Fujifilm FinePix Z200fd

Fujifilm FinePix Z200fd

Picture Quality.

This camera is a point and click snapper and by no means should be considered a serious camera. Pictures come out very detailed, as you would expect from 10 megapixels. However shooting in bright conditions can make pictures come out a bit white washed and colours are not always very vivid. However the many features listed below allow you to make the most of the camera and the shooting ...
...come bundle with the FinePix.
- Natural and Flash: This option allows you to take two photos in quick succession, one with flash and one without. This is quite a handy feature if you have a large enough memory card to accommodate taking every picture twice. It allows you to look back through all your pictures and choose whether taking the picture with flash or without was the best option for the conditions.
- Natural: Allows you to take ... more

Fujifilm FinePix Z200fd

Picture Quality.

This camera is a point and click snapper and by no means should be considered a serious camera. Pictures come out very detailed, as you would expect from 10 megapixels. However shooting in bright conditions can make pictures come out a bit white washed and colours are not always very vivid. However the many features listed below allow you to make the most of the camera and the shooting conditions.

Features.

Many features come bundle with the FinePix.
- Natural and Flash: This option allows you to take two photos in quick succession, one with flash and one without. This is quite a handy feature if you have a large enough memory card to accommodate taking every picture twice. It allows you to look back through all your pictures and choose whether taking the picture with flash or without was the best option for the conditions.
- Natural: Allows you to take pictures without flash

- Auction Mode: This option is a must have for any eBayer. It lowers the pixels to 3 megapixels. Then you can take three pictures (one rectangle and two squares) which are stitched together into the same picture. Allowing you to post three pictures of your item but only paying to post one.

- Portrait: Softens tones to allow for better portrait photographs. However I don’t really notice any difference, also with this camera already not having very vivid colours maybe it isn’t a very big loss.

- Landscape: This slows down the shutter speed which produces more vivid scenic shots. As long as you have something sturdy to place the camera on while taking the picture landscape photos do benefit from this setting.

- Sport: This speeds up the shutter speed to prevent motion blur. This is one of my favourite modes, obviously I use it for photographing sport but also any fast action, such as moving cars or where you’re going to be moving around a lot, such as in a small boat.

- Night: This mode is similar to the landscape mode in that it slows down the shutter speed but it is designed to make the most of low light conditions.

- Fireworks: This mode is designed to pick up the vibrant colours of fireworks. I don’t really see the point of this feature. Often when you go to see fireworks you’re standing in a cold, wet, field, which means that with the slow shutter speed pictures will always come out blurry.

- Sunset: This supposedly makes sunsets more vivid. I’ve never had a chance to use this mode; that might be because it seems very specific and feels like it was just bundled in.

- Snow: This is a clever feature. When on a skiing holiday or anywhere with a lot of snow, cameras tend to dull colours because they think the whiteness of the snow is over exposure. The FinePix lets the camera know that the snow is in fact snow and not over exposure.

- Beach: Designed for producing clear shots on the beach. This increases contrast which does improve pictures taken in any very bright sunlight not just on the beach.

- Underwater: I’m not sure what this mode is supposed to do. I thought that this would suppress the flash to stop the light being reflected in the glass. However it doesn’t suppress the flash so you have to do it yourself.

- Museum: This mode is suitable for anywhere where people would be disturbed by noise or flashes. It suppresses the flash and turns off all the beeps and clicks it makes with normal usage.

- Party: Designed for indoor events where there is likely to be artificial or low light. I like this mode as it makes it quick and easy to put the camera into a mode that you know will produce decent photographs when you know you’re going to be too drunk to worry about light levels later on in the evening.

- Flower: This mode is said to be for taking close up vivid shots of flowers. However I use this mode whenever wanting to take close up shots of anything, it tells the camera to focus on close up objects.

- Text: Designed to make text appear clearer. This tells the camera to focus on close up objects and sharpens up the image. It does the job for taking photos of text.

Looks and tactility.

This camera is great to look at; the finish is great and stands out from a crowd. It feels nice to touch and is made from high quality materials. There is no power button. Instead you turn the camera on by sliding the lens cover which slides across with a satisfying click. The only downside with this design is that the lens is exposed even when only viewing photographs.

Day to Day Usage.

This camera is really intuitive to use. The buttons are clearly labelled and easy to press. Menus are well thought out. This isn’t a rugged camera but I have dropped it once or twice and it appears to be OK. The screen is excellent and large; it also has a hard rigid cover which should prevent it from being broken, unlike my old Cannon. It has a very impressive 5x optical zoom which I think is amazing considering the lens doesn’t protrude from the body like most other cameras. Pictures are really easy to upload onto my windows computer.

Verdict.

This camera will not amaze you with its picture quality. What it will do is act as an easy to use versatile camera which you will enjoy to use. At around £130 this camera is priced about right and if looked after properly should last you a long time.  

...less