buyer beware

After lots of research on several cameras that my daughter wanted, I picked this as the one that appeared the best.

I guess it was...for about 14 days after I picked it up. Unfortunatley Circuit City's return policy is 14 days after purchas, not when you actually get it.

My daughter took about 200 pictures and was very happy with it..until it died. Nothing... Open the cover and..nothing. Circuit City's response..well since you didn't buy the warrenty, tough luck. They couldn't even be bothered to send it back to Fugi for me. They directed me to a local camera store. They were very helpfull..and shocked at Circuit Citys poor customer service. They actually looked at it and pronounced it dead. They even took care of sending it back to Fugi for me.

So the rest of the review will have to wait until we find out if it can be resurected. This is the second defective product I bought at circuit city in the past 2 years. Lesson learned..either buy the warrenty or...shop somewhere else. The little camera shop will get my business in the future.

Anyway, all rants aside, I chose this for several reasons. My daughter wanted a pocket size point and shoot, so we weren't looking for great picture quality. Of the 200 or so she took, the quality seemed fine.

I was nervous about the mechanical issues with those with expanding lenses. The door cover mechanizm on the Fugi seemed a good way to protect the lens. That turned out to be the flaw in this one tho.

The battery compartment door on the bottom is a little flimsy. It is also easy to put the battery in backwards as it fits either way. The only way to tell its wrong is that the camera doesn't power up.

The switch to convert from photo to video is on the top and a little small, but hard to switch accidently.

My daughter loved the camera for the short time it worked. She would love to have it back and working. I'm going to be happy to save my 180 investment.