FUJIFILM A170 Silver 10.2 MP 2.7" 230K LCD 3X Optical Zoom Digital Camera

Pros: @ 74$ at the time I could not beat the price vs quality. Portable, small, and the lens closes when I shut it off. I needed something to carry with me so I could take pictures of stuff I see...

The thing is nice and at the time beat all models in price and quality.

Cons: No hand strap with it?

Other Thoughts: I wish they would ship all these devices and more with some screen protectors...still the screen is fine.

Pros: Terrific indoor pictures, able to make the most out of dull light, flash isn't TOO intrusive to picture, movie mode is awesome!

Cons: Not very good with close-up pictures (such as flowers despite having a flower/macro mode), sometimes what looks very clear in the camera comes out quite blurred once loaded into the computer, party flash is BRIGHT

Other Thoughts: This is our second camera. As a social quick-click camera, it's wonderful (though I'd give warnings to indoor guests as the flash was insane). But as an art medium, it doesn't quite cut it.

Pros: good build quality, decent lens, quiet zoom motor, uses NiMH AA, small size for AA battery cameras, large screen, fast lens at f2.9, many fool-proof features, auto scene selection (very nice for "dummies"), panoramic mode that works well, simple to use, very portable, long battery life.

Cons: battery meter fluctuates in accurate response to the NiMH voltage, and has the unintended effect of making the "dummy" user nervous. Image is highly compressed and shows in smeared up details. ISO higher than 400 are very noisy with flattened colors and details, though higher iso are often selected automatically to prevent blur (which is understandable from an average consumer point of view). Video files are too big for the resolution relative to even the average, can use better compression methods.

Other Thoughts: Got this camera for my dad, who can't ever figure out how to use one other than the quickie shutter button. The automatic scene selection was the reason why I got this, along with the ability to use rechargeable AA and its small size (smallest among the AA cameras?).

The automatic scene selection works very well. It actively detects lighting, faces, and subject distance (thus uses more battery power as it continuously focuses and meters the scene); it then uses the combination of these information to determine if it's portrait, backlight, macro, night modes, etc. Scenes are manually selectable too, especially ones that are not auto-detectable (e.g. long shutter requires tripod, and wouldn't be selected automatically since it'll not be fool-proof. ;)). There's a "manual" and regular "auto" mode as well.

It's a good camera for dummies, with its innovative auto scene selection modes, if you can tolerate the mediocre image quality.