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I love taking photographs, as you probably already realised. I started with a Kodak Disc camera when I was little, and soon progressed to Zenit 35MM, later replaced with a Cosina after it was stolen. When digital was within my reach, I bought my Fuji 4700: It was bought in August 2000, from Jessops, a great photography shop, in Exeter Fore Street. This camera was superb, and also looks really cool. People actually looked at me when I took it out! I paid £600 for this camera, but it was worth every penny.
I used this camera for everything, and took it everywhere I went. My Exeter CD project, took 6 months to prepare using this camera. Take a look at my Grey squirrel , Mushroom & Fungus , Butterflies and Dragonfly photos too!
I'm now using a Canon EOS 300D Digital SLR, and Karolina is using a Nikon Coolpix L5. Although a little out of date, some of our previous cameras are detailed below.
Battery life is improved over the previous models, by opting for the Lithion Ion battery, the NP80. This provides on average 120 shots with the LCD monitor on, and 250 with it off. It also allows around 3 hours of voice recording. Charge time is 5 hours, using the supplied docking station, or a fast charger is available at extra cost. The battery cost is quite high, around £30, and would probably need replacing after a year of usage.
So can it do better? Well I have a few wishes.... Firstly that the flash was detachable or positionable. Although it does have a range of flash options and adjustments, red eye is still a problem, and indoor shots are still not as great as they could be. Secondly the dial on the top, turns itself to another mode on entry into the case, or exit. This means that you can sometimes take a quick shot in the wrong mode, if you do not pay attention. I've got used to this now, but it's annoying. Thirdly, the camera has on more than one occasion, turned it self on while still in the case. On one occasion I noticed something very hot in my coat pocket, it was the camera, which had turned itself on, and got into a very strange mode. The case felt so hot, I could not touch it! I removed the battery and allowed it to cool, took around 10 minutes before it was cool enough. This camera is no longer with me, due to reasons described below....
The 3rd Fuji, again, very similar in looks as the two previous models, but with less buttons and half an inch and 20,000 pixels lost on the LCD screen. The menu system has been completely re-designed, as has the navigation buttons for it. As for features, they've added a few, and taken some away too. You now get full control over shutter speed and aperture, one of the other, or both, as well as
So what have they taken away? Well, firstly the ability to allow continual frame numbers. I found this really useful, as I could dump all the masters into a single directory, without renaming. I can't see why Fuji decided to take this out. There is a somewhat clumsy work-a-round however, leave the last file on the card, and the numbers will continue. Still it's a mighty fine camera, and I congratulate Fuji once more on a well thought out product. I had been using a Minolta Dimage 7, which mum kindly gave to me when she upgraded to a Fuji S2 (followed by the S3). I had a brief time with another camera until I settled on the Canon 300D which I am currently using.
I still have my old SLR, it's a Cosina, 
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Finepix 6800 : I got this camera in June 2001, as a replacement for the 4700. It looks similar, including the highly polished aluminium/magnesium alloy body, and much of the layout and features are the same. This camera cost £630, again from Jessops. There are several advantages and new features over the 4700, as follows:
Multi-exposure allows you to overlay several photographs on top of one another - in fact there is no limit to the number of exposures that can be taken.
Finepix 601 : Nothing seems to last forever these days, and cameras are no exception. The Fuji 6800 developed a fault with the image processor, which would have been as expensive to repair as to replace. After discussions with Fuji and Jessops, although it was out of warranty, they agreed to replace it with the F601, in August 2003. Well done to both Fuji and Jessops for good customer service.
ISO settings up to 1600 for low light work. Video quality is improved, with a VGA resolution of 640x480, as well as a lower quality setting which allows longer films to be shot. The battery is now a completely different NP-60, a slimline (7mm) Lithium-Ion, which lasts for around 150 shots using the LCD screen, or a fairly impressive 300 without. With the audio recording, you can now also add markers to particular places, making it easier to find parts of a long conversation, for instance. You can now work with action shots a little easier with the 40shot continuous option, or the sports setting.
Secondly, camera customization, something which I never used anyway, but it allowed you to put a specific photo on the startup of the LCD screen. Black and White setting has been removed, of course you can do this easily on the PC anyway. Multi-exposure, this allowed you to overlap an unlimited number of frames over each other, and whilst I only ever used it a couple of times, it was a nice feature. Auto playback - the feature to allow the camera to produce a slideshow is now gone, again, a very nice and useful feature.