Epinions.com 
Join Epinions | Learn More! | Sign In   
           
Home > Electronics > Digital Cameras > FUJIFILM FinePix A500 Digital Camera
FUJIFILM FinePix A500 Digital Camera

FUJIFILM FinePix A500 Digital Camera
Overall Rating: Product Rating: 3.5
Ease of Use:
Durability:
Battery Life:
Photo Quality:
Shutter Lag

Compare Prices Read Reviews (9) View Details Write a Review
<< Back to All Reviews About the Author

Fuji A500 - A cheap buy

Written: Jan 30 '07 (Updated Feb 02 '07)

Product Rating: Product Rating: 2.0
Ease of Use:  
Durability:  
Battery Life:  
Photo Quality:  
Shutter Lag  
Pros: Cheap - Small - AA Batteries

Cons: Bad picture quality - XD Card - Slow operations

The Bottom Line: Cheap camera good for casual shots. I suggest it as a disposable one or in case you have a SLR waiting somewhere in the house for serious photos.

Compare Prices ($299 - $299 from 1 store)
at Amazon Marketplace
eiapoce's Full Review: FUJIFILM FinePix A500 Digital Camera
This is a compact digital camera from Fuji featuring the dreaded infamous Fuji SuperCCD. A brief intro on the inner workings of the sensor are needed. In order to reduce prices on cameras the manufacturers are trying to

1) Reduce sensor size to contain costs.
2) Squeeze as many pixels as possible on the already small area and claim a ridiculous high pixels count.

Whatever physicians are not decided yet if light is made of waves or photons one thing is clear: you need some surface to receive it and convert to a intelligible signal. The results of the manifacturer's policy on the other hand produce small sensitivity (noise in all the pictures) problems in declared picture quality.

Fuji excels in these tasks. The unfortunate SuperCCD has a bare 3.1 million pixels (NOT A 5.1 Mega pixel then ) disposed as hexagons to save space! This allows Fuji to claim 5.1 mega pixel after interpolating the sensor output. Of course the result can’t compete with any actual 5.1 megapixel camera. It can maybe compete with a 3 Mpxel. This is particularly noticeable when you recompress the pictures with a graphic program (like photoshop) and usulallu save half the space on disk while retaining the same quality.

ACTUAL CAMERA REVIEW
The camera is very compact. I noticed it does actually feel good in my hand. It's rather easy to use and the menu is nice. On the positives sides it uses 2AA batteries and it can come handy if you happen to run out of juice during your shooting.

Either the sensor is bad or the lens are under sized, it just doesn't get enough light to shoot noise free pictures. I won't say that the quality is bad but they are not made for enlargements. Pictures taken even at the lowest ISO and in full light show some noise in the midtones. Night shooting is poor and the menus won't help much because you can't get into aperture times. (There is a manual mode but you can set just exposure and White Balance)

Focussing speed is slow. This tricks most people, specially beginners, to shoot pictures at their feet rather than the subject. The problem is worsened because the screen freezes when the button is pressed half-way tricking people into thinking that the photo has been taken (instead the camera only focused).

When charging the flash the LCD is turn off so you can't take advantage of the extra time to compose the next shot. Did I mention that the flash takes ages to charge? You can expect pauses up to 4 seconds.

Finally movie mode is ridiculous . 10 FPS at 320*240 without sound. This is worse than a 10 year’s old webcam –The lack of sound makes it superfluous.


Recommended:
No

Amount Paid (US$): 140
This Camera is a Good Choice if You Want Something... Fool-Proof for Absolute Beginners
Comments on this Review
 Read all comments (1)
 Write your own comment
eiapoce

Epinions.com ID:
eiapoce
Reviews written: 42
Trusted by: 1 member

<< Return to top
<< Back to All Reviews

1 store Store Rating Price
Fantastic prices with ease & c... (In stock)
5.0-megapixel CCD captures enough detail for photo-quality 13 x 17-inch prints 1.8-inch LCD display; 3x Fujinon optical zoom lens Super CCD sensor enh... More at Amazon Marketplace
Amazon Marketplace
Store Rating: 3.0
Showing 1 of 1 store
   View all deals       Why are these stores listed?
Read the Buyer's Guide   Use the Wizard  



Related Search Terms   
fujifilm a500 digital camera 28808181 finepix a500 fujifilm finepix a500 refurbished fugi a500 fujicamera fuji 500 camera fuji a500 digital camera fuji finepix a500 fugi finepix a500 camera portable usadigital frames fuji f450 5mp digital camera optical zoom camera fuji cameras digital a500 fuji a500 fuji a 500 digital camera finepix a500 digital camera refurbished fuji fine pix cheap digital camera

Subscribe to More Reviews on Digital Cameras
Get the RSS Feed: - Add to My Yahoo!: Add to My Yahoo! - Add to Google Homepage: Add to Google

Subscribe to eiapoce's Reviews:
Get the RSS Feed: - Add to My Yahoo!: Add to My Yahoo! - Add to Google Homepage: Add to Google

Help | Member Center | Message Boards | Site Rules | User Agreement | Privacy Policy | Site Index | Topic Index  
About Epinions | Careers | Contact Epinions | Advertising  

Epinions | Shopping.com | Rent.com | Free Classifieds | Price Comparison UK

Shopping.com Network © 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc. Trademark Notice

Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources,
so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.