Frankly I am a camera snob – but that does not mean to say that I rule out the wonderful applicability and usefulness of having a small compact digital “point ‘n’ shoot” tucked away in your pocket or handbag for nights out, strolls along the Thames etc. So when offered the FujiFilm A170 from Jessops – an amazingly vibrant blue in colour – I welcomed the chance to test it out.

The colour of the camera is certainly worth a specific mention, perhaps because I didn’t really expect much but when I opened the box, this camera genuinely stood out. I’ve had my fair share of checking out pink, silver, red, and black camera’s but this blue was wonderful. Deep and easily standing out from the crowd. Not bad at all.

It is billed as a 10.2 megapixel, 3 x optical zoom lens system. Not bad spec’s for a point and shoot.
However spec’s are only valid if they still allow good picture quality and the FujiFilm A170 arrived with me just as I was due to fill my time both with the excellent Thames Festival and then a holiday to Norfolk with several of the TT Team.
I stuffed the FujiFilm A170 in my pocket and set off.
With settings to enable you to shoot in snow, natural light, children, - the list just goes on and on, I figured it would be an excellent back-up to my main camera and indeed couldn’t envisage an event or occasion that this camera wasn’t equipped to deal with, even coming with an anti-blur setting if your hands were a bit shaky.
I also popped a couple of extra AA batteries in my pocket as this is what the camera needs to power it up.

My first few shots with the FujiFilm A170 however didn’t inspire me. Whilst the photographs were relatively clear and I thought the grid overview (allowing you to frame the content of your picture well) was excellent, I was disappointed with the jerkiness of the Optical Zoom and had to reset the review display as I just couldn’t see what I was taking nor what I had taken. These adjustments hammered the battery power.
However I chucked in a pair of Energizer Lithium batteries and that problem was quickly resolved.

I arrived at the Thames Festival and attempted to capture several photographs of the Fire Show. Again, no matter the settings I tried, I wasn’t completely happy with the outcome. They were what I call “FaceBook acceptable” photographs but not much use for anything else.

Then I discovered the panoramic settings on the camera and it is for this reason I fell in love with the FujiFilm A170. I’d buy one for this facility alone, it was so good!
I have not used panoramic settings before and whilst it took a couple of attempts to get it right, the results were utterly worth it!

In preparing for this review, I was ready to slam this camera. Yes, it had great spec’s; I liked that it ran on AA batteries and just about everything imaginable on it was adjustable to your personal likes but the overall picture quality was limited. However then I checked out the price because it felt and looked like it would be well over the £100 mark. Instead I found that Jessops were selling it for £69.99

At that price, with what the camera could achieve, it suddenly became a worthwhile option. I’d not buy one as a back-up camera but if I had a teenager / university student that I was shopping for I’d put this on the list of “good ideas” for them.

7/10 – and that’s from a camera snob.

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