Fujifilm FinePix A170

...if we had seen the Fujifilm offer on at the moment. It had £10 off and meant that the price of the camera was still within my price range, but I would be getting a good camera.

This time I stood my ground and made sure that I could have a look at the quality of the pictures and the screen. I had kept a SD card in my bag and she found some batteries for us, and I was amazed at the difference in the quality of this camera. I went around ...
...a hard time with my Fujifilm S8000, which is a bridge SLR camera, the cat got very scared of the lens which kept on coming closer and closer to him. I picked up this new camera, and he seemed perfectly content to lie there whilst I was taking pictures, he soon got bored though and I didn’t get as many pictures as I would have liked.

The LCD screen on this camera is huge, even bigger than my Fujifilm S8000, which is a much larger camera, ... more

If you read my Vivitar camera review you will know I was not very happy, I did manage to get the camera changed and this is the camera I got instead. Hope you enjoy the review:

On a Friday I decided that my old cameras were not doing the job that I wanted them to do anymore, I needed small compact camera, which fit into my little bag which I take out with me on nights out. The young sales girl in Curry’s pointed me in the direction of a Vivitar camera, at her say so, and the fact that the mega pixels were 8 million, I thought I was going to get a good camera, however what I did get was a very poor and cheap camera which turned out very poor and blurry images. It wasn’t a cheap camera, it cost £40 which is a lot of money for someone that is still looking for a job.

I decided to go back into Currys, a bit apprehensive as I have heard before that they can be a bit cruel when it comes to returning products, a lot of them don’t allow you to return a product once it has been opened and used, so I was a bit worried that I would not get my money back.

Buying the Camera

We went into the shop, fully expecting a problem with the fact that I had used the camera and tested it out, however a lady who recognised us from the previous day (she sold my mum her tumble dryer) and helped us out immensely. One of the first things she said was that she would have never have sold us this camera in the first place, it is supposed to be quite poor and the girl that sold it us should have really known that. She asked us then if we had seen the Fujifilm offer on at the moment. It had £10 off and meant that the price of the camera was still within my price range, but I would be getting a good camera.

This time I stood my ground and made sure that I could have a look at the quality of the pictures and the screen. I had kept a SD card in my bag and she found some batteries for us, and I was amazed at the difference in the quality of this camera. I went around for about 5 minutes taking pictures in different parts of the shop in different conditions, making sure that this camera was for me this time.

The girl who helped us out this time really knew what she was talking about and sold us an amazing camera by the looks of things, she listened to my specification and found us the best camera for that specification.

The Specifications

3 x Optical Zoom
5.7 x Digital Zoom
LCD Monitor- 2.7inch
Weight- 120g
Power- AA alkaline batteries (included in box)

What do you Get In The Box?

AA Alkaline Batteries
FinePix Software
Users Guide
Hand Strap
USB Cable
Owner’s Manual

Weight and Size

I wanted a small camera which would fit into my little clutch bag and this camera fits perfectly, I have no idea what the weight of the camera is when it has batteries in it, however without it is 120g which isn’t much at all. It isn’t too heavy at all, and you could keep it in your pocket whilst walking around and then just whip is out very easily and take the picture you want to take. The camera is very easy to carry around and you should have no problems carrying it around in a small bag, or even in your pocket. If any of you have a small compact camera, then you should be able to imagine the weight of this camera.

Style

If the camera was in a different colour, then I would have jumped at one of those instead of this, I’m not a huge fan of silver, but I do understand that the reason it’s cheaper is because of its colour. You have three colours on the camera, a very dark silver, light silver and black. It does look very stylish if I say so myself, it would have looked better in black or red even, but it does look quite posh, and durable which is something that you want with a camera and which is something I did not get with the previous camera.

The lens is tiny, it only takes up a small portion of the front of the camera, however takes some amazing pictures, it only comes out about two finger lengths, and even when you are zooming it does not get any bigger. I found when attempting to take pictures of a cat on our garden the other night, I a bit of a hard time with my Fujifilm S8000, which is a bridge SLR camera, the cat got very scared of the lens which kept on coming closer and closer to him. I picked up this new camera, and he seemed perfectly content to lie there whilst I was taking pictures, he soon got bored though and I didn’t get as many pictures as I would have liked.

The LCD screen on this camera is huge, even bigger than my Fujifilm S8000, which is a much larger camera, they have compensated by removing quite a few buttons that you may usually expect to get on the back of the camera, however you will find this LCD screen is brilliant, it shows the pictures beautifully and very clear.

Buttons

On the back of the camera, you have the usual circle buttons, which allow you to set the scene to macro, add flash, add a timer and then the delete button. In the centre OK button shows you the shooting menu, which allows you to get to the set up menu.

The only other buttons on the camera is the power button on the top and the shutter button, then on the back of the camera you have the usual W and T buttons which allows you to zoom in and out respectively. Then the other two buttons are Display, if you click it, it does bring up a grid like system, something that I have only just begun to start using. It allows me to frame my pictures a lot easier and get a better picture overall. Then you have the usual playback button which is a green triangle in a square.

All buttons are sturdy and do not feel like they have been put on by a child like they did with the Vivitar camera. They all seem like part of the camera and they accentuate the stylishness of the camera. There isn’t too many buttons on the camera, which means that you get a lot more space for the LCD screen.

Target Audience

I wanted a very simple camera, one that I would only really use if I was going out, or wanted to take some quick pictures, this camera falls into that genre very easily. I have to say, because of the simplicity of this camera, I would recommend it for young people as well, probably not under 10, as it may be a little bit too fiddly for them, for kids under 10 I would actually recommend the Vivitar that I reviewed earlier. This camera is very easy to use and I think someone who wants to get into photography or a camera to take pictures of friends, it is a great little camera.

Also if you want a cheap, easy to use camera to take on holiday with you, then this camera will give you some amazing pictures when you are on holiday. I would happily take this one along when I go on my next trip on holiday. Whenever that may be.

The Cameras Features

For me, the camera has a lot of important little details that make it the camera that I’m beginning to really, really like. Most of the little details are the little extras that Fujifilm have added into this series. Here is a list of some of them; the ones I believe make this camera great:

Automatic Scene Recognition

When using cameras in the past, I have pretty much bypassed using the scene modes, mainly because most of the time, I don’t have enough time to get the camera out, remember how to change the scene modes and then take the picture.

Fujifilm have smartly thought about this with this camera, and understand that these scene modes are there for a reason, so have added this ‘automatic scene recognition’. I don’t believe it works with all of the scenes, but ones like macro, portrait, landscape and night seem to be just some of these that the camera detects and then changes the settings to give you the best possible picture you can get.

Picture Stabilisation Mode

This stabilisation mode stops those dreaded blurry pictures, as some of you may know I had a great problem with the camera I traded this one in for, due to the fact I could only seem to get a blurry image. Fujifilm have now added their Anti Blur mode to this camera, which means you can wave goodbye these annoying blurry images.

Face Detection

I have this on my other Fujifilm and have found it works brilliantly, I can’t be completely sure how it works and I’m sure if I had to explain how it works we’ll be here for hours, but the camera automatically detects faces in the picture, and makes sure that the faces are the main part of the picture and that they don’t fade into the background.

There is something to do with Panorama View, however I am having a little bit of trouble understanding how this works, so didn’t want to talk about it, as I would be talking about something I didn’t really understand. Sorry.

Photography Functions

Different Photography Functions

Shooting Mode

To get to the different shooting modes, you have to click the OK button in the middle and go through the buttons until you get to the shooting modes. The default one is Auto, I stupidly believed that the Scene Recognition worked on the Auto mode, however by the looks of things, you have to go through this shooting mode and then find Scene Recognition. Why don’t you keep it on scene recognition if you like the sound of it I hear you say? Well the digital zoom does not seem to work on this particular mode, which I use a lot.

I’m going to write some of the modes that I think are pretty cool down below.

Auto
Scene Recognition
Manual
Movie
Flower
Sunset
Snow
Beach
Portrait
Picture Stabilization
Baby Mode

Playback

The playback on this camera is very easy to use, as always I believe; it is the green triangle in a green square on the camera. Because of the brilliant size of the LCD screen, you get to see your pictures in brilliant quality and move through your pictures with the left and right buttons on the circle little device. Sorry not too sure of the name. To delete the image, you click the top button on the circle thing and follow the instructions to delete the image.

Movies

One of the only downsides to this camera is the fact that to get to record a movie instead of still images, you have to go to the scene mode and go through that way. On most cameras I’ve used before with this function, you click a button or turn a dial and ta da, you are recording a movie, this one takes a little while to take movies. Despite that, I can count on one hand, how many times I used the movie mode on my Fujifilm S8000.

Final Opinion

This camera was perfect for me, and the woman in the store said that she would have never have sold me the Vivitar camera, due to the fact it was very poor and not right for what I wanted it for. This camera however was perfect for me, it works brilliantly well for everything I want it for, and I have yet to really properly try it in a club, due to the fact I’m skint at the moment and the decent clubs are miles away, but for pictures in the house and out and about, the camera has done perfectly and has worked just the way I wanted it to.

Price

The camera was £59.99 at the moment in Currys with £10 off. I had to hand over £20 extra to cover the difference in price between this camera and the one I brought and took back. This wasn’t too bad at all and to be honest, I was expecting it to be a lot more for a decent camera. Currys do have a good deal on at the moment, however this won’t last for long and usually this camera will be £69.99.

You get some batteries within the camera, but as always I recommend getting some rechargeable batteries, most specifically ones designed for cameras, as you will get the most out of your camera this way. I am currently buying a camera case off EBay as the prices they offer in Currys are a right rip off, if you are getting this camera in replacement for an old camera, then I would recommend using that case instead of buying a new one.

If you need an SD card, think about how much you will be taking pictures, and if you want to store all of your pictures on the SD card. I am not too sure about this next comment, but I believe the higher the size of the SD card, the faster the shutter speed is. If this is not important to you and if you don’t expect to take too many pictures, then spending about £5 on a 1GB SD card might be best for you.

Price: 9/10 (More expensive than the Vivitar camera, £20 more, however you get a much, much better camera)

Ease Of Use

I managed to pick up this camera and use it straight away, but that is because I’m used to cameras, most specifically Fujifilm cameras. To make sure I wrote about this bit fairly, I gave the camera to my mum who is a bit of a technaphobe when it comes to cameras, taking pictures of me and my sister with my Fujifilm S8000 camera, took 20 minutes for each picture, but they did turn out to be very good photographs.

I asked my mum to turn on the camera, take a picture, view the picture and then get the camera ready to take another picture again. It took her a little while to find the power button, but she turned it on fine, and took a very good picture very easily, finding the playback button seemed to be a bit more difficult. If you don’t know which button is the playback button, then it may be a little difficult as my mum showed us. It is the green triangle on its side in the green square. That’s how I always try and remember it. When it came to getting the camera ready to take another picture, this caused another little problem; however the camera soon told her how to get ready to take another picture.

All in all, she found the camera very easy to use, she did have a little trouble finding the playback button and getting the camera ready again to take another picture, however there is a small user guide which comes with the camera, which should help a lot if you have a bit of trouble when it comes to the camera.

This is one of the easiest camera’s I’ve ever used, I have used more complicated camera’s before though, and the fact that their isn’t too many buttons on camera makes you think that it can’t be too complicated which is good. All in all, a very simple camera to use, and as my mum proved even a technophobe can use it.

Ease Of Use: 9/10 (Very easy to use, even my camera technophobe mum could use it)

Charging/Batteries

In my Fujifilm S8000 review, I moaned about the fact that I had to use 4 x AA batteries; however the amount of time I have to really change them is miniscule now because I brought such good batteries. With this camera, you only use 2 AA batteries, which is brilliant. I am currently searching EBay for some batteries, however have yet to ask my nan (it’s her account) if I can buy them yet. I would not recommend buying them in store, as they are bloody expensive.

It doesn’t seem to use batteries too badly at all, at the moment I have two batteries out of my Fujfilm S8000 in the camera, and it hasn’t gone down at all and I have been taking a lot of pictures, and using the camera quite a bit.

9/10 (Great battery life, however I can see it using normal batteries like nothing)

Uploading

Uploading the pictures couldn’t be easier, especially with the software that they have given you with the camera. I myself prefer to do it the old fashioned way and go through My Computer > Fujifilm and then get the pictures that way. I do think however in time that I will use this software however, especially if it allows me to upload my other Fujifilm and use the software as well.

10/10 (Very easy due to the software they give you)

Good Points

Everything about this camera is good, the LCD screen is very big and the brilliant 10.2 mega pixels, allows you to create some stunning images. The digital zoom is 5.7 x, which makes it quite a bit less compared to my other Fujifilm which had a 18 x Optical Zoom, it is a fantastic camera though, no doubt about that, however if you want to take amazing pictures far away then you might have to go for the bigger model.

It is so easy to use this camera is, as I wrote under Ease Of Use, my mum who is terrible with cameras, found the camera very easy to use, you get some very simple instructions within the camera, so any one should be able to use the camera.

Negative Points

There are really no real problems with this camera, I think I’m a little bit bummed that it’s a silver camera; I really wanted a red one or a black one. It does say that you can get Automatic Scene Recognition, however it’s not that automatic as you have to take the camera of its default Auto, by changing the Mode, and then you get onto the Automatic Scene Recognition bit. Here however, you are unable to use Digital Zoom; I will update this if I find a way to change this, but at the moment it’s slightly annoying.

The only other little problem seems to be it’s not very easy to get to creating a movie with this camera, with the other cameras which had this option, all it took was one turn of a dial or a button and ta da I was able to film a scene, however with this one, it seems to go around the houses before you can do that.

One Final Note

Most cameras seem to take either 4 AA batteries, 2 AA batteries or 3 AAA batteries, if you go into the shop with 4 AA batteries, 3 AAA batteries and an SD card in your bag, you will be able to take a look at the quality of the camera and if they say you are not able to use your batteries and SD card you should know that the camera has something wrong with it and it’s best not to go with that one.

This of course will not worth with lithium batteries in cameras, I haven’t worked out a way to get around getting the shop assistant to let you try these out.

Final Opinion

I paid £69.99 for this camera, including 3 years product support for £8.99, I believe that your product support will be £3 more, but due to the problem I had with the previous camera, they knocked off a bit of money for me for my troubles. I think it is a brilliant price, and I really think the camera is worth it. It takes some amazing pictures; I’ll hopefully upload a picture to this review to show the quality of the camera.

As always, when preparing to write this review, I looked on the internet for professional reviews. I find it helps me talk about the more confusing aspects, and then attempt to try and make them make a little bit of sense. This review was different, I found that most of the reviews were either way too confusing on this product, and were just people attempting to show off with their camera knowledge, and or not very helpful at all. I hope I have been able to be helpful and that you have been able to understand everything I have talked about in each paragraph.

(C) Kirsty 2009

Please take the time to rate and if you have even more time to comment. Thank you. Kirsty
 

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