|
|
To print: Select File and then Print from your browser's menu
-------------------------------------------------------------- This story was printed from ZDNet Australia. --------------------------------------------------------------
|
Fujifilm FinePix A303: Are the photos fine? March 04, 2003 URL: http://www.zdnet.com.au/reviews/coolgear/cameras/soa/Fujifilm-FinePix-A303-Are-the-photos-fine-/0,139023377,120272568,00.htm
This 3-megapixel snapshooter offers a 3X zoom for a great price, but image quality and performance don't rate as highly. Inside the compact, silver-plastic body of Fujifilm's FinePix A303 lies a 3-megapixel sensor, a fully retracting 3X zoom lens, and a simple interface that even newcomers should find unintimidating. At 198g with the battery and the xD-Picture Card installed, this digital camera is lightweight enough to make the cut for ultracompact consideration. And with the price less than AU$800, the A303 has great deal written all over it. But subpar image quality and sluggish performance detract from an otherwise attractive package. Though it's a small package, the A303 provides a big, thumb-operated mode dial to select shooting, playback, movie, macro, and self-timer modes. If you think that the controls on the latest crop of ultracompacts are a bit too small, you may find this Fujifilm's buttons more manageable. We especially like the dedicated self-timer mode; it makes life much simpler when shooting a series of timer shots. You access settings for white balance and exposure compensation--as well as the camera's USB Webcam mode--through a well-designed LCD menu. As with most point-and-shoot models, the A303 delivers the best results when shooting outdoors during the daytime and indoors with flash. To get satisfactory pictures from a night time skyline, though, you'll need a camera with more manual-exposure controls than this one offers. The A303's shutter delay takes a bit of getting used to when tracking moving subjects such as passing cars; our first efforts came out blurry. The camera also imposes a five-second shot-to-shot delay, which is substantial for a 3-megapixel model. In outdoor images, colours look good, but sharpness tends to depend on lighting and degrades as afternoon changes to evening. The A303's pictures also look surprisingly noisy, with a bit of overall yellow-biased colour balance. Despite this FinePix's attractions, the Ricoh Caplio RR30 delivers better image quality for the same price.
Fujifilm FinePix A303
Copyright © 2009 CBS Interactive, a CBS Company. All Rights Reserved. |
