Fuji FinePix 3800 Digital Camera

Quality Value

By Robert  Nov 11, 2002 | 135 out of 135 found this Fuji FinePix 3800 review helpful

I spent the better part of 3 months searching for a digital camera before settling on the Fuji FinePix. In my comparisons, I looked at Sony, Cannon, Minolta, Olympus, and Nikon in addition to the Fuji.Overall, this is a very well built, very easy to ...use camera that takes a very clean picture. It should be noted that on its highest resolution setting, a tripod almost becomes mandatory to guarantee the best picture. Camera Pros:1. GREAT zoom! Fastest, clearest, and easiest to operate zoom I looked at! BIG plus! 6x optical is great. 3x digital is, more or less, unnecessary.2. Screw-on ring adapter for adding a secondary zoom converter, wide-angle lense, or even filters (GREAT plus here!)3. Takes AA bateries. I do a lot of travel and dont want to have to struggle finding specialized batteries. Also, I do a lot of camping, so rechargeable only cameras (Sony!) are pretty much worthless to me (I often dont know when I will encounter a wall-plug to do my recharging). Fuji rated to around 320 shots on a fresh set of standard AA alkalines. I dont know how many shots it could be on Lithium AAs.4. Easy to use! Stable Grip! While it is a bit low on features, the camera is very intuitive and easy to use. I like to take a good pic, but I dont want to screw around with thousands of settings (ala Olympus and Nikon)5. Great feel - feels very solid and has that really cool SLR type look. Yeah yeah, this is very subjective, but at least it FEELS like a camera!6. Theres one other really nice feature I just cant remember, but it would go here!Cons:1. Proprietary memory card is slightly more expensive (Fuji Xd memory) and limited to 128 meg. 2. A little on the boxy side, though it is pretty light.3. Lacks some flexibility and features (such as extended f-stop control or extended manual shutter speed control)4. Not totally a negative, but not really a solid positive either: The viewfinder eyepiece sights through the lens, but not really. Its a digital rendering through the eyepiece that focuses through the lens. As a result, the viewfinder picture isnt as clear as some others, but the picture turns out just fine...Other:1. At 3.3 megapixls, best resolution setting, 1 pic - appx 1.3 megs in size! 2. About 2 seconds between shots. Does not permit Rapid fire or burst shots like the Olympus. Some cameras have a bit of onboard memory that allows for 3-5 rapid fire shots in under a second (though they then take 5 seconds to memorize the pix that were just taken).3. Downloaded 32 megs (25 pix at max setting) in under 60 seconds! WAY faster than my last digital camera.Great camera. If I upgrade from here, it would be a pro-series camera with all the bells and whistles to take truly cust shots. Read more Less