For a digital camera in its price range, the FinePix F480 from Fujifilm offers a surprising number of interesting features. It's far from a perfect camera, but for the price, it is easy to use and yields good photos in most situations.

First, the 8.2 megapixels of resolution in the FinePix F480 is a big surprise. Few cameras with a price point around $150 can offer as much resolution, which can translate to high-quality prints up to 16x20 inches under ideal exposures. Image quality is only average with this model; outdoor photos have good color and sharpness, but indoor and low-light photos could be better. The FinePix F480 creates noise in almost every photo, even when shooting at low ISO settings, but if you don't attempt to make prints beyond 8x10 inches, you probably won't notice the noise.

The FinePix F480 offers a 4X optical zoom lens, but that measurement is a little misleading. This camera's lens offers limited wide-angle capabilities, and its overall coverage is 28mm to 112mm (based on a 35mm film camera equivalent). You'll end up with a zoom magnification that's a little better than a standard 3X digital camera optical zoom lens, along with some wide-angle capabilities that very few budget-priced digital cameras offer.

The FinePix F480 suffers in image quality and performance quite a bit in low-light conditions, in part because it has no focus-assist illuminator for the autofocus function. One other area where this model suffers is in its response times, which are below average, even for a budget camera. You'll have to wait 3-4 seconds after pressing the power button to shoot your first photo. Shutter lag is not noticeable, until you try to shoot in extremely low-light situations. Shot-to-shot delays can range from 2 to 5 seconds, depending on whether the flash is used. Continuous-shot mode isn't much better, with a top speed of about three photos in 4 seconds.

The unit's 2.7-inch LCD is bright and sharp in nearly all situations, which is a good thing because it serves as the camera's only viewfinder. However, the LCD can be a little difficult to see in bright sunlight because of screen glare.

Fujifilm included 12MB of internal memory with the FinePix F480, but that's only enough to use as an emergency backup; you will have to purchase a memory card immediately. The camera body looks good, mostly black with a silver lens. The lens extends beyond the camera body when in use, but it retracts fully when you power down the FinePix F480, leaving it with a thickness of only 0.9 inches.

For an ultra-compact digital camera aimed at inexperienced photographers, the FinePix F480 has a few very nice features. The limited wide-angle capabilities are especially nice for a model in this price range. In addition, the FinePix F480 couldn't be easier to use. This model isn't going to provide powerful features and its response times can be a source of frustration, but it's a good value. Its image quality is nothing special, but it's definitely good enough to make this camera worth considering for beginning photographers.


Pros: Great value, thin camera body, easy to use, limited wide-angle capabilities, outdoor photo quality is good, sharp LCD
Cons: Indoor photo quality is sometimes below average, response times are below average, extremely large prints could have stray noise

Warranty
1 year, limited