Fujifilm FinePix AX200 12 MP Digital Camera with 5x Wide Angle Optical Zoom and 2.7-Inch LCD (Black)
- 12-megapixel resolution for large, photo-quality prints
- Fujinon 5x wide-angle optical zoom lens
- Capture 720p HD movies with sound and still shots in 16:9 that can be played back on any HD-ready television (or a home PC)
- Panoramic Shooting mode; Picture Search
- 2-AA Batteries
Fujifilm FinePix AX200 – 12MP, Fujinon 5x Wide Angle Optical Zoom (28-140mm), 2.7″ LCD. Other features include: Face Detection w/ Red Eye Removal, Picture Stabilization, High Sensitivity 3200 ISO, 6 Scene – SR Auto Automatic Scene Recognition, HD Movie 720p w/ Sound, Panorama Mode, 2 AA Batteries.
List Price: $ 89.00
Price: $ 84.99
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Versatile camera, great pix for the price,
10/27/10 Update: When you buy an SD memory card, MAKE SURE THAT IT IS CLASS 4 OR HIGHER. Lower class (lower read/write speed) cards will cause the camera to freeze when taking HD video. I just experienced this problem with a lower class card and see from reading other reviews that other people are having the same problem, not realizing you MUST HAVE CLASS 4 or higher memory in order to shoot HD video. I also see from the Amazon page that “other people frequently bought” a 4 GB SanDisk Class 2 card along with this camera. That Class 2 card WILL NOT support HD video, according to the Fuji manual. I have ordered a Class 4 card and will report back when it arrives.
10/28/10 Update: Kingston 4 GB Class 4 SD card arrived today. I tried taking HD video clips outdoors this afternoon, and later this evening indoors. In the outdoor test, in bright afternoon conditions, using alkaline batteries, I took a total of 21 short HD videos. Of the first 10 videos, 2 caused the camera to freeze while it was shooting. Of the last 11 videos, 7 caused a freeze. Pretty bad, right? Well…this evening after dinner, I tried again, this time indoors. I took 16 more short HD videos in low indoor night light conditions, and NONE of them froze. Using the same alkaline batteries as before. No freezing. I tried switching to NiMH batteries…no freezing. I tried running the alkaline batteries until the camera shut down…no freezing. It’s working perfectly now. Go figure… *****end of update*****
I read all the other Amazon reviews for this camera, and read the specs on the Fuji website before buying the camera. After using it for a day, I’m pleased to say that it has exceeded my expectations.
The menus are well laid out, and the modes and settings are very easy to change. I’ve read the manual fairly carefully and have experimented a good deal with some of the “shooting modes” and have the following suggestions and observations for those (few) who have complained of poor picture quality. (I’ve gotten outstanding results so far).
First, be aware that this camera has a WIDE ANGLE lens, which means that it’s designed to capture a wider field of view than a “normal” 35 mm equivalent lens. This makes it good for close quarters (e.g. indoor photography where you’re trying to get as much of a room as possible, or as many people as possible, into the frame). I just spent this afternoon photographing the interior of a small 17th century post-and-beam house, and the wide angle lens captured more of the interior than a 35 mm equivalent lens would have. The downside of the wide angle lens is that you will see some “fisheye” bending at the edges of the frame, but the bending does disappear as you zoom out to a longer focal length. The wide angle also means that, even with full zoom, subjects will appear farther away than with a “normal” zoom lens. So if you want maximum zoom magnification of distant objects, a wide angle lens probably isn’t your best choice. On the other hand, if you want maximum field of view for nearby scenes and people, wide angle is the way to go. (This lens can also do “macro” closeups, but I haven’t tried that yet).
Second, it helps if you read up on ISO settings and understand that some unavoidable digital “noise” creeps into digital photos at higher ISO settings. The higher the ISO setting, the more unwanted “noise” you’re going to get. Therefore, you get the best quality shots at the lowest ISO setting (100 for this camera). Read the manual and learn how to either set the ISO manually to 100 (in shooting mode “Program AE”) and/or use the other modes in such a way as to induce it to choose the lowest ISO possible. This camera seems to have very low noise at ISO 100, some at ISO 400, and is marginal at ISO 800. Try to avoid ISOs above 400.
Third, change the “Image Quality” setting from Normal to Fine. The camera comes set to Normal, which means that your photos will be digitally compressed to save storage space. However, the compression process loses some image quality. To get the best image quality, change to Fine, which will save photos without compression and thus give the best image quality. If you want more storage space and don’t care so much about image quality, you can change back to Normal.
Fourth, read the manual and experiment with the different shooting modes, which make this camera quite versatile. I just shot the interior of the historic house I mentioned above using a tripod and the “Night (Tripod)” shooting mode, and the photos came out great even though there was little interior light and I chose not to use a flash. The Night (Tripod) mode gives up to 4 seconds of shutter open time for very low light conditions, at low ISO settings (like 100) for great quality shots.
Fifth, experiment with the “White Balance” adjustment in shooting mode “Program AE”. White balance can make a big difference in…
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|HD Movies and Terrific Pictures Without Breaking the Bank,
Honestly, I purchased this camera solely for the HD recording feature. It’s a bonus in that it takes pretty darn good pictures, too. I trust the Fuji name and I should have known this camera would deliver on both counts. My first digital camera was a Fuji A205, and even today it takes quality photos as good as it did almost 7 years ago.
Pictures are sharp and the colors are right on target. Response time after taking a picture without using the flash was just about 1 second or even slightly under a second, which is great considering this camera uses AA batteries; response time between pictures with the flash firing was around 2 seconds before ready to take another flash shot…a lot better than some other brands I’ve tried recently. (Specifically the Canon A495 and the Nikon L20, which I tried and eventually returned for a refund. This Fuji AX200 leaves these two cameras behind in the dust.)
A minor complaint I have with the AX200 is the shiny black plastic it is made of – it shows every fingerprint. It looks nice but I wish they would make these cameras with a matte black finish instead. The tripod mount is plastic also and is located in the center bottom, which is good for stability if using a mini-tripod.
The optical wide angle zoom on this camera is 5X (a majority of cameras at this price point have 3X). It uses readily-available AA batteries. The camera comes with 2 alkaline batteries; I was able to shoot around 125 pictures and some short movies with these batteries before they expired. I recommend buying rechargeable batteries; I got double the amount of shots with rechargeables. You also need an SD card, this camera has some internal memory, but not enough to do anything other than take a few pictures.
This camera is so easy to use, anyone from a young child to older people should have no trouble. I handed it off to my 5 year old nephew to use and even he could figure out how to take a picture. It’s larger than an ultra-compact, and easier to hold onto. The measurements are 3.7″ wide x 2.4″ high x 1.1″ thick. It’s thicker on the end where the batteries and SD card are inserted.
You can take the camera out of the box and be taking pictures in no time flat. SR-Auto (the default) automatically senses the scene and adjusts itself accordingly: Portrait, Landscape, Night, Macro, Backlit Portrait, or Night Portrait.
There is no dial to change settings, everything is accessed thorough menu navigation. It’s easy to select the right shooting mode as there is a full description on the screen as you scroll through the settings. For example: on the Portrait Scene, the description underneath says “Portrait with soft overall tone and beautiful skin tones”.
In additional to having Face Detection, this camera has the following Scenes to choose from: Scene Recognition (SR Auto), Auto, P Program AE – where you can change ISO (100 to 3200), white balance and exposure. Natural – no flash – and flash – takes 2 pictures, 1 with flash, 1 without. Natural Light, Portrait, Baby Mode, Landscape, Panorama, Sport (I use this with pets that don’t want to hold still). Night, Night with Tripod, Fireworks, Sunset, Snow, Beach, Party, Flower, and Text.
This camera has Picture Stabilization (somehow built into the camera’s software), but it is NOT optical image stabilization.
Next, you have your movie modes – 3 to choose from – HD at 720p, and also 640 and 320 in the AVI format.
This is IMPORTANT: You can use the optical zoom while recording movies, however, sounds will not be recorded AT ALL during the ENTIRE time the lens is zoomed out……But if you leave the movie zoom setting on digital, not optical, you will record sound the entire time it is on digital zoom. **This is a major complaint of mine for this camera.** I did keep my rating at 5 stars, though, mainly because I won’t be using zoom that often on my movies, and the digital zoom isn’t as bad “quality-wise” as I thought it would be.
If you want to play the movies back on your TV, you will need to purchase an additional A/V cable (AV-C1) if you don’t already own one. If you want to play an HD movie back on your HDTV, you will need to purchase an additional HDMI cable. There is also an optional Model HDP-L1 player available on Fujifilm’s web site, which includes an HD card reader and a remote. Since I don’t have an HDTV myself, I didn’t purchase this so I can’t comment on it.
The AX200 also comes with very basic Fuji MyFinepixViewer photo editing software. It’s compatible with Windows 7, Vista, XP and Mac. This is one area where Fuji lags behind the rest; I wish they could come up with software as good as the Canon ZoomBrowser. The Finepix software was finally upgraded from the 2003 version with this camera, but it still doesn’t impress me. Using XP requires a minimum 512 RAM and Vista…
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