Poor lens cap, difficult to use in gloomy conditions
Recommend to potential buyers:
yes
Full review
I bought this camera for my partner who wanted a digital camera with a larger zoom than was generally available at the time. The Fujifilm FinePix S304 fitted the bill and the budget.
The zoom makes for a bulkier camera than I would choose for myself; I prefer the more slim-line designs that fit more easily into your pocket. This camera, although possible to fit into some pockets, is generally consigned to a bag or slung around the neck.
The 6X optical zoom is very useful however and gives great results. In fact we rarely get a bad shot and this is more down to bad photography on our part than poor performance of the camera.
If you are new to digital photography and wondering whether to give it a go - do it. We have found the best aspect is being able to instantly view your photo. This means you know you are taking home that special shot just the way you want it instead of anxiously waiting for a film to be developed only to find a head chopped off or a finger across the lens.
The controls and menus are very easy to get to grips with. After the first couple of days fiddling around with all the options you will soon get to know what is personally useful to you. We haven't needed to re-consult the manual at all as the menus are pretty self explanitory.
An added bonus to be aware of is the batteries. It takes normal AA batteries (4) which means if they run down you can replace them anywhere instead of having to find a specialist shop or wait for re-charging.
I'd also recommend getting extra memory so you can take more photos before the card gets filled up. We have a 128mb memory card which stores about 250 photos at the 2 million pixel level. To be honest its pretty hard to tell the difference between 2 and 3 million pixel quality so we take most of our photos at 2 million.
One bad point to mention is the difficulty of taking photos when its a bit gloomy or dark. Its basically a case of point and hope as the LED viewfinder and the eyepiece are both useless in these conditions. We also had to get used to the time lag between pressing the shutter button and the photo actually being taken. We have perfected the art of pre-focusing and even putting the camera on sports shot to improve this.
There are the usual options of red-eye reduction with the flash (resulting in the slightly puzzled, dazed expressions photos we have all come to love!). We have also found the LED displays any flash photos a lot brighter than when seen on the computer or printed off.
The video option gives you about 45 seconds which is longer than you think when you are actually filming. I keep making the mistake of holding the camera at right angles to normal and then for some reason can't rotate the footage when played back - may just be our software or lack of knowledge but makes for amusing head tilting viewings!!
All in all a very good digital camera which I would recommend if you want a large zoom and don't mind a slightly bulkier camera because of this.
Happy snapping.
More details
Durability
Excellent
Reliability
Good
Size
Big
Weight
Heavy
Instruction Manual
Satisfactory
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