The Fuji F420 is not the range topper that is left to a 6 mega pixel baby which we hope to get our paws on in the next few weeks, this is a more modest and therefore more affordable 3 mega pixel unit which is certainly enough for most casual users who are replacing the old 35mm unit before heading off on holiday. In fact this is the smallest camera (77 x 69 x 25mm) to use the 4th generation Super CCD technology for superior pixel capture whereby 6 million pixels are recorded to produce a 3 mega pixel effective resolution.

But cameras are all about optics and that's easily forgotten in this day and age of digital wizardry, if you have a poor lens it doesn't matter how many pixels you can capture if they all look soft or you have to relay on the poor substitute that is a digital zoom. Despite is diminutive size the Fuji F420 Digital camera manages to squeeze the Fujinon 3x optical zoom lens into its housing which is the equivalent to 38 – 114mm on a 35mm camera.

There is a digital zoom which we had a play with and quickly dismissed but then all digital cameras have them these days, the flash seemed to illuminate to a fair distance but was quite slow to recharge between shots, the auto focus coped well which is essential in this price bracket of point and shoot cameras, of centre objects didn't phase it and it performed well in low light conditions too. There are a number of extras the main one being the ability to record short movies in 2 resolutions 320 x 240 10fps up to 120 sec and 160 x 120 pixels 10 fps, up to 480 secs, these are little better than webcam resolution and no replacement for your camcorder but still a fun trick but one that eats memory and battery!

Talking of memory the Fuji F420 comes with a 16mb picture card following in the great UK tradition of giving you a powerful camera an tiny memory card, so an instant upgrade is required for anything more than a night out taking photos, the xD-Picture cards are available in sizes up to 512mb and cost about £110, the 128mb is only £30.

The Fuji comes equipped with a rechargeable Lithium Ion battery (NP-20) which is good for a full day of photography and if you manage to kill the battery and still have room on your memory card you can buy 2 standard AAA batteries to get it up and running again which is a nice touch.

Getting your images on and off is really simple, first you can just take out the memory card and slide it into any PC or Mac with a Smart card reader, or use the very stylish cradle which is supplied with the F420 and connects to your PC via USB cable, there is also a bundle of software including the FuijiPix viewer on the CD.

Driving the Fuji F420 is made easier by the huge 1.8" LCD screen on the rear of the camera body, this is bigger than a lot of the other models on the market and makes menu navigation and just visiting your images a lot easier, The picture modes are easily selected allowing you set the camera up for the kind of weather conditions you are shooting in, inside this is setting some of the deeper parameters which are accessible through the menu structure if you really want to set your own white balance etc.

The quick fire system is a nice extra, which digital photography you can quite easily shoot 100 images in quick succession to make sure you don't miss that crucial moment and then go back and delete all the duff ones to make room on the memory card. The F420 can produce 4 frames per second in non continuous mode which makes for some pretty rapid image capture even at the full 4m image size.

Overall this aluminium bodied digital camera packs a good mix of features and style with a nice clear screen and optical zoom, it makes it one of the best choice for your summer camera replacement, as always price becomes the key factor, currently Amazon have the Fuji F430 Digital Camera listed at £228.

More Digital Cameras -

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