Overview
The Fuji Finepix A800 is one of the increasingly large number of digital cameras available for under £100. It has a fairly minimal set of features and is therefore one of the easiest to use cameras you are likely to come across. The Finepix A800 has eight megapixels and a three times zoom lens.
Main Features
Megapixels:
Zoom:
LCD Screen:
Dimensions:
Weight:
8
3x
2.5 inches
97.5 x 61.9 x 31mm
151g
Macro:
HD Movies:
Manual Controls:
Batteries:
Memory Cards:
10cm
No
No
AA
xD-Picture Card/SD
Image Quality
As I have come to expect from cameras selling for around the £100 mark and just under lowlight photography can be a problem. I also found a few focusing problems even in good light with the Finepix A800.
I was not that impressed with the sharpness of all three of my outdoor scenic shots. It appears that any photos taken at distance could have a problem. Move closer in and the performance of the camera starts to improve. Out of these three shots, photos one and three where the lens is zoomed in struggle the most. The wide angle shot (test photo 2) is better, but there is a fall off in focusing towards the edges of the shot.
Glare from the sun is handled well and darker areas have a good level of detail for a camera in this price bracket.
In the second shot there are darker areas creeping into the corners of the shot as well.
My test for colour underlines the fact that there is plenty of depth to the colours produced by the Finepix A800. In my opinion this is not overdone and you should be able to take some vivid, colourful photos with the camera.
The outdoor portrait shot also shows plenty of colour. There is a warm feel to the photo and I would be happy to have taken this shot with a move expensive camera. More light would have improved the photo further.
Moving indoors and running some lowlight tests the Finepix A800 hits serious difficulties. Neither the indoor portrait nor the shot of beer bottles is focused properly. There is little you can do to get round this problem apart from ensuring that for every photo you make available as much light as possible. Turn on every light and use window light whenever you can.
For a camera in this price bracket the macro shot is above average. In fact it is a pretty good shot. As I have noticed with other Fuji digital cameras there is a touch of purple showing here and there in the silver areas around the watch face.
There's no doubt that ISO 400 the picture quality is better than what I have become accustomed to seeing. Push the ISO setting up to ISO 800 though and deterioration is a more serious issue.
Shutter Lag
I don't think I can remember testing a camera that was so erratic when it came to my shutter lag tests. The figures it produced seemed to change all the time! Taking average times from the tests, a single photo took 0.33 seconds and five photos took 12.40 seconds. With flash it increased to 0.50 seconds for a single photo and 22.68 seconds for five. Flash recycling does slow the camera down, but all the other times are quire respectable.
Style
The Finepix A800 is a pretty conventional digital camera. The emphasis isn't really on style, but Fuji have built a solid camera for the price.
Dimensions
97.5 x 61.9 x 31mm
Weight
151g
Batteries
Two AA.
Memory Cards
xD or SD cards. 10MB built in memory (enough for around 4 photos).
Ease of Use Rating
Exceptional
Points I Like
Easy to use - Solid build
Where it Could Improve
Picture quality could be better - Small internal memory
Verdict
In my opinion a camera lives or dies on the quality of photos it produces. Therefore the Fuji Finepix A800 dies! I know it's pretty cheap, but if you are able to spend that bit more you will be able to buy yourself a much better digital camera.
Front View
Back View
Top View
Sample Menus
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Related Pages
Fuji Finepix A800 Review Fuji Finepix A800 Specification Fuji Finepix A800 Sample Images Fuji Finepix A800 Features
Review Date
May 2007
