Fuzzy, poor, disappointing ...

I thought that being a Vivitar camera this would be better as my experience with the brand led me to expect more. I was to be disappointed, however, by this little camera which seemed to offer so much but delivered very little.

The menu system is confusing, the buttons are small, the colour of resultant photos is often poor and they also tend to end up unfocused or blurred. Furthermore, this is not a good buy if your hands aren't rock steady as the slightest wobble and your photo is ruined. This is also the case if you are trying to photograph anything that may move or is already in motion.

All in all a disappointment to me.

Good Second camera

Bought for my wife and as second camera on assignment. There are two problems so far.
1. The flash is not bright enough for pictures taken at full times 3 zoom so you can end up with very dark faces etc
2. If working against a medium dark subject but with something fairly bright nearbye the auto aperture system takes too much notice of the bright out of focus item. Worse the flash is not strong enough to fill in properly.
Pity really as otherwise it is a super point and shoot device and almost wife proof !

A great camera

This is a really great camera. It fits very well in the hand and has a solid none plastic feel. The best bit for me is the manual focus ring, which allows you to take those tricky pictures of baby's through cot sides etc (camera's focus on the cot wall bars not the baby!). One of the best bits of kit I have bought!!

Dont bother, its a toy

Picture looks great in the advert, came without batteries, low quality made in china, over expensive and hard to use, spend more and get better

Do Not Buy

This is the worst camera I have ever used!
It drains the battery, space for pictures is really low.
Picture quality is terrible!
It feels cheaply made, luckily I did not buy it, it was given as a prize at an event I attended.

My advice, do not get this camera!

Good for Digital

Personally I don't think that digital photography is any substitute for the real thing (35mm). However this light, compact, and good looking little camera is probably as good as it gets at its price level. It's easy to use, takes remarkably clear and sharp shots, and the LCD display is very clear. The download and edit software provided (including Adobe Photoshop Elements) is very good, and the instruction manual is better than most.

On the downside, the camera can be slow to respond, and it shuts off onto standby too soon, though this is adjustable if you search the manual for how to. As for most digital cameras the battery life is not great (don't let the battery run right out or the camera gives up the ghost and will not even switch off.). Exposure accuracy is not always spot on (underexposure on darker subjects) but this is easily and completely rectifiable in editing.

I have had trouble with mine, but I'm certain that it was down to the larger (128MB) memory card that I bought and not the camera. If buying an additional larger card, then get the SanDisk that Nikon recommends, as I believe there are compatibility issues with cheaper makes -- to be fair Nikon warns you of this.

All in all a decent little package, if you want the convenience of a pocket sized, point and shoot camera, with the ability to view your photos right away.

Ideal for First-timers

I bought this camera about half a year ago now... It is still functioning as well as when i first got, and i am still finding out great new little features on it (no i didn't read the manual).
I bought it at the time, because it offered great value for money: 3.2 mega pixels for just over £100, and i thought i would not find a better one, that had all the features this one does, while keeping the great build quality by Sony!
As with most digital cameras, moving images are a problem, as they tend to come out slightly blured. Apart from that the still images are excellent.
However i must warn you that the Smart Zoom can only be used when the image size is set to less than 2.8M(3:2), This can be annoying as it meens that the further you wish to zoom in the worse the quality, but you can work around this with most computer picture programmes - It may be worth paying a bit more to get an optical zoom camera!
All told, this is a great camera to start out with. It is great fun, easy use and view your picutres, loads of features (my fav = two movie modes to save space), you get about 82 highest quality picuters on a 128MB memory stick, or 790 lowest quality pictures on the same stick (also about 6mins of highest resolution video).

FUJI S5500

I actually have an S5100 which is made in the USA, but the spec is identical. The spec shown on Amazon is wrong, the resolution is 4MP. I think they have published the spec for the older S5000.

I don't like the false focussing ring. It looks like it should do something, but doesn't. I don't like the fact that you can't focus or zoom while shooting movies. The movie quality however is excellent.

Picture quality is very good, but digital noise is evident when using the 400ASA speed setting.

The focus assist lamp works well, but manual focussing is fiddly and slow. The 10X optical lens is wonderful,

I like the build of the camera, although the lens tube is flimsy.

I would have liked a hot-shoe for additional illumination in low-light situations.

The battery life is excellent, and all-in-all I would recommend this camera.

Cheers

John

Fuji Finepix S3000

Have this camera about 4 months now. Fantastic piece of kit. Use it as webcam too and it's wicked. The webcam image is very very clear - clearer than some webcams already on the market. As for taking pictures - picture quality is amazing.

Couldn't ask for a better piece of equipment for the money really!

Better than the professionals!

Fantastic camera. I bought this nearly 2 years ago for my Brothers wedding. I wanted a camera that was easy to use but took fantastic shots; the IXUS II does just that. I bought a larger SD card, holding up to 250 pictures as I wanted lots of room. It was great to be able to link straight to my laptop and see the pictures very quickly. The pictures I and others took with the IXUS II are amazing. The colour and sharpness is outstanding. I'm a lover of SRL but when it comes down to it the IXUS preforms better under every condition without any fuss. In the end the wedding pictures from the IXUS turned out better than the very good proffesional wedding photos. The colours are sharper and the colour representation is spot on, you can't fault them. Last week my Sister was looking through my photos taken with it on my laptop with amazment at the quality. She was surprised that it was digital and not SRL she now wants an IXUS too instead of her Nikon SLR. It has never taken a bad photo, I hightly recommend it.

Great Digi Camera for money!

Nice Camera, packed with features for £126 odd quid. Camera styling starting to look a little dated in comparison to later Sony Cybershots, but for more then £100 less doesn't concern me. Do need spare batteries and larger memory though (you can get 128mb for around 20quid now (Sandisk)).

Picture quality superb!

Was a little bit disappointed that had to pay so much and wait so long for delivery from Amazon when paying over one hundred pounds for Camera. In my experience, most larger purchases from Internet included free next day delivery. Although They did deliver within the timescale they said they would (5 days bang on)

Great Camera ...but!

I would agree with all the claims and stats that Fuji claim, the camera is very good indeed. Gripes I have: The Screen on the back of the camera is as good as useless under dark light...so focusing is hard work. The movie mode does not have sound...hence the large amount of recording time! You will definitly benifit from a 128mb card...The automatic slide show feature is a little bit creaky in operation...no case with the camera....
Other thna those little gripes its great quality and works very well indeed.