A stylish, budget-oriented camera that offers little in the way of creative controls, but its sound image quality and value will keep it in good stead with snapshooters.

If you've been a follower of Fujifilm cameras, one of the first observations you'll have of the FinePix A340 and is the absence of the Japanese firm's SuperCCD sensor. Although yesteryear's A310 features a 3-megapixel SuperCCD HR sensor, the updated A330 and A340 house normal interline 3- and 4-megapixel CCD sensors, respectively. We hazard that the vendor must be feeling the pinch from intense competition and has decided to use the cheaper sensors -- at least on its budget-oriented range.

Like its predecessor, the A340 won't give any of Fujifilm's F-series much competition in the sleek and slim department. Regardless, the A340 carries itself well and doesn't impart the typical budget outlook. Weighing a mere 200g with batteries and xD-Picture Card installed, this ultracompact FinePix won't ever be a burden to pack on trips.

Beyond aesthetics, the controls are well-placed and large enough to operate easily with one hand. While the A340 retains the use of slide switches for startup as with most of the firm's ultracompacts, it has sadly bowed down to cost-cutting measures. Unlike previous models, the A340's slider doubles as a lens cover which warrants additional wait time before you can pack the camera away after use -- the lens has to retract into the housing before you're able to slide the cover to protect the optics.

Expectedly, the A340 is uncomplicated to understand and use. However, while the normal snapshooter will be reasonably pleased with the simplified feature set, experienced shutterbugs will find the lack of options wanting. Notably missing are the options to set ISO sensitivity (which is still present in the A310), metering modes and manual white balance (although the A340 does have a fairly wide range of presets). We reckon these settings affect the look and feel of images to a great extent and are on our wish list to be incorporated into most point-and-shoots.

Acceding to the budget rap, the LCD screen remains at a puny 1.5 inch. Additionally, the optical viewfinder, while present, is stingy in terms of real estate and will be virtually unusable in bright sunlight. Similarly, there is no built-in speaker and microphone for full video capture and playback. This partially explains why the movie-capture function is buried deep in the menus rather than being normally accessible through a switch in the firm's higher-end ultracompacts. Strangely, the A340 also drops the continuous shooting mode that's found on the A310.

On the upside, the A340 continues to provide the useful "Rule of Thirds" display mode. For those uninitiated to photography, this simple guide can do much to help with composition.

In our tests, we found the camera's performance to be in the upper ranks for the point-and-shoot category. Startup time was a fairly perky 2 seconds, while shot-to-shot intervals without flash stayed a reasonable 2 to 3 seconds. Enabling the flash resulted in a drop to a rather sluggish 4- to 5-second cycle time, but a huge improvement over the older A310.

Autofocus performance was generally zippy, often taking less than a second for situations with adequate illumination. Sadly, typical of most cameras in this class, autofocus under low-ambient lighting was a hit-and-miss affair.

With regard to image quality, the A340 produced respectable photos that were generally clean. Colours captured were pleasing and didn't differ much from the A310's SuperCCD sensor. The camera's metering also did a commendable job. We were initially worried that the camera would be unable to take usable pictures in scenes with strong backlights due to its lack of a spot metering selection. That concern was addressed when the A340 automatically compensated for high-contrast scenes. This should definitely aid beginners who have no idea when to use what modes. Automatic white balance also proved generally adequate although some indoor lights tended to produce images which were too cool.

With a recommended retail price of AU$399, the A340 is cheaper than most 4-megapixel shooters. If you can live with the quirks of not being able to capture audio in video recordings, the annoying wait time before shutdown, and the lack of continuous capture, the A340 is a capable point-and-shoot that'll suit those uninitiated to photography or those that don't want to bother with the finer details of capture settings.

Fujifilm FinePix A340
Company: Fujifilm
Price: AU$399
Distributor: Hanimex
Phone: 1800 226 355

Copyright © 2009 CBS Interactive, a CBS Company. All Rights Reserved.
ZDNET is a registered service mark of CBS Interactive. ZDNET Logo is a service mark of CBS Interactive.