I bought this as a Birthday present to my girl-friend and she has been pleased with it despite it's multi menu which required her referring to the comprehensive manual. Taking just x2 AA batteries, it is very light weight but compared with my MX1200 which lacks the cine feature (not missed) & USB connection, edges the technology forward at a budget price. They can be obtained on eBay at under £20 and with a decent case will serve a novice well.

Stopped functioning completely within 3 months. Won't turn on. New batteries, still nothing. 4 weeks later, picked it up and tried again, it worked. Lasted a week then dead again. No damage. No drop. just stop functioning.

Overall, I recommend the camera for it's money. But if you like to tweak with compensations and got nobody to take your pictures, go get something else.

For the pixels it has incredibly great photo quality. The camera is adjustable to just about anything you require of it for any amount of light or distance. The memory is adjustable as well as the type of shot you take, snap shot or movie shot. The software is easily enuff to deal with.

I was reading these reviews and was surprised no-one was mentioning the fact that the A101's view finder is not straight. It's grand if one uses the lcd but the normal viewfinder is way off. Also the switch on the front for close up/ far away seems to be the wrong way round. If I select close up the camera never flashes and anything close up is out of focus. If I select far away then the camera will flash and everything is in focus. Apart from that the camera is great. I got a 64 Mb card as 8 Mb fills up too easy. The videos are only for fun. Quality is very bad. You can see what is going to be lit in the LCD and by moving the camera you can make sure the person is lit properly and not the sunshine in the window behind them.

The fuji Finepix A101 digital camera offers great pictures and low light optimization. Great value if you can get it for aronud $150 US (as of June 2002). I took a hundred pictures in all sorts of lighting conditions and they are very good. This is not a camera for detailed and very high quality picture taking. I use it for travel.

I use it with WindowsXP (don't even need to load ANY software). I did load Finepix viewer on my laptop (windows2000) and it works great.

I have just bought the Fuji finepix a101 digital camera and it's the best thing i have bought in a long time! I bought it for £128 and the delivery was superb. It is very easy to use after a quick flick through the instruction manual. For 1.3 mega pixels, i was AMAZED at the quality of the pics, the sharpest i have ever seen even beating 2.0 mega pixels. If you are a beginner and wanting a VERY good camera with a little bit of zoom then don't hesitate to buy it, you will not be unhappy.

The Fuji Finepix A101 digital camera replaces my AGFA E-Photo 780 which, despite its now very outdated technology, was a thousand times easier to use. The biggest drawback with the FinePix A101 is the absolutely awful software that comes with it. It names your pictures ridiculous jumbles of numbers and letters, it saves them in places that you cant specify and if you have a zip drive (removeable disk as it appears in Windows) the program has a hard time telling between the Zip and the camera since the software is configured to recognize the camera as removeable disk "F". If you can manage to get the pictures into a folder where you want them, just go ahead and try to make any changes to individual shots.....it is impossible and tends to simply save the revised photo as another separate file in some far away mysterious place. I have gone back to using my AGFA Photowise software to manipulate pics taken with this camera. Its much more functional and MUCH easier to use.

the Fuji Finepix A101 is my first digital camera, so I did not know what to expect. The quality of the photos is amazing, they are so sharp. I took photos in fine format and I printed out a 7 by 6 photo and you would not know the difference,
It is a fantastic little camera

You can take pictures or videos with the Fujifilm Finepix A101 digital camera. It also has expandable memory(32MB,64MB or 128MB.) The flash is great for taking pictures at night. Can zoom in x2 and x4 while veiwing the picture on your camera.

Unless you are a professional photographer, you do not need anything more than what the Fuji Finepix A101 digital camera has to offer. 1.3x pictures are of far better image quality than typical printers can print out and too big to send via email, I find myself taking 90% of the pictures in vga mode (low rez). With the 8mb smart media card included this allows 61 pictures to be taken which is plenty for the average person.
Overall I'm very happy with this camera and feel bad for those who think they need to spend over $200 for a good digital camera

I've been putting off getting a digital camera on the assumption that they were inferior to film & just a gimmick. Additionally the price seemed very steep compared to film cameras and I just wasn't willing to pay it. I still thing the high-end cameras are a bit much.

However with Xmas approaching and my girlfriends insistance on buying me something 'gadgety' (top girl!), I decided to ask for a camera. On a tight budget, I decided on the a101 based on the reviews (including some of these) and the fact I wanted a good value camera with removable media and at least 1 mega pixel.

I haven't been disappointed, it's a top digital camera, small and light and great fun at party's !

The addition of video clips and webcam functionality are an added bonus, although I won't be using in place of my current webcam.

My main gripe is battery life (It seems to fry a set every day I use it). I've had to fork out for the adapter as that's not included & the supplied 8M smartmedia card is a bit tight, so I'm also going to cough up for a 64Mb

Also the LCD is very dark and not really that useful for actually framing a shot - although it's not bad on playback, even though you only get an 'idea' of what the final picture will look like.

The lack of zoom is a pain for serious photography, and the digital zoom only works with VGA size pictures which is a bit sad.

All in all though, excellent value for money (at last), great fun and highly recommended as a first step into the world of digital photography. A good digital camera, and very nearly a great one !

A GOOD, USABLE DIGITAL CAMERA FOR THE PRICE (AROUND £158 INC 8mb SMARTMEDIA CARD). IT IS VERY SMALL AND LIGHT, A LITTLE UNDER 4" LONG, 1.5" DEEP, AND 2.5" HIGH, PERHAPS A LITTLE TOO LIGHT A PLASTICKY. THE MOVIE CAPTURE FEATURE MAKES THIS CAMERA STAND OUT FROM THE CROWD, VERY USEFUL FOR SENDING A SHORT MOVIE CLIP TO THE FOLKS BACK HOME. THE ONLY BAD POINTS ARE THE LACK OF ZOOM IN THE HIGHER RESOLUTIONS ABOVE 640 X 480, AND THE VIDEO AND PC CAMERA (WEBCAM) IMAGES ARE SO DARK THEY ARE UNUSABLE.

This digital camera is easy to use, produces very good quality pictures that are easy to upload to the PC. I did start using the LCD for every shot, but now have it switched off, as every shot is usually a good shot, hence long battery life. Buy it now.

Okay, lets start with the bad points about this camera.
First, the webcam picture is dark unless you have a bright desk lamp 2 feet in front of your face. If you want a webcam, for anything other than frivolous use, this is probably not the cam for you (NB: I've not actually used any other webcams, but surely they must be better than this).
Second, when connected to the PC, this camera went through a fresh set of batteries in under an hour. The mains adaptor is an ESSENTIAL accessory.
Apart from that, the camera is just what I wanted: A cheap, easy to use digital camera that allows me to put my photos on my PC in small and medium size image files, without having to resort to paying for film & processing and then get around to scanning them in.

The ideal digital camera for an introduction to digital photography.
It is almost idiot proof, and for the price has all the refinements needed for the novice. A first class product.

I was interested in buying a digital camera and found this website. They gave me promt good advice and i am now the owner of a fuji a101 and i love it. i already have a good stills camera but i wanted something a little more flexible. This was my first digital camera. i'm not great with computers so i wanted something easy to set up and use and that's what i got. The finepix also has good image quality and amazing macro. It's a great size for slipping in your pocket and catching those unexpected moments. It's great.

I've been looking around for a good, cheap 1.3 Megapixel camera with an LCD screen that could be used as a webcam. This proved difficult as not many have all three. Until I spotted the new Fuji Finepix A101! This new camera seems to have it all and comes from a brand that i've heard of. None of the features are a gimmick it does everything well, great pictures, nice video recording (no sound) and a good webcam (albeit a bit dark). As the camera takes Smartmedia cards it is very easy to store lots of shots.

The camera is nice to look at and is very compact and seems well built and all the features are easy to navigate using on screen menus and a small array of buttons. The camera is a nice easy and cheap way to get into digital photography.

Get this camera now, i'm sure you won't be disappointed!

Great camera; very easy to use with so many features on it and great as web cam too. But video is very dark. I had to use a small lamp behind the camera to get the brightness up. I like the fact it uses smart media so just popped the card from my mp3 player in. That's 497 photos at 640x480 and 198 at 1280x960 normal jpeg compression on my 64Mb card, that should do for a 3 week holiday.
Overall very pleased with camera; takes great photos and so easy to use.