The Latest Info On Sunset Orange

November 11, 2011 lenses No comments

I got this camera a little over two years ago, and promptly lost the manual. I actually picked it because of the beautiful pink color it came in. I knew nothing about photography, so I just used the auto and other preset settings until about a week ago. I’ll start with prior to using the manual shoot function.

The construction of this camera is impressive. I’m a clutz, to say the least. I’ve dropped it a few times, both on carpet and hard flooring. It’s had things spilled on it, and traveled all over. Aside from a few scatches near the function wheels and a weird scratch/smudge on the display, it’s fine.

Portability is fabulous! I take this camera literally everywhere I go, it’s always in my purse. It’s less than an inch thick, and 3-4 inces long. The battery lasts a considerable amount of time, and charges fast.

Video quality is ok. It’s not the best, but it’s better than nothing for sure. I have taken videos at concerts that did not turn out well, one at Disneyland that turned out great, and a few of my dog that are great as well. The sound is very good. They take a very long time to upload onto my computer though. Also, if you shoot them holding the camera sideways, the video will remain sideways once you upload it. I haven’t found a way to turn them the right way yet.

Pictures…have been hit and miss. Sometimes I can get very good images, some VERY poor. The worst are in low lighting or at night, especially outdoors. I’ve tried using the “night” function, which results in streaky, odd looking photos EVERY SINGLE time. Not worth using. Another problem has been the zoom. Sometimes I can zoom in and get clear pictures, other times you can hardly tell what it’s a picture of. If you use the “sport” setting, that works fairly well for anything that’s moving, though they still don’t come out perfect.

The preset settings are cool. It has auto, snow, beach, sports, flower, natural, auction mode, portrait, landscape, sunset, museum, party, text, and anti-blur. They all have very clear descriptions displayed when you scroll onto them. I wish there were more, though.

NOW, i’ve finally started learning some things, and messing around with the manual settings. I’ve been getting pictures of a MUCH higher quality, and more consistent. I wish I had learned to do this earlier. I have not tried this yet at night though, so don’t know if that can be improved or not. I do still plan on upgrading to the FinePix F70EXR soon, but am happier with this one in the meantime. I would recommend this camera for someone that wants to learn but doesn’t feel ready to jump into a DSLR or spend a lot of money. It’s a good “learning camera”.