Film Reviews

There are many things that really make this camera worth buying. These are a few that sold me:

1) Form factor - The 601 has got a really nice upright shape that lends itself to smaller hands.
2) Controls - The basic point-and-shoot controls are very easy to manipulate. Switching between Movie, Auto Control, and Manual Control is a cinch and zooming and focusing is a breeze.
3) Picture quality - The pictures that are produced are almost always true to life. Even at 1 megapixel normal mode, the pictures are sharp and clear.

But since I bought it, there have been a few niggling inconsistencies and drawbacks that take the sheen off the thing.

1) No picture stabilization - If you have jittery hands, you will end up with lots of fuzzy pictures.
2) A bug in the lens retraction system causes my camera to not stow the zoom lens when I turn it off.
3) Complicated menus - Once you decide to leave the familiar point-and-shoot environment and start fiddling with apertures and f stops, the menus become very complicated.
4) FinePix software - If you can avoid it, just don't install it. It is slow and heavy. I suggest getting another imaging suite like Photoshop Elements or Macromedia Fireworks or Jasc PaintShop Pro.
5) Short battery life - At 1 megapixel normal mode, it is almost impossible to fill up a 128Meg SmartMedia card. The battery in this case lasts about 3 hours. This annoyance is offset by the fact that 128M is enough to fit about 400 pictures. I ran out of battery the other day, which is why I bring this up. If you are used to shooting 30-40 shots a day, then there is plenty of battery.

Still, it is a cool little camera that takes really good pictures and is small enough to take with you on your next outing. The price is a little high and you would do yourself right to compare this to other cameras in its range. The form factor may look cool now, but you should try it out before buying, some people really don't like the shape.

Hello ALL

Can any one guide me on how to reset the camera????

I have been using Finepix F601 Zoom serial number 2ML26749 around a year and have run into a problem. The Camera now doesnot power up anymore. The last working state before the problem occurred was as follows:

1. Connected the camera to the Picture Cradle .
2. Connected the cradle to Windows XP PC (Home edition) via USB
3. Powered on the Camera
4. Windows Task Manager prompts that a digitalk Camera is connected and display avaible options
5. Select Copy pictures from Camera to HDD
6. After Copying the pictures from the camera to HDD, We shut down the XP leaving the Camera Powered on and in "access via USB" State which was indicated by a USB icon on its display.

After the PC was shut down, the camera couldnot be powered off and hence leaving the only option to remove the camera from cradle and remove the battery manually from its compartment. Ever since I am unable to power the camera unit. I tried to replace the memory and battery but of not use.

Please email at rvinukonda@juniper.net

I started with a Fujifilm MX-700 four years ago as my first digital camera, and I waited until now to upgrade to the F601, which is essentially the 4th generation version of the MX-700. It has the same stylish (even better looking and a bit smaller) aluminum housing, and the features are now an order of magnitude better. The F601 image processing is fast--only about 2-3 seconds between pictures (even at hi-res), and the image quality is excellent. I figured out the camera controls in about 5 minutes without reading the manual at all--they are very intuitive. The full-VGA 15 frame-per-second video capture mode is also great for mini-movies, and you are only limited by the size of your smart card on the movie length. Many other cameras only do quarter-VGA (QVGA) videos with a 30-second limit. Plus, like the other reviewer said, the F601 fits inconspicuously into a front pants pocket, so you can take it anywhere. Caveats: I don't like that the file numbering resets to zero each time you clear the smart card. That makes it difficult to download all of your pictures to the same file folder. Even my MX-700 had an option not to reset the file numbering, so I'm not sure what the Fujifilm engineers were thinking. Also, you have to learn how to hold the camera, because it is easy to block the microphone or the flash or the exposure meter with a finger. Finally, you'll want to fork over the money for an extra battery and a 128 MB smartcard. But those are small quibbles. This is a great camera for beginners and experts alike. I love mine.

Hey this is for everyone buying cameras over the world out of the united states, I have a problem with my camera and I don't have anyone to help, I've been trying some help in amazon's help area but they just have thousands of links but any simple email where I can ask for some help, I don't really understand why is this site so well known on "customer service", but I just cannot communicate with no one in the company to ask anything, I'm just mad about this, if anyone can help me to contact amazon or fujifilm please post an email or whatever cause there's no such a thing like help in the "help area". I need to repair my LCD monitor of my camera, it's really fragile, so if you're still thinking on buying in this site or even buying something from fujifilm, don't do it, they don't care about the customer satisfaction at all.

Reading through the reviews I've noticed that a lot of the problems I've been having have been mentioned (reddish tint, background dark, inside pictures come out not well at all if there's not a LOT of light, and if you don't have the flash on, they come out pretty blurry). The way I get good indoor pics with this is to go into my well lit bathroom, stand it on a shelf, and take a picture with the like 10 second wait mode (I can't remember what it's called, but you push the button and 10 seconds later it takes the pic)BUT this eats up the battery like crazy. I wouldn't say it's a bad digital camera, but I bet there's better out there in the same price range, especially if you know what you're looking for, which I don't (first digi cam, bought Fuji on advice from a photographer). It has a great LCD screen and the controls are very easy to figure out, but for me it's just not convenient. The appeal of a digital cam is that you can take a picture whenever without worrying about film, but these pictures just don't turn out well for me. I tried the movie mode once and it was DARK. This camera's biggest problem is the lighting (at least in my opinion) but there are some cool features I will admit (but then again, first digi cam). I paid 200 for it, so maybe if I had bought it at the lower price they have offered here it would have gotten a better review.

I bought this camera for my 17 year old son for chanukah. He wanted to take pictures with his friends wherever he went. The camera looked small and seemed to be well designed. It is! This camera hardly weighs anything and can fit anywhere. The controls are easy to use and the instructions are not difficult to follow. When I used the camera the screen seemed a bit dark (in a poorly lit area) but the images were excellent. The USB cable allows him to download and share with friends quickly. The lens is covered when the camera is off which is important for a teenager who takes the camera with him often. I'm also amazed by the new xd card. It is incredibly small but holds a lot of images. I recommend purchasing atleast one extra xd card and carrying extra AA batteries. So far I'm really impressed and my son is very happy with his gift.

I bought one of these ImageMates right after I picked up my Nikon CoolPix 950. It was an easy installation, and has made transfer of my pictures from my camera to my computer a breeze. The newer camera's support USB. But my 950 only has a serial interface. Which thanks to my USB ImageMate I've never had to use. The compact flash card shows up as a external drive on my desktop, so I can just drag and drop the pictures right from my card to my drive. Nothing could be simpler! And when I have a full 128 Meg Card it is appreciated! The only thing that kept me from giving it 5 stars is that inserting the compact flash card can sometimes take a minute because it's not as easy to insert the card into the reader as it should be. Minor quibble over all, so if you don't have one get one! For the price you can't go wrong.

Like most USB devices, this was incredibly easy to install on Win98. I just connected it to the USB port on my wife's PC and stuck in the CD when prompted. I didn't even have to reboot. Easy!

Downloading pictures using a serial cable is incredibly slow, and squanders expensive batteries. This device, which is powered by the USB cable, lets you treat your flashcards like high-capacity floppy drives. Just drag and drop your pictures from your flashcard to your hard drive using Explorer. Once you're done, erasing unwanted pictures from the flashcard is quick & easy.

This peripheral is cheap, given the time it saves and the convenience it provides. My wife loves it.

I followed the installation instructions: load the software, then plug the reader into the usb port and let Windows 98 recognize and install the item. And that's what it did - so simple! And Windows Explorer reads it just like any other drive. I agree with the previous reviewer - it is a little difficult to insert the flash card and you must take care. Maybe it doesn't take a whole minute, but it does take longer than the few seconds you would assume it should take. Other than that, it works exactly like it is supposed to.

The Canon EOS Rebel G SLR camera with its great 35-80mm Lens you will be zooming in for the good stuff. Its sleak body and easy to use buttons make it Ideal for new users but also with its interchanable lenes even the PRO can have fun useing it. For the money of this camera its not bad at all.

Review by Jack Sherwood

The Canon EOS Rebel G is absolutely wonderful. The autofocus is the fastest I've ever used. The metering system is difficult to fool, although I've still managed to do it a couple times. It has a wide range of automatic modes which all produce excellent results and save me a lot of work. But when I want more control, several semi-automatic modes and a fully manual mode allow me to do whatever I want with as little or as much work as I want. This camera has served well in all sorts of conditions in all kinds of situations. Even in the fully-automatic "snapshot" mode, the Rebel G can capture some unbelievable shots. It's easy to load, and the batteries last longer than I'm used to, so that's another bonus. Lots of extras are available which I can't wait to try out! You can't go wrong here. Buy it.

I bought this camera the day we were leaving for vacation. Of the three camera's brought on this trip, everyone who's looked at our pictures is amazed at how much better the quality is from the Canon Rebel. If you're not getting beautiful pictures from this camera, then you're doing something wrong. Having taken a photography class before, I love the flexability I have with all the different settings, while at the same time, any amature can take beautiful photos with the automatic settings. My only complaint is the auto focus. It's a little slow (especially compared to strictly automatic cameras) and when having someone else take a picture for you, you have to explain to them to hold the button half-way down until it beeps or your picture will be out of focus. Although I am so attached to this camera, it doesn't happen often! I love taking photos with it so much, our photo album looks like my family went on vacation without me! Regardless, it's light weight, easy to use, and produces the best quality photographs of any camera I've seen. If you enjoy photography, whether expert or amature, you will love this camera.

I bought this card reader so I wouldn't have to fiddle around with cables every time I want to download pictures and so that it can go from an hour ordeal to a quick few minutes. This memory card reader works perfectly. I am running Windows XP Home Edition and have an Olympus D-460 ZOOM camera. I used a 16 MB Smart Media card also made by Olympus. In my informal tests I was able to download pictures several times faster as well as doing so without using any of the software that came with the camera. Also whenever I want to download pictures all I have to do is slide the memory card in then open the F drive. I would recomend this product to anyone with a old non-USB camera that would like to transfer pictures faster and with less hassel.

I purchased this smartmedia reader in a combo with my new FinePix 2800 Zoom camera (which comes with a FujiFilm 16MB smartmedia card). I have used the USB reader repeatedly with no problems, but have not yet tried other card sizes or different brands.

Setup was easy with Windows XP and did not require the included software for the drivers. My camera was bundled with the FinePixViewer software for downloading and minor editing of the pictures from my digital camera - but it also loads wonderfully from the Lexar card-reader, AND saves batteries! Overall, wonderful.

I use an Olympus D450, a 64MB Olympus Smart Media card, and an iMac with Mac OS 8.6. After downloading some free software from Apple to be able to recognize the reader (newer system software would eliminate this step) I plugged the Lexar reader in and in a split second, the card popped up on my desktop and I moved the the photos to my hard drive. I am impressed with this product.

When you get it, check the inside glass with flash light before you plug it in. Mine was peppered with grime and dust; Scans show these as white specks everywhere! I'm returning this product from company that does no quality checks on its product.

Mine also had DOA film scanner.

You can be sure I'll try to avoid all future canon products.

I bought this scanner because of its low price and features. What I really wanted was a good basic level slide/negative scanning capability at the lowest cost, and this scanner fits the bill well. Nothing could be easier than setting up this scanner--took all of 10 minutes (from opening the box to plugging it all in to loading software to actually scanning an image). Operation is very simple--put photo on platen, push button, follow on-screen prompts. I've found the software packages very useful. Those looking for batch slide scanning will find no such capability here, and if you have a stack of negatives to go through, plan on taking some time. However, you can't beat the capability of this scanner for the money.

Also, tracking my purchase through Amazon.com was excellent--all the info you could want about where in the pipeline your purchase is at any given moment. They said 5-7 days, it arrived in 3. Great Job.

First I would like to say that all of you who are buying this scanner as your first are spoiled rotten! My last scanner was purchased about four years ago and served me well. Still works but I decided to upgrade becuase it's quality isn't up to par with my needs anymore. THough it was long ago, I still vividly recall the three days it took to get it, the scsi card, and the drivers all working happily together.

This scanner on the other hand had a step by step guide that had me up and running in only two minutes, no joke, didn't even have to reboot.

The quality is great. The color balance is excellant, incredibly sharp, and no artifacts or saw edges of any kind. The saturation seemed a little low at defualt so I tinkered with the settings some to get it where wanted.

Another big bonus is the film scanner. I've seen other scanners that seem to have rough "quick and dirty" adapters and so forth but this scanner is truly optimized for the purpose. It has a light built into the lid, instead of a mirror system, to ensure balanced light. The image from negative scans is a little soft, I assume that this is cuased by the slight bends in the film. Its not hardly noticable unless studied side by side with a print. The startling aspect is the color. It is extremly vivid. I was rather shocked when I looked at some picures of a past vacation. The perfect color brought back realism that was lacking from the print which was color balanced by a lab technician.

I'm looking forward to using the film scanning function for professional purposes but I would also like to point out that is is a very handy feature even for just home use. I'm sure that some of you are like me, with boxes of negatives in the closet and prints scattered to the far ends of the earth. Instead of paying expessive lab fees for all 10,000 of them to processed, I can just browse through them, scanning the ones that look ineteresting and emailing some to buddies.

The unit worked very well with Win9X but when I changed to XP I found that the driver would not work and so far I haven't been able to locate one.

An old film reader... bulky but works well otherwise. However, I had to reinstall it on Win2000 and the install failed. I have the old installation files and they failed too. I looked for a new driver and read that the company went out of business. Found a driver (which was the same set of files that I already had). Install may work for you, but as it is a really old device, and there are many better ones on the market, I suggest you use the latter.

The biggest selling point of New Media Technology Corporation's USB Film Reader, aside from it's price, is the ease at which the software loads on the computer and the short amount of time in which it is up and reading pictures. I've been really stood off about some of the software and hardware on the market for computers, but this is one of the easiest to use. Students, teachers, professionals, and computer geeks alike will be impressed by this little units performance. Once the software is installed, all I had to do was reboot my system, plug the unit into my USB port, and my operating system (Windows 98) did the rest. It automatically added two drives to my system, one for each of the film slots. I also liked the feature of not being restricted to just one type of storage media. I have two cameras, one that takes the ATA type film card, the other is Smart Media. It will also read the Compact Flash cards also. That's like having three readers in one. It's REALLY A GREAT PRODUCT!

This device causes my computer to display the dreaded azure tableau morte when I try to use it. I'm taking it back tomorrow.

I recently received a wonderful gift of a Kodak DX3500 digital camera, with the Loading Dock that connects it to a PC. My initial elation evaporated as I discovered that the Dock-to-PC connection requires a USB connection. The Toshiba Tecra 8100 laptop I'm using has a USB port, but it's taped over because NT 4.0 doesn't support USB (Win2000 and 98 do). I turned to look for a device that would read the camera's CompactFlash card, but didn't need USB to connect. After some scouring of the web (including a comical dead end involving "tech" reps who couldn't provide answers to compatibility questions beyond reading from the company same web page I was already looking at, and a more technical rep who informed me that the item was no longer available from the mfr. and agreed that it probably should be removed from that e-tailer's web page), I found the SanDisk ImageMate External Parallel CF Card Reader. This device provided what I needed: a CompactFlash card reader with a non-USB connection to a machine running NT 4.0.

The setup was painless. The ImageMate plugs into the parallel port, with a passthrough connection for the printer. Power is drawn from a passthrough connection to the PS/2, into which the mouse cable connector fits.

The ImageMate software makes the device appear as a mapped drive. You can read, write, and delete picture files on this drive. A provided software utility swaps out the ImageMate (to let you safely removed the picture card).

We installed the Kodak Loading Dock on a Win98 USB machine, and it works just great. But transfer on the ImageMate is almost as fast and easy.

I've been verbose in this review for the sake of others running the web search I did. You've probably come to the only right place. (I didn't find any other easily acceptable connection devices.)

As you may have learned the hard way, Windows NT does not support USB regardless of whether your computer has it or not. Not one single store in my local area (Orange County, CA) carries a parallel port compact flash card reader (they've all joined the 21st century with USB). I bought the Scan Disc model and love it. In fact, I just purchased two more for my coworkers that are constantly bugging me to use the compact flash card reader to retrieve their photos. From other reviews I can see that the Scan Disc is superior to the Kodak model. I have no complaints; it's easy to hook-up and it works just fine. If you're aware of what a compact flash card reader is then there's probably no need to tell you how much easier it is to use vs. the archaic software that comes with most cameras. Although, the software does give you thumbnail image views making digging up old photos much easier.

After studying professional reviews (including CR), I decided on the Dual4. Forewarned by other users' comments about troublesome startup, I followed the manual's detailed installation instructions step-by-step. No problem whatever! Realize well that this is NOT a Plug-and-Play unit you just plug into a USB2 slot; if you do, Windows will use its own lame-duck generic WIA scanner driver, and gone are all the wonderful enhancements that Minolta's marvelously sophisticated scanning software offers. THE big secret is patience; precisely follow the instructions (same goes for my HP flatbed scanner) -- install the software from the CD first, and *only then* connect the USB cable when you are instructed to do so. If you don't: well just read what dissatisfied reviewers have to say. Also, when the manual tells you to initialize the scanner "with the door closed", it doesn't explicitly tell you to remove the film holder [it's the only way you can close the scanner door, after all]. Although better written and organized than an Asian DVD-player manual, there are some dense spots that you will need to explore on your own. Still, you can't unlock all the treasures of the software until you read (painstakingly, I might add) the software capabilities. I've only had the scanner for a few weeks but, once I learned how just a hair on the negative will magnify to a tree trunk on the print, it does an astonishing job of converting analog film slides to digital images that you can enhance in the accompanying complete PhotoShop Elements 2 software. A magnificent tool indeed but, like any precision tool, it needs careful adherence to instructions and some experimentation to realize its full potential. An unbeatable harware product, with software fine-tuned to provide the ultimate in quality images. Even so, lack of online tech support, such as simple driver updates, is disconcerting. Ask Amazon for tech support? You must be kidding!

Yeah, I hear what some of the other reviewers are saying about the documentation and the fussy startup process - however complaining that you have to follow the instructions _exactly_ when installing it seems a bit odd to me... I had no problem with the install but then again I don't have a problem following instructions ;->.

But all that said, once you get it right it's a very good scanner. I've used others and this is by far the best. I'm suprised to hear the one reviewer complain about the sharpness of the shots - my scanner does an excellent job. I've scanned in over 500 slides so far (archiving the parent's slide collection from the 60s) and they look great.

The dust remover feature works reasonably well, although I've turned off all the pixel polish and image adjustment stuff - it doesn't make that big of a difference on my shots and makes the resulting images bigger.

The batch scan is great - I just sit here and work on other stuff and feed in 4 slides at a time. I've tried both color slides and negative film, both look excellent.

For those still frustrated by the startup sequence - here's what I do and it works every time.

1. Turn on your computer, let it boot.
2. Once up, turn on the scanner with the door closed.
3. Fire up the scanning software you want to use (batch scan, easy scan etc...).
4. once it barks at you to put the film in properly, then open the door and feed in your tray.

After that, you're good to go. I find if you deviate from the process you can come to grief. Once up, I've never had it fail and I've crammed through 150 slides at a sitting without a hitch.

I am totally impresed with this scanner. I was scanning 35mm film with an Epson 2450. What a difference! More latitude in the tonal range. Very sharp, Scanner has auto and manual focus. Professional driver software. Images consistant in color from scan to scan.
Have not used the dust remove feature yet. So far all my negs and trans are flawless. Even thou it is only 3200 dpi, if you know photoshop, the quality of the scans are so good I have no problems enlarging to 36x24 poster. I did a test and enalrged in the computer to 100 inches and just checking it out on the monitor it still held together NO PROBLEMS!
Have had the scanner for about a month and use it everyday and have had no start up problems or any other sort of problems, yet. But then again I use a MAC. Read the instruction manual before you do anything!
Anyway, well worth the $270 I spent !

... I would dare to say the photo-finishing lab has a lot to do with the results you see. I was horrified by one lab I tried recently. Incompetence in the lab can totally ruin your prized shots. As always, it's best to shoot a test roll or two and make sure you don't photograph anything you can't reshoot later. Test a new lab the same way, with photos that can be redone.
Keep this film cool. Refrigerate unopened rolls and let them aclimate before using. Try to load your camera in as much darkness as you can achieve. Process this film as soon as you can, after shooting. Leaving the film sitting around or in heat will cause the dyes to deteriorate. If you need to travel by air, ask for a hand-inspection at the airport. Don't pack this film in checked luggage. It is more sensitive to X-Ray equipment than an average film.
This film actually has a better grain index (48) than Kodak's professional negative film (Portra - index 50) at a 4.4 magnification, ISO 800. (I haven't seen any other index value data from Kodak for this film, so I can't comment about larger print sizes.)
If you need a fast color film for poor lighting conditions or for action photos, this is a good film. It is not as good in controlled lighting situations as the Portra or Supra or even Royal Gold films at lower ISO ratings. If you need the speed and don't intend to enlarge beyond 5x, this film is perfect. If you need to enlarge beyond that, the grain becomes more and more apparent. In photography, as in every other endeavor, choose the right tool for the job. Film is a very important tool for serious photography. Don't depend on just one type of film.

I have used this film for years--with both my older point and shoot Cannon 135 Zoom and my current Nikon N65. The fact that it is a higher speed film makes it very versatile for all types of situations I shoot in--indoors, outdoors, low light, beach photography, fast-action sporting events, etc. I have not had a problem with graininess but I have not blown pictures up past 11x14 size. I have shot approximately 200+ rolls with this film and my lab has never had to color-correct my film. I wonder if some people who use this film and have had problems with graininess have more of a problem with their camera or photo processing lab than it is with the film. This film can be used in all types of situations and I will keep using it with confidence!

This product gives you the type of performance it promises. I was absolutely amazed the first time I used Kodak Gold Max 800 film. The camera used was a Canon AE1 with a 75mm-210mm zoom lens. The subject...my mom and step-dads wedding. I took pictures under a variety of lighting conditions; from hair and make-up to the reception. All of my photos came out with similar quality. Bright vibrant colors! Great depth of field! None of the blue hues I often found on pictures using the 210mm zoom with 400 speed film. My only complaint is the amount of money I have had to spend on reprints, because everyone wants copies.