109 of 110 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Takes great pictures, September 23, 2006
This review is from: Fujifilm FinePix F650 6.0 MP Digital Camera with 5x Optical Zoom (Electronics)
I had an old Fuji 3.2 MP that took great pictures but was big and had a delay when you snapped the picture that made it difficult to take fast action shots, good for portrait type shots though.
I wanted a subcompact with better responsiveness and same or better quality. I bought the Casio Exilim Z60. It has a ton of features and is the thinnest on the market. At 6 MP I thought it would have all the quality of my old Fuji, but I was wrong. The pictures were grainy, even with some of the mid level ISO ranges. Anti shake did not make a big difference and the high ISO settings useless.
It was hard to find reviews for the F650, since it is reletively new. I found a few and decided to try it, since I had good luck with Fuji.
This camera only goes up to 400 ISO and does not have a lot of advanced features, but does not need them. The QUALITY of the sensor and the lense are fantastic. There is no distortion or barrelling at the edges of the picture like the Casio.
The 5x zoom is very usefull, and I noticed it pans out a little further than the Casio.
The pictures are gorgeous. The colors are better, there is better depth, and the graininess is gone. You can actually zoom and crop.
PROS: 5x zoom, great quality shots, 3" LCD, simple to use
CONS: Large but pocketable subcompact, design not as sexy as Exilim, XD cards not as cheap as others
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89 of 91 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
FANTASTIC & VERSATILE little camera, December 21, 2006
This review is from: Fujifilm FinePix F650 6.0 MP Digital Camera with 5x Optical Zoom (Electronics)
I am THRILLED with my new camera, which I've been using for the past few weeks now! (I'm only going to cover the highlights of this little gem, and respond to erroneous critiques that I've read.)
I have the Fuji Finepix 3500 also, which is a semi-pro camera with multiple lens, that I absolutely love. But since it's now 2 years old it only has 3M pixs (not that that makes any difference for those of us who are not taking pro pictures)and I found this camera (various settings all the way up to 6.2M pixels) [...]. I went for it because I wanted a pocket/purse camera (the 3500 is like a 35mm Nikon in size)that didn't weigh a lot - it weighs only 0.7 oz with the battery & xD card on board. 4"L x 2.5"H x 1"D. The lens retracts when it's off, so it's very compact.
I was intrigued with the fact that with this camera I could take up to 9 min sound videos (only 1 minute on the 3500) and it still had all the shooting modes for portrait, landscape, sports, night, fireworks, sunset, snow, beach, museum (no sounds and flash suppressed), and party!! That's twice as many as my other camera. It also does most of the things that the bigger camera does, and number of things my other camera doesn't do. It has a THREE inch viewing screen. This is SO great for those of us who now require reading glasses. I can actually manage without them :)
It also has 32MB of memory on board! So if you're xD card runs out, it will carry the rest in the camera. Or if you're not taking huge amounts of pics or going to use the video for more than a minute or two, you can go without the xD card (16MB comes with it). I use a 512MB because then I do longer videos and have hundreds of pictures when I'm travelling.
Some have complained in reviews that it doesn't take good low light pictures. Well, I took pics of my Christmas tree under candle light with flash suppressed that came out fantastically! Taking the same shot with the flash on but no other lights in the room, it came out like daylight! I took several videos indoors under ambient light and the pictures were fabulous and the sound really fine.
Another complaint was that it only goes to ISO 400. Now how many users even know what that means, and for those of us that do, how many are actually going to need anything beyond that? Who wants to be lugging a tripod around. Rather defeats the purpose of a pocket camera, don't you think? It has several ISO settings, 7 settings for white balance including "automatic", and you can set it to "continuous" so that you can shoot quickly with a 1.2 second recovery, numerous exposure (appeture) settings. Shooting distances from 4 inches to infinity. It has a self-timer and plenty of manual control for those who enjoy nature shots and close-ups -- and I'm only ten pages in on a small but thick manual!
You can download to computer or directly to printer (it has Picbridge). Or you can put the xD card in any electronic device that will accept it to transfer the pictures, or print them, that way.
The other complaint I read was that it doesn't delete all pictures at once, but only one at a time. YES, YOU CAN. You just push the little menu button on the back instead of pressing the < > arrows (which do them individually), go to the second Setup icon and scan down to Format, press Ok, and they'll all erased in one go.
You can also see all your photos at once in thumbnail format! It will sort by date also. You can also do various editing while in playback format.
As with my other Fuji, this camera has so many functions, that I will never use them all! The battery, I understand lasts a long time (set it in "powersaver" mode when you setup the camera). I also use the AC adaptor from my other camera, which of course works with this one, when I'm downloading or doing any lengthy functions because then you're not depleting the battery. I'm also going to buy an additional battery to have on hand.
The camera comes with the USB cord, AV cable to plub directly into a monitor, Li-ion battery, battery charger, 16MB xD card, wrist strap, Fuji Finepix software, and a thick, easy to read manual -- the AC adaptor is additional.
Bottom line -- the complaints I've read are all not true and seem to be stemming from not bothering to read the manual. EVERYONE NEEDS TO AT LEAST SCAN THE MANUAL.
For those of you who want a camera with ease of use, a lot of potential (more than 95% of us will ever use), that takes great pictures and videos, is small and light weight, then this your camera.
I can't recommend this camera enough!!
UPDATE: February 12, 2007
I am even happier with this camera now that I've been using it more! I've shot about 100 pics and about 15 minutes of multiple videos, and it's hardly made a dent in the battery (I do use the AC adaptor when downloading and deleting pics, because that saves your battery time). The picture quality is fantastic, and the video and sound are amazing!
The manual, which measures 6.5"x5" AT 146 pages, is very well written -- clear, concise, and yet it has explanatory information for those who are not camera-savvy. It has clear pictures to go along with the instructions. The length of the manual is not indicative of verbosity but of the many functions this camera possesses. The instructions are easy to understand, yet succinct.
A kind reader commented on his concern over no viewfinder. While it has taken a bit of getting used (not slamming the camera against my forehead), it has posed no problems whatsoever, and is just a matter of retraining. If you wear reading glasses, you may or may not need them depending on whether your arms are still longer enough. :)
For those of you who are old enough, look in your family album of the photo size from the late '40's and early '50's, you'll laugh when you realize that some of them are smaller than the display screen on this camera! And none are bigger than 3x3. With the early Kodak cameras, like my mother's, you had to look down into the top of the camera to frame the shot, they didn't use eye-viewers. So, I guess it proves the old saying, "everything's old that new again".
I also want to add this disclaimer. I have absolutely no association in any way, shape, or form with Amazon (other than being a constant customer), Fuji, or any vendors that sell this camera, nor I asked by anyone to hype this product. I'm just a 58 y/o female who's having a whole lot of fun with her new little gem of a camera!
Cheers,
DC
UPDATE MAY 29, 2011 - This wonderful little camera still goes EVERYWHERE with me! I will be taking it this holiday weekend on my hikes (it fits perfectly in my cargo pants pocket). The photos it takes are just outstanding. I love to take pictures of flowers and waterfalls and nature, and friends. With the exception of about four photos, all of the pictures, and both of the student comment videos, on my website were taken with this little gem, including my bio pic. It takes great videos, even in lower light indoors if you place the camera so that sunlight is coming in behind you.
It does not have 'anti-shake' ability, so you must hold the camera still. BUT! If you are in a position where you might worry about woggle, or wind is moving things about when you're trying to get a still frame, just switch it to Scene and select Sport. It uses a fast shutter speed and does the trick! I use a tripod in my classes to video certain class segments, and the sound and video are very clean!
:) healeratlarge.com
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