointing. So is the size of the thing - it's kind of bulky.
Well in conclusion I have to say: I am not sure why, but I kept this cam. I rarely keep products that I am not completely satisfied with. A few months after it's return period I saw a 3mp Kodak on a after Thanksgiving sale for the same price, and I regreted keeping it, but it was too late.
So here's my advice: Wait for the after Thanksgiving sale and get a 3 mp Kodak, then write to me and let me know if it's any better. :-)
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 99
This Camera is a Good Choice if You Want Something... Easy Enough for Anyone to Use
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
bobbyslav
|
 - Top 1000 |
|
Member: Bobby L
Location: Columbia, SC, USA
Reviews written: 131
Trusted by: 4 members
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.