Fujifilm AX245W

Fuji Finepix AX245w Reviewed 28.05.2010 Just bought one from a well known supermarket - and very impressed I am. Priced at just under £70 it is extremely good value, featuring stuff that’s only available on camera’s three times the price. Just look at some of the features, • Image stabilization • 12 Megapixels • Fujinon 4x wide zoom • 2.7-inch LCD screen • Automatic Scene Recognition (SR AUTO) • Face Detection with automatic red-eye removal • Full 1080p HD photos & 720p HD movies • Panoramic Shooting mode • Natural Light & with Flash • SD/SDHC memory card compatible • And more… But ha, do they ... more

I have one of these and it's OK. Yes it has some clever features, but at the end of the day it's the pictures that count. Being fussy, it has problems with chroma, barrel distortion, sharpness and shadow detail. I also have a 4 year old Nikon compact and it produces arguably better images with only half the megapixels. OK, it cost more at the time, but you can buy similar now for a little more than the Fuji. In particular the abscence of a custom white balance setting means that you have to rely on the cameras idea of what is right. Often producing overly cool images, even when taken in bright ... more