Fuji FinePix A920

Likes

- Great resolution - Low noise - Good dynamic range - Lots of Scene modes - Decent flash

Dislikes

- Open ports - Poor performance in low light - Poor white balance accuracy - Chromatic aberration, edge blurring, and distortion limit its impressive resolution - 320 x 240-pixel videos - Low resolution LCD - Slow AF - Very poor in low light - No Burst mode

Conclusion
The 9-megapixel Fujifilm FinePix A920 has more resolution than most sub-$200 digital cameras, but its feature set is otherwise basic. It has a cheap 4x optical zoom lens and a 2.7-inch LCD screen with blocky resolution of 115,000 pixels. It has mainly automated modes, with its most Manual mode buried in the Scene mode menu.

The plastic body isn’t very durable, and the open ports on the left side are an accident waiting to happen. One trip to the beach and sand will collect in the jacks and ruin the contacts. A sprinkling of rain could rust them out, too.

Despite these limitations, the Fujifilm A920 can take great pictures. It has excellent resolution, low noise, and good dynamic range that make its images look nice and clean. It doesn’t perform well in low light and the autofocus system is slow, but it takes beautiful portraits when the subject is well-lit and ready to smile for about a half-second.

The A920 is easy to use and fits well into most budgets, but there is hot competition at this price. There are sub-$200 cameras with better components and features, but there are hardly any that will have such effective resolution and produce such clean images.