Fujifilm FinePix A600 Zoom

Opinion: The 'Poor Man's F30'.
Bought this for my wife nearly 12 months ago on sale.
The exposure, sharpness, color and general IQ is good up to ISO 400 (the A600's max.) It is just a point and shoot camera - just what she wanted. It has a very limited feature set of course. It basically has the same 6.3 megapixel Super CCD 1/1.7" and lens as the F30 but lacks the sophisticated Real Photo Image Processor, so no high ISO low noise shots, faster operation etc.

Opinion: Excellent and sharp pics , very good colors,easy to operate

Opinion: Value for the money - no argue on this point. Good picture quality, satisfactory range of shooting resolutions, nice big LCD display, BUT ...
very few options when shooting in "manual" mode, which makes it meaningless. Not good enough when shooting at points/places where sharp contrast dark-light is targeted. And now the most annoying issue: POOR batery life when reviewing pictures in the camera, or downloading to PC. I use 2100 mAh rechargible NiMH and still have to change them after 3-5 min picture reviewing.

Opinion: This is one junk camera to be avoided.

Opinion: I bought 3 of these for my kids for Christmas and I must say I'm amazed by the quality of the images and the portable size and the fact that it runs on AA batteries(make sure you use Nimh). I a pro and I carry a Canon SD 700is in my pocket for fun and aside from a few bells and whistles on the Canon, there is very little if no difference in image quality between the Canon and the Fuji. In my opinion there isn't a better bargain in a 6mp digital camera today plus you can't beat the beautiful colored Fuji jpeg's right out of the Camera. They're a steal at their current price.

Opinion: I got this for my better half at the same time I got my F30. She only wanted a simple point and shoot no nonsense camera that could take good pictures without fuss and suitable to print good 4X6" and an occasional 8X10. This camera blew us both away with the image quality and ease of use. It also takes 2-AA batteries (better to go with 2,000+ mah rechargables). It has almost the same footprint as the F30. We tried out others in the same price range (less than $200) but they couldn't compare in image quality or ease of use. She likes the way this camera feels and fits in her hand, purse and or pocket. Excellent flash too.