Average Rating: 
Rating: - Excellent in most respects
The Fuji FinePix 2650 is an excellent choice for an economical digital camera. For inside shots, it excels at portraits of two or three people but the flash has difficulty illuminating groups as small as half a dozen people. Outside, using natural lighting,I have produced landscape photographs that are breathtaking in their sharpness and true color. Even tricky light settings, such as snow cover, produced pictures that would make a professional proud. The 2 Megapixel photos look good even when printed as 8 x 10's. However, if you like to crop pictures using photo software, you are somewhat limited in what you can achieve without loosing resolution.I am very satisfied with battery life (especially if you avoid using the LCD to compose pictures). If you are so inclined, a variety of manual settings are available through the LCD display, which are not difficult to master. However, in bright sunlight, the LCD display is difficult if not impossible to read. Used with a tripod, the manual settings provide good opportunities to be creative although the options do not directly simulate the controls of a SLR camera - that requires significantly greater investment in a digital camera. The lens cover of this remarkably compact camera has a tendency to partially close while composing shots until you figure out the best way to grasp the camera - not a big concern except for the ham fisted. The FinePix Viewer software works well for downloading pictures to the computer but I prefer Photoshop for editing pictures. Many pictures should be "auto level adjusted" with photosoftware to get the best color and brightness, but this is easy to do and is probably required for photos from many kinds of digital cameras. For the money, this is close to a 5 star camera; however, for those wanting more control over aperature, shutter speed, and "film" speed, a more expensive camera will be required.
Rating:  - 100% Satisfied!
This is my first digital camera. I bought it because it came highly recommended from CNET.com. I would definitely recommend buying the rechargeable batteries. Like most digital cameras, it EATS AA batteries. :) You can buy the rechargeable batteries and charger right from Amazon.com as well. There are different brands available. You can see what's available under accessories. Camera does everything it says in the description. Takes WONDERFUL pictures! Great price...cheaper here then I have seen at other places. It is verrrrry easy to operate...not a lot of bells and whistles that you will probably never use. You can zoom in on your subject reallllly close and still have a high quality picture. The program to upload pictures to your computer is also verrrrry easy to understand and use. There is a few seconds lapse in time from being able to take one picture and then another. Maybe that is standard on all digital cameras...I don't know. The time lapse isn't a big deal to me though. It would only affect me if I was trying to shoot action shots. There is no chance of taking a picture with the cover on...you will get a message that your cover is still on. :) It is light and compact. I am just amazed at what a great camera this is! 100% satisfied! ...
Rating: - Fuji FinePix 2650, the way to go
My wife and I decided to get a digital camera. Because I'm a techno-head Art Director, not just any camera would do and the price had to be right. Plus, it had to be loaded with enough features to justify the purchase. I really wanted at least a 4.0 mega pixel but after discussing it over with my wife, we figured a 2.0 would do exactly what we wanted: 1. Instant digital gratification.
2. Excellent for e-mail shots and iPhoto.
3. The possibility of printing higher res shots. It takes great color shots right out of the box. Extremely intuitive. The optical zoom eliminates bitmapping (jaggies) when close-up. And the auto-focus mode is idiot proof. It has 5 flash modes for lots of shooting customization. Macro (close-up 3.9" to 2.6') and self-timer photography add to the host of features. White Balance (for light sources), Exposure Compensation and Movie (no sound video) mode round off this great little camera. Check out the fujifilm.com sight for a great interactive preview. It's what really sold me. The purchase is up to you from there. The only other option in the same category was an Olympus, but the memory card was only 8mb, as was the Sony which only had its body-style going for it. Good luck!
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