Two years ago I bought my first digital camera. At the time, prices for a 3.0 and higher megapixel camera were around $350. Since then, as with all electronics, prices have dropped significantly while megapixels have gone up. I chose Fujifilm’s A303 digital camera, which has worked well for me, so let me tell you why.

I was in desperate need of a digital camera when my web business took off. On many occasions I found myself wanting to take a photo of a person, place or thing and having to rely on a 35mm camera. The problem was that he wasn’t very good at taking pictures. Usually my subject came out blurry or the image needed to be cropped. Yes, developing images on disk would have solved the problem. last problem, but it was To form problem, blurry images, which was causing me the biggest complaint. If only I could see “on the spot” how my photo turned out. If it went wrong, he could shoot again. Naturally, a digital camera introduced me to something that no 35mm camera could offer; I bought a 3.2 megapixel camera from Fujifilm after many purchases and reading product reviews online.

Housed within a rugged gray casing, the A303 is lightweight and can easily fit into your pants pockets. Camera controls are easy to understand and include a Menu/OK button, Back button, viewfinder, viewfinder lamp, a View button, and an LCD monitor for Advance images without looking through the viewfinder or to review photos already taken. A round dial on the back of the camera features a self-timer mode where you can set the camera and ten seconds later have the image turn off. Ideal for when you want to get a picture of the whole family and no one is around to take it. There are also close-up, still, playback, and movie modes. Movie mode results in a rather choppy and short movie, but it’s a nice feature to have all the same.

The standard camera is equipped with a 16 MB image card. Most people will find it inadequate so I paid a little more and bought the 64mb upgrade. I also bought rechargeable AA batteries (two are needed) and a charger. You’ll drain your batteries quickly if you take 30-40 or more pictures at a time, so the charger makes sense. I bought the accompanying Fujifilm case to store my other supplies.

Images come out clear and in two years of taking pictures I have not experienced a single problem with the camera. At 3.2 megapixels, the images are more than adequate since pretty much everything I do is posted online. Supposedly you don’t need more megapixels when posting/viewing images online. With the included USB cable and HP software, you’ll be uploading images to the Internet in no time.

If there’s any downside to the A303, there’s only one and it’s a dazzling problem: the time between shots can seem endless! I’d guess the elapsed time is about ten seconds, but it seems like forever, especially compared to 35mm cameras. Technological improvements have closed the gap considerably with newer models, but if you need this camera to snap a group of photos quickly, you’re going to be disappointed.

All in all, the A303 is a very good camera. I give it a 4-star rating for ease of use, price, and reliability.