Great camera for most people

Author's Rating:

Pros: Very easy to use, good quality

Cons: Not for the expert photographer, comes with a small memory card

The Bottom Line: 
For your average user, this is a camera with extraordinary features for a good price.

Author's Review
The Fuji FinePix 3800 is actually the third digital camera I've owned. The first was a very cheap give-away camera through Earthlink. It did get me interested in digital photography, however. My next camera was the Kodak DC265 Zoom Digital Camera. This was a great camera that I would still be using if not for an unfortunate incident involving the camera, the floor, and an accidental drop by my wife. For the price it would take for it to be repaired, I figured that I could get a new camera with better resolution. I chose the Fuji FinePix 3800.

One of the first things that attracted me to the Fuji FinePix 3800 was the price. I wanted more than a $100 camera for kids, and I wanted at least 3.1 million pixel resolution, but I didn't want to spend a fortune for it. I found the Fuji FinePix 3800 for $307, and it seemed like a good deal.

The operation is very simple. It is set by default for automatic mode, so all you have to do is turn it on and point and shoot. There are some other preset modes, like for sports, portrait, and night scene. The flash is closed by default, and you simply press a button on the side, and it pops up.

If you want to set up your pictures manually, there are some settings you can change. In manual mode, you can change exposure compensation, white-balance, flash, sharpness, and the lens aperture. I have not used any of these, as I am definitely an amateur photographer.

When taking the pictures, you can look either through the viewfinder or the 1.8" LCD panel. Both give you a picture through the lens, which reduces the battery life a little, but gives you a much better idea of what you are looking at.

The battery life is pretty good, even when using the flash and LCD. I used it for at least a half an hour a day for the first three weeks I had it before I needed to replace the batteries. I have only used alkaline batteries in the camera, so I can't speak for any other kinds.

Another really good feature is the zoom. You have a 6x zoom that works really well. As with most cameras, if you zoom to the full extent, you may get some blurring if the camera is not held completely still. There is even an icon that appears in the viewfinder/LCD to warn you if the light conditions are poor, and you may get the blurring. A tripod takes care of this quite well.

The pictures themselves print very nicely. On the highest setting, you get crystal-clear 8x10 prints. Print it on photo paper, and you would never know it came from a digital camera.

The camera uses the xD card for storage. It comes with a 16mb card to get you started. It will hold 12 pictures at the highest format (2048x1536), and 122 at e-mail size (640x480). This is okay, but you will probably want to buy a larger card. The 128mb card can hold up to 102 pictures at that highest resolution, and up to 996 at e-mail size.

The camera also has two additional functions besides snapping still pictures. It also works as a PC Cam with the included software. You just simply hook it up to your USB port, restart the camera with the correct setting, and there you go. It can also record short video and sound. With that 16mb card you can record for 94 seconds at 320x240, or 5 minutes at 160x120. With the 128mb card, you can record either 12.9 minutes or 40 minutes.

Overall, this is a great camera that I love. For most users, it would be well worth the money, and give great performance. If you really want to control your pictures, however, you may want to go with another camera that allows more user control.