Fujifilm FinePix AV250 Digital Camera - Silver (16MP, 3x Optical Zoom) 2.7 inch LCD

My boyfriend bought me this camera as a birthday present back in April and it arrived middle of May. Really handy little camera but it's definitely a budget one, photo quality is good though, haven't tested the HD video function yet.

My original review was whining about not being able to get the photos off it but that's because it doesn't mount as an external drive like most cameras do in Mac OSX, you have to open Image Capture and it shows up as a device - easy (once you realise it). So I humbly eat my own words about that.

Software/CD:
Had the same issue with the CD as the first review on this camera, it won't load on any computer I've tried it on (Windows, RedHat Linux and Mac OSX). Tried downloading the FinePixViewer software for Mac OSX off the FujiFilm website and the installer crashes as soon as it starts trying to install the software.

Manual:
Manual that came with the camera was useless, just a basic overview of the camera, no helpful info at all. The manual I downloaded off the FujiFilm website is better so I'd definitely recommend downloading that.

What comes with it:
Comes with a USB cable to plug into your computer, batteries, a coaster CD and a manual.
Same as the other review, no SD card came with the camera so pilfered a spare one from my other camera. No case of any kind either so had to buy one from a camera shop (but that's normal). Batteries last ages though, so far I'm still using the pair that came with the camera so that's really good.

Functions:
The panoramic feature is nice, it pieces three photos together and I've gotten some cracking shots from the top of some hills and at the zoo. Macro mode is called 'flower' mode for some ridiculous reason, and it's same with the other standard camera modes, they've got silly names that make it difficult at a glance to figure out what each mode is for. Photo quality is good though, haven't tested the HD video function yet. The focus is a bit slow sometimes but haven't fully tested all the modes yet.

Overall, I'd say it could have been a good wee budget camera but the lack of a readable CD, useful manual and an SD card make me have to give this camera four stars rather than five.

As I already own a Fujifilm A170 this was a logical upgrade, from 10.2 to 16Mp. What I didn't realise is that there are so many new settings to play with, including a fully automatic scene recognition function!
As with most compact toys these days, the manual comes on a CD rom and online but then lets face it - a hard copy of the manual would be bigger than the camera! The internal memory is also negligible but again, as this is an upgrade to an existing unit I already have a couple of SD cards anyway. On full auto highest resolution a 4Gb card gets you over 500 shots, plenty for the average point-and-shoot photographer's day, and you can always delete shots you don't like on the spot.
As the AV250 is so similar to my previous camera I didn't bother reading any of the blurb, just got it out of the box, checked it over and got down to using it right away. Easy!
As with my previous Fuji, this is a joy to use. It's compact and lightweight but fits nicely into the hands and is quick to turn on and use if you see a photo-op - auto focus means you don't have to mess about twisting lenses to get the perfect shot. Video is also good, shooting at 720P HD you can get some very nice movie clips, length depending on the size of your memory card.
If I had to have a moan about this machine, the only thing I can think of is that the high-gloss black finish tends to show your fingerprints, so I tended to wipe it more than the old (silver) one.
All in all, a very good camera and at the price (I paid £60) an absolute bargain.
Recommended as a high quality back-up to a DSLR for the serious snapper.

Really excellent product. The pictures are of outstanding quality and the settings are very easy to adjust. I can really recommend this for anyone who wants a simple camera with outstanding quality