I started by taking the Fujifilm FinePix A201 ($249 list) on a cocktail cruise around my favorite lake—Lake George, in the Adirondacks region of New York. Passing the camera around after each shot was definitely a party pleaser. But on closer inspection, after loading the pictures to a PC, image quality was poor; the camera's focus could not keep up with the scenery.
On the bright side, the A201 does offer some advanced features to get the most out of your photos. There are several flash settings, such as auto, fill, off, on, red-eye reduction, and slow sync (which lets you take nice pictures against a nighttime cityscape). A complete white-balance menu has options for shooting outside in sunny or overcast weather and indoors under daylight, warm white, or cool white fluorescent lights. Of course, I had to read the manual to learn about these features. As a tool for shooting right out of the box, the A201 is simple and easy to use—but the manual is necessary to get the most out of the camera. And call me picky, but I'll take an on/off button over a switch any day.