Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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119 of 119 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
FinePix 2650 - a very modern camera, September 25, 2002
Fuji FinePix 2650 is my third digital camera. The first one was KB JamCam (that is sold for [$$$] today) and the second one was Kyocera KZ (that I bought for [$$$] or so). Although I had to pay slightly more this time, the improvement is obvious.The pictures are crisp and sharp with colors that are smooth and bright. Unlike the previous cameras, I do not need to adjust the brightness or the contrast of each picture using photoshop software. They look beautiful as soon as I upload them into my computer (and even on the camera's LCD display). The flash does not "wash out" the faces; the pictures taken at night look fine, too. The camera has automatic detection of the lighting and also a manual mode that allows one to adjust the "weather" and other parameters. There are also several settings for the flash (on/off/auto/red-eye-remove/night-scene). Fuji did a great job with power conservation. Two alkaline AA batteries (included) were sufficient to take about 150 pictures (including 50 shots with flash) and several short videos before the "battery low" icon appeared. The power saving features are better than they used to be even though the lens is moving constantly especially when the camera is turned off and on. This motion looks sexy and the sliding cover protecting lens is useful. Aside from the power switch attached on spring, trigger and the switch between three modes stillpix/view/video, the camera is controlled by three buttons next to display - which I would call "display on/off/grid", "enter" and "escape" - and four arrow keys to browse the menus on the LCD display. The up/down arrow key is put on the same button which is also used to zoom in/out. FinePix 2650 can zoom up to 3 times optically (which is the case that keeps the maximal resolution) and the LCD display shows where the digital zoom - up to 2.5 times - takes over. FinePix 2650 has furthermore the 3-position trigger with the AF/AE lock that allows one to focus on the object which won't be in the center of the picture at the end. The totally new feature of FinePix 2650 - compared to its predecessor 2600 - is its tiny and cute Fuji XD memory card. The default 16 MB card (included) can be replaced by cards with up to 128 MB (the biggest one costs about 70 dollars). I am afraid that it is such a big memory that the (alkaline) batteries would be gone before I could fill the memory. With 16 MB I can take about 45 pictures at my favorite 1280 x 960 resolution, about 30 pictures at the maximal resolution 1600 x 1200, or about 130 small 640 x 480 images. The camera has the logo "designed for Windows XP" (which is my OS) and it works without any problems (I believe it also works with all older systems). FinePix 2650 immediately connects to the PC as a "removable disk FinePix E:" in my case. The package contains a manual as well as some extra new photoshop software. The camera can be also connected as a PC camera for videoconferencing.
Generally the videos from FinePix 2650 are sharper than those made with Logitech QuickCam, for example, however I am not satisfied with the behavior of videos in darker environments. The videos (and probably also the image from the "webcam 2650") are too dim and I found even QuickCam better in these situations. The camera also does not focus very well in the dark which makes the pictures a bit fuzzy especially if the flash is not used. There is a lot of space for improvement. However, night video is not the main reason why I bought this camera and therefore I can unequivocably recommend this camera.
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67 of 68 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent in most respects, December 4, 2002
By A Customer
The Fuji FinePix 2650 is an excellent choice for an economical digital camera. For inside shots, it excels at portraits of two or three people but the flash has difficulty illuminating groups as small as half a dozen people. Outside, using natural lighting,I have produced landscape photographs that are breathtaking in their sharpness and true color. Even tricky light settings, such as snow cover, produced pictures that would make a professional proud. The 2 Megapixel photos look good even when printed as 8 x 10's. However, if you like to crop pictures using photo software, you are somewhat limited in what you can achieve without loosing resolution.I am very satisfied with battery life (especially if you avoid using the LCD to compose pictures). If you are so inclined, a variety of manual settings are available through the LCD display, which are not difficult to master. However, in bright sunlight, the LCD display is difficult if not impossible to read. Used with a tripod, the manual settings provide good opportunities to be creative although the options do not directly simulate the controls of a SLR camera - that requires significantly greater investment in a digital camera. The lens cover of this remarkably compact camera has a tendency to partially close while composing shots until you figure out the best way to grasp the camera - not a big concern except for the ham fisted. The FinePix Viewer software works well for downloading pictures to the computer but I prefer Photoshop for editing pictures. Many pictures should be "auto level adjusted" with photosoftware to get the best color and brightness, but this is easy to do and is probably required for photos from many kinds of digital cameras. For the money, this is close to a 5 star camera; however, for those wanting more control over aperature, shutter speed, and "film" speed, a more expensive camera will be required.
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47 of 47 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Best in this Price Range, December 12, 2002
As the webmaster of one of Alaska's most popular websites (Alaska Outdoor Journal) I finally decided to bite the bullet and move from scanning film photo prints to going digital for my website photo support. It was a move long overdue but with the rapidly advancing technology it was hard to pick a point in time to BUY (like computers). That has occurred with my purchase of the 2650 after a considerable amount of comparison shopping. The sole reason for getting the 2650 was for my website support and so I was definitely looking for the best Price vs Features for under my $200 limit. I had decided that 2 megapixels was minimal resolution (1600x1200) to work with and that a very good Macro feature was a must have necessity. I also wanted a true optical zoom in addition to a digital zoom. Lastly, I wanted at least some minimal Manual overrides on some of the settings for giving me some creative flexibility and artistic latitude. That?s a pretty tall order of features in this price range. Most digital cameras under $200 rarely have an optical zoom so that feature eliminated many brands and models. The FinePix is 3x optical and 2x digital. The macro feature exceeded my expectations...focusing sharp as a tack at 3.9 inches from the subject. With the manual override of the White Balance set for incandescent bulb, I took perfect color-balanced pics of close subjects. Although the minimal f stop is 3.5, I took several photos in a darkened Safeway parking lot with no flash and was impressed with its low light ability down to 1/2 second exposure if you brace the camera or use a tripod. There is also an exposure compensation (EV) override which will allow you to adjust your exposure when the subject is in a bright backlit situation or the backdrop you want to shoot is darker than the foreground. The on-camera menu is VERY easy to use and remember what does what. I commend Fuji for this simple approach. The LCD was very sharp and clear with excellent color quality. The camera uses the latest technology memory chip, the xD Picture Card which is a variant of the SmartMedia technology and apparently this chip uses much less energy and will help conserve battery life. I believe a lot of cameras will be going to this energy saver chip in the near future. The 16mb card that comes with the camera stores 25 highest quality pics down to 122 photos at 640x480 for webpage quality which remains totally impressive. I bought an additional 64mb card which will store 4 times more than the 16mb. I?ll never run out of space for pics. So far the camera appears to be very energy friendly on the Ni MH rechargeable batteries I installed. Ni MH rechargeables are highly recommended...check out the Rayovac ONE hour charger PS4-B which now comes with two power cables...one for wall socket and the other a cigarette lighter plug cable to charge your batteries on the road in your vehicle in one hour. No better value. Go with the Kodak 1850 maH high capacity rechargeable AA Ni MH for longest run time. The software and camera is MAC and WinPC compatible using the USB port for connecting. The software automatically boots up when the computer senses the camera connection and power on. The program provides minimal editing control of the picture however. You can crop and resize but there is no brightness, color, saturation, etc. to adjust. Most users will have another graphics program they use to do these things anyway, like Photo Shop. You can run a slide show to review the entire camera contents or view pics individually. All the shot details are listed for each pic...f stop, shutter speed, date, time, file quality, etc. There is also a second program that is used to assemble a Photo Gallery collection to burn to CD or DVD and distribute to friends and family. You can also use this program to assemble a video clip gallery to burn to CD or DVD that you have taken with the FinePix 2650. These are pretty low res quality videos at 10 frames per second but you might have fun playing with this feature. In the under $200 range I would rate this 5 stars. In the 2 megapixel range I would rate this 4 stars. There is a camera that impressed me even more in the 2mp range, the Canon A40 which I compared side by side last night, but its running in the mid-$200 range on Amazon. My friend has it and the software has many additional features and capabilities and the camera is loaded with additional cool onboard things like 15 second time exposure, sepia and b&w settings, etc. and is Mac/PC compatible too. BUT, for the best 2 megapixel entry level camera under $200 I would suggest the Fujifilm FinePix 2650; its a solidly built and very sturdy little camera. My only regret is Amazon dropped the price the day after I bought mine. Its a steal now at the new price. Good shooting, -KK-
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