FujiFilm FinePix 420 

The FujiFilm FinePix 420 is 7.5x6.5x2.5cm and weights only 150grams. It has a nice bright clear TFT display 3.7x3cm, the colours are really vibrant whereas in some TFT displays tend to be somewhat muted.

The front has the lens (automatically covered when switched off) and the flash as well as the on/off slider. I always try to find my way round cameras without any recourse to manuals or getting started guides and I must admit I was defeated the first time I came across this slider on an earlier Fuji model. The right side has the anchor point for the wrist strap while the left side has mini USB socket that works for AV out, direct printer output as well as standard USB connection to the PC. Beside this is the DC input to charge the joined pair of AAA rechargeable (700mAh) that fit under a cover in the base along with the supplied 16MB XD card. I find the latter somewhat mean as most suppliers provide at least a 32MB card these days. The rear has five buttons a rocker arm for telephoto/wide angle and a three position slider for taking still, taking movie and showing images.

A folded sheet suffices for Getting Started and all but a total novice should be able to get reasonable images using this without recourse to the 92 page manual that allows you to access the goodies hidden behind the versatile on TFT menus.

This is a three megapixel unit but it purports to get 6M images (2816x2120) this is achieved by various things including it’s CCD. 3M (2048x1536) 1M (1280x960) and VGA or .3M (640x480). The number of images you can take on the supplied card will or course depend on the content of each image but the man#ual gives a guide of 10 19 33 and 122. Should you purchase a larger card then these figures will become less accurate.

There are several sensitivity modes and the higher the sensitivity the lower the light required however if you opt for 800 the highest available you can only take VGA or 1M images. For close up work there is a macro mode where images as close as 8.5cm can be taken. However if using flash with macro mode you are advised not to take images closer than around 30cm.

This unit has both optical and digital zoom 3x optical and 4.4x digital I am very pleased to say that the box is not emblazoned with 13.2x zoom that some manufacturers would have claimed as we all know that using digital zoom to take images just makes the final image smaller. My own personal feeling is that digital zoom is fine for checking an image for quality on the TFT display and little else.

As with most digital cameras you can take short movie sequences a 26 second epic would fill the 16MB card supplied at 320x240.

This is a nice intermediate camera, great for people that need the occasional image but also require quality but not something hanging round their neck all day. A quick search of the normal cheapest suppliers found www.dabs.com have it for £207.

Link :http://www.dabs.com/uk/Search2/Product+Details.htm?quicklinx=32QJ&searchphrase=fuji%20f420