I got this camera for a Christmas present, so I haven't had it long enough to comment on how durable it is, though it seems sturdy enough. All the parts have a nice feel, and it's light but not too light.
I went through my first set of batteries after taking more than 100 shots, many in low light with the flash.
The flash is fine for illuminating your subject but the rest of the room may remain dark, especially if the wall is far away and the room is not bright to begin with. Low light shots without the flash tend to have a reddish tinge and you have to be careful to hold the camera steady. I've been able to hold it steady by hand, having about half the shots I take that way work, and the other half come out blurry.
The controls are easy to use and intuitive. I figured almost everything out just by fooling with the camera, though I had to consult the manual for flash modes. I wish I could turn of the "are you sure you want to do this" messages for some of the functions to let me do things like lock a frame with one button push instead of two. A very minor complaint.
Colors in normal light conditions are good, and the camera does avoid the washed out or metallic looking highlights I've seen in other digital cameras. Also blessedly absent is the pause between pressing the button and getting an exposure that a friend's camera has. With this camera, you press the button and that's the image you get, not an image from a second later.
I still have just the 16MB card the camera came with, which holds 24 of the highest quality photos. That's more than it sounds, because you can throw away shots you don't like. For me this means 24 shots is equal to about 3 or 4 rolls of film, so I'm in heaven. I'm experimenting with shots that I'd never try with a film camera and having a ton of fun. When I go on a road trip I'll spring for a bigger memory card.
My main annoyance is that after you take a picture with the flash the LCD goes blank for a couple seconds. I'm also miffed that the digital zoom doesn't work in highest quality mode (you can only zoom if your picture is being taken in a lower quality mode). This makes sense, I just wish the product description had mentioned it.
the finePix at amazon.com
Dated: 12/27/2002