Customer Reviews

Fujifilm FinePix A200 2MP Digital Camera

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Overall, I think this camera is great for a beginner or someone who wants a knock around snapshooter for a very reasonable price.
It handles certains photography aspects surprisingly well. It uses the XD picture storage card which is a new technology shared with Olympus. These cards are tiny and I mean tiny. They're almost *too* small.

Pros

- Surprisingly good pics for such a small lens.
- Excellent metering. Most images show very well formed histograms.
- Very fast start up times.
- Shutter lag not an issue.
- Great LCD for this price range, nice and bright and good detail.
- Ability to change exposure EV +/-
- Ability to select different white balances
- Surprisingly good macro shots as long as you stay at 4"
- Flash auto meters very well for macros
- Extremely simply menus
- Built-in Lens protector

Cons

- while the pictures are good, they do exhibit some noise.
- it is very small, but won't quite fit in your jean's pocket without activating the power switch.
- this camera is fixed focus. That means it's focus is preset to infinity and it stays there. This means that subjects closer than a few feet will not be very sharp. It also means the camera relies on a vast depth of field to achieve picture sharpness. Therefore, the largest aperature you get is 4.6 and that means...
1. This camera requires good lighting.
2. It is not a very good indoor camera as the flash is not particularly powerful.
3. Again because of the largest aperature being 4.6, indoor movies will suffer unless it is very bright in the room.

- No sound with the movies.
- Since it is a small camera, it uses only 2 AA batteries which means battery life isn't fantastic. But that's the tradeoff with a very small camera.

Overall, if you know what to expect and are aware of the limitations, I believe you will be pleased considering the price. The trade off here is indoor and low light performance, it just isn't there but given good lighting, the pictures are very good. With a 2mp camera, you can create decent 8 x 10 pictures and excellent 5 x 7's as well as excellent 4 x 6's.

For the price- great camera.

I bought this camera for my 17 year old son for chanukah. He wanted to take pictures with his friends wherever he went. The camera looked small and seemed to be well designed. It is! This camera hardly weighs anything and can fit anywhere. The controls are easy to use and the instructions are not difficult to follow. When I used the camera the screen seemed a bit dark (in a poorly lit area) but the images were excellent. The USB cable allows him to download and share with friends quickly. The lens is covered when the camera is off which is important for a teenager who takes the camera with him often. I'm also amazed by the new xd card. It is incredibly small but holds a lot of images. I recommend purchasing atleast one extra xd card and carrying extra AA batteries. So far I'm really impressed and my son is very happy with his gift.

I got this camera for a Christmas present, so I haven't had it long enough to comment on how durable it is, though it seems sturdy enough. All the parts have a nice feel, and it's light but not too light.

I went through my first set of batteries after taking more than 100 shots, many in low light with the flash.

The flash is fine for illuminating your subject but the rest of the room may remain dark, especially if the wall is far away and the room is not bright to begin with. Low light shots without the flash tend to have a reddish tinge and you have to be careful to hold the camera steady. I've been able to hold it steady by hand, having about half the shots I take that way work, and the other half come out blurry.

The controls are easy to use and intuitive. I figured almost everything out just by fooling with the camera, though I had to consult the manual for flash modes. I wish I could turn of the "are you sure you want to do this" messages for some of the functions to let me do things like lock a frame with one button push instead of two. A very minor complaint.

Colors in normal light conditions are good, and the camera does avoid the washed out or metallic looking highlights I've seen in other digital cameras. Also blessedly absent is the pause between pressing the button and getting an exposure that a friend's camera has. With this camera, you press the button and that's the image you get, not an image from a second later.

I still have just the 16MB card the camera came with, which holds 24 of the highest quality photos. That's more than it sounds, because you can throw away shots you don't like. For me this means 24 shots is equal to about 3 or 4 rolls of film, so I'm in heaven. I'm experimenting with shots that I'd never try with a film camera and having a ton of fun. When I go on a road trip I'll spring for a bigger memory card.

My main annoyance is that after you take a picture with the flash the LCD goes blank for a couple seconds. I'm also miffed that the digital zoom doesn't work in highest quality mode (you can only zoom if your picture is being taken in a lower quality mode). This makes sense, I just wish the product description had mentioned it.

Reading through the reviews I've noticed that a lot of the problems I've been having have been mentioned (reddish tint, background dark, inside pictures come out not well at all if there's not a LOT of light, and if you don't have the flash on, they come out pretty blurry). The way I get good indoor pics with this is to go into my well lit bathroom, stand it on a shelf, and take a picture with the like 10 second wait mode (I can't remember what it's called, but you push the button and 10 seconds later it takes the pic)BUT this eats up the battery like crazy. I wouldn't say it's a bad digital camera, but I bet there's better out there in the same price range, especially if you know what you're looking for, which I don't (first digi cam, bought Fuji on advice from a photographer). It has a great LCD screen and the controls are very easy to figure out, but for me it's just not convenient. The appeal of a digital cam is that you can take a picture whenever without worrying about film, but these pictures just don't turn out well for me. I tried the movie mode once and it was DARK. This camera's biggest problem is the lighting (at least in my opinion) but there are some cool features I will admit (but then again, first digi cam). I paid 200 for it, so maybe if I had bought it at the lower price they have offered here it would have gotten a better review.

At first glance I was glad that it is so small that it can fit into my pocket easily. It is light, even with two AA bateries. The appearance is cute. All my friends like the look.

But there are some shortcomings. 1. as most digital cameras, it eats batteries. It is OK if you do not take extremely many photos; 2. the memory not compatible to any others; 3. it only has good picture quality under sunshines; 4. if you have extra money, you should go for a camera with some zooming.

I had and tried several digit-cams and can say that you cannot find a better camera for this price.

Pros:
+ Great value, low price
+ Easy handling
+ Portability, light weight
+ Great Fuji colours, good auto white balance
+ Fast shutter response, close to film cameras
+ Control over exposure, flash and pre-programmed white balance
+ It uses AA's, great battery life
+ Changig between images in playback mode doesn't take hours
+ Excellent prints from the photos

Cons:
- Images noisier than competition (but they are more expensive also)
- Images too much compressed, therefore less detail, no control over jpeg compression (but this is the same with most Fuji models unfortunately)
- No control over ISO
- Low resolution LCD, too dark in low-light
- No optical zoom (but at this price it's ok)
- The camera has a cheap feel to it (but again, at this price it's ok)
- Weak flash for outdoor night shots, but enough for smaller room shots
- Flash recharge time takes a few seconds, camera freezes (but this is the same with most Fuji models unfortunately)
- It uses expensive XD-cards
- Sluggish zooming and panning in playback mode
- No sound in video

I highly recommend this camera for beginners or to those who doesn't want to spend more on a digital camera.
I've read many negative reviews due to it's bad photo indoors. Okay, it's not a Canon G3. At first I thought the same, but then set the controls to manual, set the exposure up to the highest value and then shot the picture. The end result was much better than in full auto mode. So my advice is indoors and in low-light set the exposure manually, you'll be glad you did I promise.
The colours are well balanced, and the prints come out great, no matter how noisy the images are, you won't notice that on the photo paper.
This model is now out of sale, but if you can find a second-hand one at a good price don't be afraid to buy it, it's an excellent buy.

The A-200 is a very easy camera to use. Once you put the batteries in set the clock all you have to do is point and shoot.It is very compact. You can take it anywhere. Once your comfortable with the A-200 you can try handling some of the settings yourself, if you want ot try different effects.
It's a great camera to use for auction items as well.
If you haven't figured it out by now I strongly recommend the
Fuji A-200.

I got this camera for my 17th birthday last summer, and it's great. As much as I'd love to have a Canon Powershot, it's a bit out of my price range. All the people who think that using the LCD screen runs out the batteries after "2-4 pictures" are lying to you. I bought rechargable batteries from radioshack, and I've taken up to 400 picture without the batteries needing to be changed. This is a good camera with good quality in good lighting. In dark or overcast situations, it can look a bit grainy, but that's easily photoshopped. I recommend that when uploading, plug it into the wall with a digital camera adapter, because uploading sucks all battery power right out. I recommend this for someone who hasn't owned a digital camera before, or for someone that wants good quality at a not-so-crazy price.

I sold my five year old Agfa ePhoto camera in order to upgrade and get something with a better zoom, user friendlyness, size & battery life. Here is what I got:

This camera is definitely light weight, user friendly & has a great battery life! But, the zoom leaves a lot to be desired. But what could I expect from a [...] purchase?? I looked around all over the net to find a deal and this was it!

For the money, this camera is worth every penny. Will recommend to anyone who wants to save money and buy a camera that is hassle-free.

My wife lost our digital camera on a trip. I wanted an identical camera as a replacement. Through Google I found a used camera of the same model for sale on Amazon. Everything went efficiently, and the new used camera appears to be as good as new. As it's the very same model as the one that was lost, there's no new adapter or software necessary to work with my computer. We are thus quite satisfied.