Fuji FinePix A202 Digital Camera [2MP]

When you first hold the camera, it might seem a bit too light, but as soon as you fit the batteries and memory card, take a couple of pictures; the camera will feel just like any "normal" camera. What I found extremly important, is the fact that as soon as you switch on the camera, you can start to take pictures that will look perfect on your screen. Sometimes, with £250 digital cameras, you have to play a bit with the settings so that you can view the pictures nicely on your monitor: this isn't the case, it's a straight forward usable camera.
The camera can take pictures of three sizes:
1) 0.3 megs, that's about 640x480. It sound a bit small, but it's perfect for a laptop with a screen resolution of 800x600. Also, it's very good for e-mails and to share them over the Internet.
2) 1 meg, at this size a picture will occupy the whole screen (if you're using a resolution of 1024x768, as most 17'' monitors). Probably it's the one that you will most use.
3) 2 megs, well, that's quite a nice size already, which will allow you to play with editing software. I mean, you can worry less about getting the right picture from the beginning, since you can cut the bit of the picture that you most like (getting the traffics lights out of the picture for example; or maybe your mother in law, etc).

For printing purposes, both the 1 meg and 2 megs are good.

You also can choose between image quality in the 2 megs size: normal and fine. I've tried both, and I think that the normal is good enough.

About the memory: well, with the 16 mb card you can store 49 pictures at 1 mb of resolution. Probably you can say that it's not a lot, but compare that with a normal camera that can hold 36 pictures! And, obviously, out of those 49 pictures, you'll probably delete 20, and then again take 29 more pictures. As I suggest below, I'd probably buy a 32 megs card, but I doubt I'd go for anything bigger.

About the batteries: with the ones that come, you can take quite a few pictures, maybe 60 (without playing too much with the screen). I find that enough, so that you see how you like the camera. Then, as with EVERY digital camera, you'll buy a charger with four batteries. These ones will last you a week at least, even if you take pictures everyday, even videos, and use the screen on the camera most of the time.

Well, I guess that's already a bit too much, so here are the main points you should keep in mind:

Good points: quality of the pictures, price, easy of use, memory speed, powerfull flash, quality of screen, feeling (not too cheap), USB cable included, video quality

Bad points: no optical zoom, no TV output, no sound recording, maybe more options to see the pictures on the menu, not the best macro pictures (but I've had the camera just for a few days, let me practice some more with this), no TIFF options (but I guess that's what you'd expect in a non-expensive camera)

What else to buy: Charger with 4 high powered NiMH batteries, Fuji 64MB xD Card (Amazon Price: £25.99), probably Batteries & card holder case (just about £6.00)

The great advantage with a digital camera like this one is that you can take say 10 pictures in any situation, then immediately look at them using the camera's LCD display on the back and delete the ones you do not want to keep. Plus you have no printing costs - you just download the pictures straight onto your computer using the simple software package provided. Gone are the days of paying £10 at boots, getting your 36 pictures back and liking about 30% of them! The saving in printing costs alone over a year or so will cover the cost of the camera.

For those of you not familiar with the technology, this camera can take and store about 30 pictures (with the 16mb card included) at the maximum resolution of 1600 by 1200 pixels; that would easily fill your whole computer screen with a crystal clear image. These images can then be either shrunk to a smaller size or manipulated using any simple graphics software. The images can then be filed away on your computer, or you could get them printed professionally for a small fee.

Highly recommended.