Fujifilm FinePix A610

Every digicam manufacturer is thriving on newer technologies, a result of competition in the market. What distresses me is that most often it’s just a bit of tweaking of the existing product. Customers will obviously be smitten by the thought of carrying a cam that boasts Real Photo technology or the anti-reflective screen. How about a budget camera that clicks good snaps?

The FinePix A610 by Fujifilm is a camera that advocates the same philosophy. This camera I feel is marketed towards people who would like to buy something because it’s new and has a couple of unique features. Come, I’ll show you what I mean.

Build
Quite honestly, the build quality of the A610 is nothing to write home about. It isn’t exactly very stylish either. All-in-all, I’m put off by the steely look. There is a mixture of brushed metal clubbed unevenly with glassy steel. The camera makes for a bland design composition (especially when you look at it from the top). No reason why I shouldn’t believe that the commercial artists at the Fuji labs weren’t half asleep while designing the A610. But, seriously, you can’t be expecting a stellar piece of work from a budget camera.

My first reaction when I got the piece in hand was why in the name of beauty the power button had to be sunk in? In such cases, you either end up looking for the button all the time or have to press it more than once. In this case, however, the power button is quite responsive. Just a light flick and the camera came on without any hassles.

Amidst all the criticism, I have to commend Fujifilm for the little depression given at the top right corner beside the screen. At first, it may appear to be a functional key. It’s simply there to allow you to sort of lock your thumb in place. A huge convenience, as most users tend to accidentally hit the neighboring keys while clicking pictures.

The A610 comes with a largish LCD screen, which is quite pleasant to look at. Just a word here about the screen before we proceed – Don’t be afraid to use it in broad daylight. The screen features an anti-reflective coating that makes using the LCD without straining your eyes too much. Also it allows you to adjust the brightness of the screen for outdoor shooting. Bliss!! After all, it’s a 2.5-inch amorphous silicon TFT color LCD screen.
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Like I mentioned, it’s an entry level camera, which in itself should placate your curiosity. It’s a 6.3 megapixel camera, with 3x optical zoom. That’s it! There are no manual functions, so most users would do well by either setting the camera settings on auto or try the various scene modes the camera offers (in all 14 of them, that includes Beach, Snow, Baby, Night etc)

One more thing though. The camera comes with an intelligent flash mechanism. This means that it calculates the amount of natural light and the position of the object before firing the flash accordingly. It helps while shooting during twilight hours, at night I suggest you keep the flash on at all times.

Performance
Apparently, like the A610 all the A series Fujifilm cameras come with a ‘unique Super CCD and RP (Real Photo) Processor, for delivery of sharp images with minimal noise’. Let me tell you that the camera performs the best during the day. However, the pictures we took even in broad daylight came quite dull. Maybe a result of the RP processing, which, perhaps, captures the scenery in natural light. The pictures are not sharp, and sort of texturised.

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And the colors are just not bright enough. Most budget level cameras saturate the colors so that they stand out. We don’t see that happening here at all. So what do you do with pictures that are kept dull in the name of RP processing?

Pictures taken in the night had less noise, again, maybe due to the RP technology. So your point-and-shoot purposes should be served well. But you can’t use these pictures for printing it in large sizes. Maybe to put them online, but definitely not if you are planning to frame them on the wall.

Close-up shots were not satisfactory either. As you can see the picture below was clicked using the macro-shot mode and the colors fail to stand out even on this one. Arrgghh!!! Damn that RP technology!!

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Conclusion / Specs
Like I said there isn’t much that the camera has to offer. Okay, so it has the RP processing and the intelligent flash mechanism. But the image quality doesn’t really live up to my expectations. Unless you are looking for some ‘say-cheese’ pictures, there is no reason why you should buy this cam for Rs 8,500. If budget cam is all you fancy then do ahead, but even then I would still recommend the Nikon Coolpix L10. Pssstt!! And guess what? It’s cheaper than the A610.

Fujifilm FinePix A610