Love at first...shot??

My mom gave me some cash to buy a new digital camera for Christmas, and I went with the Fuji Finepix E510. I had previously owned the Fuji Finepix 2650. I loved the 2650 but the LCD eventually broke (either from dropping it too many times or from taking too many pictures in the rain & snow). So I needed a replacement.

The E510 was exactly what I wanted. More pixels to work with..5.2 to be exact, and more optical zoom (if no one has told you yet, digital zoom doesn't do anything but pixelate your images..don't buy a camera based on that..don't even use it if you can avoid it.) Though the E510 wasn't the cheapest camera out there, I knew Fuji was what I wanted. Even when the LCD on my 2650 broke, the camera still took pictures, they're very reliable digital cameras.

I read a few of the reviews from people who hated this camera, and I have to say..I think they just weren't using it correctly. Here's some examples of pictures I've taken using the Finepix E510..

(just copy/paste these to your browser address line)

http://www.gfxhost.com/eBayImageHosting.php?i=48766&img=BootsyCloseUp1.JPG&Image-Hosting=Photo-Sharing


http://www.gfxhost.com/eBayImageHosting.php?i=48770&img=JoeyCloseUp2.JPG&Image-Hosting=Photo-Sharing

http://www.gfxhost.com/eBayImageHosting.php?i=48871&img=SalemJail03.JPG&Image-Hosting=Photo-Sharing

http://www.gfxhost.com/eBayImageHosting.php?i=48758&img=Lamp1MacroBW.JPG&Image-Hosting=Photo-Sharing

http://www.gfxhost.com/eBayImageHosting.php?i=60420&img=2005_0326Image0022.JPG&Image-Hosting=Photo-Sharing

Now, there was no problems with anything in these pictures. I'm not saying I've taken perfect pictures every time, but believe me..if they came out bad, 99% of the time it was my own doing, not the camera's fault. For instance, if you forget to turn the flash on, yes..you will get blurry pictures because of hand shake (and there's even a warning on the LCD letting you know this).

The macro setting is actually two separate settings.. Macro and Super Macro. Super Macro lets you get as close as 1" from your subject, and flash cannot be used with this setting. For the Macro setting you can be anywhere from (something like) 1' to 2'. Flash CAN be used with the Macro setting.

The great thing about the camera, IMO, is the ability to change from Black & White, to Chrome (extremely vivid colors, to Standard. You can also set your own ISO speed, which is great. There are options available for shutter-priority and aperture priority, and of course manual. There's also a night photo setting, called Slow Synchro I believe..be forewarned though - if you accidentally leave it on this setting in the daylight all of your non-flash photos come out blue, very dark and very blue. If you use it with a flash, you'll get a great picture of whatever is about 3 feet in front of you, then a black background.

This is an amazing camera and it has some great settings. You just have to know some basics about taking pictures to be able to take amazing photos of anything.