Customer Reviews

FujiFilm FinePix A205 2MP Digital Camera w/ 3x Optical Zoom

5 star:		(41)
4 star:		(22)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

Since I'm on a college budget, I needed to get an inexpensive camera so I could take pictures during the Thanksgiving Break. My requirments were at least 2 megapixals and decent image quality. I read a number of digial camera reviews and decided to pick up the Fuji Finepix A205. My first thoughts of the camera was the bulk; it's quite thick but it is light weight. Not something you would want to stick in your pants or shirt pocket though. The buttons on the camera do feel cheap, but it was only $150 so what?

Other than those small gripes, the camera takes excellent pictures but only in well lit environments. Outdoor pictures are really nice. Indoor shots can end up grainy if there isn't alot of light and I mean A LOT OF LIGHT. The flash is only effective in close range (at least 5ft to 6ft) Anything beyond that, make sure the environment is well lit or your subject is close.

Macro mode just takes a press of the button and it works really well. There is also a movie mode, but forget about using it unless the room is very very very very well lit.

Comparing indoor shots taken with the A205 and a 3MP Sony digital camera, the A205 images were less grainy than the Sony's, but the Sony's pictures were brighter because of the better flash.

In conclusion, the Fuji Finepix A205 takes very excellent pictures outdoors and indoors in bright light or when the subject is close to the camera with the flash. I could only give it 3 stars for the poor flash performance.

This is a great camera for entry level people that have just chosen to use digital cameras. I bought this at Target at the right time and also got a gift card. The camera looks pretty neat but kinda cheap. It is very light and not that thick. The LCD is very good. Able to zoom in and span easily.

Ease of Use
This is probably the most easiest and simplest cameras on the market. There are probably about 7 buttons on the whole thing. The menu is very user compatible and the software is ok.

Picture Quality
The pictures come out very good especially for a 2mp camera. The 8x10 pics come out good.I have not yet printed a 4x6 picture but my guess is that it will come out very good. Also, make you sure you have a very good printer to really enjoy your pictures. I have a inkjet printer that prints very well but does not compare to photo printers. I am planning on buying a photo printer in a couple of weeks

Video
Video isnt that good. Of course video from a digital camera will never replace a digital camcorder. It records video without sound at 10 frames per second. That is like a almost semi-strobe quality. Video is only good if taken with alot of light. And i mean alot. One good thing is that you can hook it up to your computer and use it like a webcam. But like any webcam, you need alot of light.And you also need a MIC to talk on your PC.

Features
It comes with a very sufficient amount of features. A tv-out line out to hook upto your tv. But that is only good with a small tv. I have a big projection tv so it was little pixalated, but that doesnt affect the print. The software isnt bad. Lots of features to customize your pics anyway you want. It also comes with a new 16mb xd-card. This increases your battery life and is also faster. This camera eats up batteries but lasts longer than other digital cameras. They also give you all the wires and supplies to use right out of the box.

Cons
Dont get confused with what it says on the box. It says it comes with a dock adapter. That is just a plastic placement to attach to an optional dock. I wish the flash was a little better for wide angle shots. It would also been good if there were different photo-shot modes (ie.. nightshot, snow&sand, spotlight etc) But some of that you can do with the included software.

So in other words, this is a fantastic camera. It is fun to use everyday and also show off. I am planning on using it as my main camera for a while. Then i am considering a very high mega-pixeled camera for very large prints. Also a 35mm SLR Nikon that i have had my eyes on for a while. I love using old fashioned cameras.

I wanted an inexpensive camera with optical zoom for my wife. This camera is very simple and when used with the optional docking cradle makes learning to use digital cameras very easy. Of course the pictures at 8x10 are not as high as quality as with my Sony 717, but I could get 6 of these cameras for what I paid for my 5 mega pixel Sony. I took me 6 months to fully learn how to use my Sony. My familily is taking great pictures with this Fuji in one weekend...! I highly recommend.

This camera has worked well for me both indoors and out. It is easy to use and the user interface is staightforward and simple to navigate. It has more than enough flash/focus options for most users. I never enlarge photos so 2 MP is more than enough. Anything more is expensive overkill. It is not the most compact camera, but this is a compromise that I accept given its relatively low price.

I bought this camera recently because I was pleased with the pictures of an older version of this camera. I was looking for something lighter in weight, that would take less batteries, take great pictures and fit in my bag. Well, this camera is lighter in weight, uses less batteries, and is smaller is size. However, I just returned this camera to Amazon because it is so cheap! The picture quality (which was the most important aspect to me) was horrible! They were dark with a blue tint not matter how much I adjusted the wb or other features. There were a few outdoor picture I took that turned out well but other than that the overall quality of the pictures were unsatisfactory. Also, the camera casing itself is plastic and seems like it would break very easily. The camera is smaller but thicker. It does take only two batteries but in the month that I had it used up 8 batteries! I would not recommend this camera to anyone.

My mom has a Sony Mavica CD something or other. It takes 5 mp quality pictures and writes them on a little CD. It is a very nice camer but cost around $600. The FujiFilm A205 is an excellent camera for beginners or people who do not want to spend alot of money on a camer. The xD expansion cards for the system are inexpensive now, I just purchased a 64 mb (101 pictures) for $38 dollars at Wal-Mart. The camera does go through alot of batteries, I utilized the batteries that came with they camera 1 day after purchasing it. Spend $20 and get two rechargable (Ni-Mh) and a charger and they will last alot longer than normal Alkaline batteries. The camera does have movie mode, which is of poor quality but who buys a digital camera to make movies? It also doubles as a web-cam and you can caputure video utilizing your PC. The video functionality of this camera is poor, even through the web-cam function, unless there is alot of light. If you are buying this digital CAMERA to shoot videos then you are in the wrong category. Even though it is only 2 mp quality, the pictures are excelent in quality. I have not had any problems with dark rooms or at concerts. The flash effectivly reached around 15 feet for me. The camera comes with an adapter for the dock connector, the adapter is the little plastic piece, DON'T THROW IT OUT. Since it is FujiFilm's lower end model, there won't be alot of accesories for it. You can get the dock connector and a case for it along with extra memory. Those are all the excesories anyone really neads unless you want to take widescreen pictures, but then you would not even look at buying this camera. If you want a really high quality camera then look at spending at least $300. If you want a good quality camera at a really affordable price then get this one. My mom has an older Sony Mavica CD model and this camera takes the same quality pictures, when printed (or even on the computer monitor) pictures of the same object could not be distinguished into which camera took the picture. The FujiFilm A205 is a small, light weight camera. It is pretty thick but for the price that is the only sacrifice anyone will have to make. Is you want to spend around $100 then this camera will give you more band for your buck. I hope this review helped you.

I recently purchased the Finepix A205, and I am very happy with it's performance so far.

I was surprised when I took a close up shot of my cat and I could see the grains of sand on his fur in perfect clarity. I wasn't expecting that from a 2mp camera.

The design is a little puzzling, the height and width are fine, but the thickness is the same as the height. It's too thick, but that is a small price to pay for such a great camera.

The only other thing I do not like, and it seems to be true on all the Finepix cameras, is that, while it does record movies, it doesn't have any sound. Kind of a downside, but, I can deal with it, I wan't to take pictures, not movies. I'll buy a video camera for that.

I love using the little XD cards, I think they are great. The transfer very fast.

This camera IS NOT a battery hog, from what I have experienced. I am STILL using the 2 AA alkalines that came with the camera, and I have taken AT LEAST 200 shots, if not more, with the LCD on and the flash on. Only now am I getting the battery low light. I think that is pretty decent considering some digital cameras I have owned die on regular alkalines after 10 shots or less. I can't imagine how long the batteries will last with a couple of 2100mah NiMH's. It's also a plus that it only takes 2, rather than 4.

I don't even use the software that came with this camera. For all you XP users, this camera is great for you. All I have to do is plug it into the USB cord, or the cradle, and up pops the "What do you want windows to do" box with several different actions, I chose "Copy pictures to a folder on my computer" and I can transfer the pictures to my computer, and then delete them off my memory card. That's so much easier than going through a bunch of photo editing programs.

I also don't seem to be having any trouble with the flash in low light, I just went outside in the dark and took pictures, and took pictures of things in a dark room, and they look as if they were taken in the light. The flash seems fine to me.
This is a great camera!

I did all the research, read all the reviews and decided on the FujiFilm FinePix A205, to replace my Kodak digital which was no longer compatible with my new computer. I've had it a couple of weeks now and can't complain. I actually bought it to do minor stuff, but am finding more and more, I want to use it to take my nature photos for print.

The picture quality is not bad at all. I went to a local garden and took a beautiful shot which I've since blown up and framed. It does use batteries fairly quickly, (I needed a new set after about 20 {give or take} photos.) So to invest in rechargeable batteries is probably going to be a good idea.

I haven't used the movie clip option yet, but as far as the pics, I've actually been amazed, that for the price, the pics are clear, crisp and suitable for my amateur photography efforts. The zoom feature is not as good as I would like, but you can compensate for that somewhat, by adjusting your distance from the object you are trying to photograph.

It comes with Roxio Photo Suite, which makes editing photos easy. I like that program too. The pics load easily to the computer for easy viewing, then bring them up with Roxio to edit and print, e-mail or whatever.

I think for the price this a really good value as far as ease of use and performance.

I'm a total newbie to digital photography. I do maintain web pages for my students (college writing) and figured a good "starter" camera would be a good investment. I came across this one through an Amazon deal.

It was priced well within my budget, under $100.00, and was a nice little complete package. (Even with batteries!) Instructions were clear, and it's basically usable right out of the box. It comes with PC software that makes it easy to transfer your pics to your PC. And, a nice surprise, they even included the USB cable!

Well, it's so simple to use you think you're doing something wrong. I've had it for a couple weeks and tried both indoor and outdoor shooting. The zoom is very easy to use, and it's very simple to immediately check out your shots. It's got all the features of a moderately priced, film camera (red eye, auto focus/flash, etc.) Only personal glitch for me...there is a momentary delay between pushing the button and the actual shot, which I learned the hard way by taking shots of my daughter riding her horse. I had a couple of my daughter actually riding OUT of the frame. Still...more my mistake than the cameras. Still, this is easy to adjust to, and other pictures came out fine.

I'm no pro with photography, but this is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED for anyone wanting to cut their teeth on taking digipics. I still need to find a camera case for it, but that's easy to do. Somehow, I'm sure Amazon will manage to add accessories to my page... :-)

Try it out!

I wanted an inexpensive and fairly small 2-megapixel digital camera for vacations and outdoor use, and at less than $100, this camera is beyond what I was hoping for. This is my third digital camera, and it's by far the easiest one to use, plus the image quality is excellent. Excellent, of course, is a relative term in the field of digital cameras... like many low-end cameras, it shoots at the equivalent of 100-speed film, which makes for grainy images if you are not shooting outdoors or with a good amount of light, but the flash does a great job and it's really not hard to get good quality images. If you want to take fine art photos, you need a much more expensive camera anyway. A big plus for this one is the 3x optical zoom. Most low end digital cameras only offer digital zoom, but don't let them fool you-- digital zoom is exactly the same thing as cropping your pictures and does not actually make them better. Also, many low-end cameras have a fixed focus, which will make all of your photos come out looking rather flat. The Fuji 205, while it has no maunal f-stop (aperture control) or focus, self adjusts these things to take nice pictures with the subject in focus and the background slightly out of focus. Full manual control is nice for some things, but for point and shoot, you can't beat the simplicity of this camera. Plus, I don't have to worry too much about taking it along when I go somewhere I wouldn't want my $450 camera to go, like the beach or on a boat.

As far as battery life, please do yourself a favor if you are buying ANY digital camera and get NiMH rechargable batteries. Alkaline batteries are simply wasted in a digital camera... they are not strong enough and you are throwing your money away if you try to use them. Get a quick charger and 2 sets of batteries, and you'll be happy and save money.

Pros: a quality camera that takes good pictures at a great price.
Cons: needs lots of light, no manual controls