The FinePix A303 is Nice Point & Shoot Digital Camera!
Written: Feb 08 '03 (Updated Jul 14 '03)
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Pros: Easy to use with nice photo quality!
Cons: Movie mode not that great!
The Bottom Line: This is a simple to use camera that will easily will fit in a pocket or purse.
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| surferdude7's Full Review: FUJIFILM FinePix A303 Digital Camera |
The FinePix A303 is an entry-level or point & shoot camera for the person looking for a digital camera that is easy to use and produces good quality digital photos. This camera offers the new xD-Picture Card for storage that comes in a size from 16MB (megabytes) to 256MB as of now and they plan on a size all the way up to 8 Gigabytes.
This little pocket and purse carry along type camera produces an impressive quality photo all the way up to 3.2 megapixels. The camera easily fits in the palm of your hand measuring 3.8 inches wide by 2.5 inches high by 1.4 inches thick and only weighs in a little over 7 ounces with the batteries in. Retail list for the camera is $349 and can be found as low as $248 if you look at Epinions Compare Prices.
The Lens
The Fuji FinePix A303 uses an all-glass Fujinon lens that includes one aspherical element and when turned off, it retracts and is protected by the built-in lens cap.
The lens is a 5.7mm-17.1mm f/2.8-f/4.8 lens equivalent in the 35mm format of a 38mm-114mm lens.
The lens has a built-in 3x optical zoom and a digital zoom from 1.3x to 3.2x depending on the resolution it is set in.
Movies
The Fuji FinePix A303 offers you movie recordings without sound! So many lower priced digital cameras offer you the movies without sound.
You can record 60 seconds of 320 x 240 at a time or 4 minutes of 160 x 120 at a time. The frame rates are at 10 frames per second and saved in the AVI format.
The Cons for the movie mode are, no sound, the optical zoom doesn’t work during recording and the quality isn’t the best I have seen. My personal opinion is to leave the movie mode out.
Photos
The photo sizes available are 2048 x 1536, 1600 x 1200, 1280 x 960 and 640 x 480 pixels.
The 2048 x 1536 can be shot in a Fine Compression or Normal Compression with the 16MB xD Picture card included you get 12 shots in the Fine and 26 shots in the Normal modes.
The View
The FinePix A303 does give you both an optical viewfinder and a color LCD display.
This is a real image zoom viewfinder that shows you approximately 80% of the field or what you are looking at. The optical zoom works through the viewfinder but the digital zoom does not. There is no diopter adjustment!
In back of the camera you will find a 1.5-inch color LCD (approximately 60,000 pixels) for photo, movie, playback and some camera adjustments.
The Flash
The built-in flash gives you a range of 1 to 11.5 feet in the wide angle and in the telephoto range it is from 2 to 9.8 feet.
The flash gives you settings of Auto, Red-Eye-Reduction, Forced-on, Forced-off and Slow-Synchro.
Other Features
Listing other features is important so I will list features the ones I haven’t covered above.
64-zone TTL Metering
A 3.24 Megapixel CCD for images up to 2048 x 1536 pixels.
A self–timer of 10 seconds
A 9-frame and 13x zoom playback function with scrolling
DPOF-compatible
ISO sensitivity is 100 equivalent
Powered by two standard AA type batteries
Program AE, Manual mode offers exposure compensation
Seamless 3.2x digital zoom in 640x480 mode
Shooting modes: Still, Movie, Macro
Shutter speeds: Automatic 1/2 seconds to 1/2000 second
USB connectivity
White balance selectable in Manual mode
What you get!
The Fuji FinePix A303 digital camera includes the following.
A 16Mb xD Picture card
Two AA alkaline batteries
A USB cable and Hand Strap
A 131 page manual
A CD with the needed drivers for Windows and a Macintosh. Software includes, FinePixViewer, ImageMixer VCD for FinePix, DP Editor and Apple QuickTime 5.0.
Overall
The photo quality in all modes is very impressive. I printed up an 8 x 10 color photo on glossy photo paper from a 1600 x 1200 pixel photo and they photo turned out great. Remember that the 1600 x 1200 pixel is not the best the 2048 x 1536 pixel is the best. Printing a 4 x 6 inch print from a 640 x 480 pixel turned out fairly well but when I used at least a 1280 x 960 pixel photo you could see a big improvement.
For a point & shoot camera I do like the size, it is not too small and at the same time not too big! I like the idea of no lens cap to worry about since it has the built in lens cover. The built-in cover is also a plus because you know the camera is shut off when it is closed. The controls (buttons) for the camera are place in pretty good areas for easy use.
The thing I didn’t like is the shutter lag time between each shot it seemed like an eternity but I know it was less then a minute. The built-in flash produced some red-eye shots even when using it in the red-eye setting but I have seen this on almost any camera with a built-in flash.
If you want an easy to use a digital camera that produces great photos then I highly recommend the Fuji FinePix A303. Now if you want to use the movie mode I would recommend a better camera like their Fuji FinePix 2800 Digital Camera.
My Recommendations
If you buy this camera I do recommend buying a larger xD Picture card of 64MB or larger. For power I would recommend buying 4 AA rechargeable Ni-MH batteries and charger. Fuji offers an optional AC-3V AC power adapter.
Here are some of my other camera reviews!
Casio QV3000EX Digital Camera
Kodak DX4900 Digital Camera
Minolta Dimage E-201 Digital Camera
Olympus C-4040 Zoom Digital Camera
Olympus Camedia D-40 Zoom Digital Camera
Olympus Camedia D-380 Digital Camera
Pentax Optio 430 Digital Camera
Nikon Coolpix 900-s Digital Camera
Nikon Coolpix 3500 Digital Camera
Sony MVC-FD87 Digital Camera
Sony DSC-F717 Cyber-shot Digital Camera
Sony DSC-P2 Digital Camera
Olympus C-750 Ultra Zoom Digital Camera.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 279
This Camera is a Good Choice if You Want Something... Fool-Proof for Absolute Beginners
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surferdude7
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