At a loss for xmas present so thought I could get a new better camera to take on rides. Don't want too big and don't want to expensive. At the same time I know nothing about photography. Would this be a good one for capturing mountain bike action and scenic views too? Obviously a bit more adnanced than my point and press cheapo I have at the moment, so will be a bit of a learning curve. It's about the right price. Any other options? Like the sound of the zoom too.

Cheers

i had an a980 or something, not bad, great zoom- good for scenery too but plasticy and not very robust in general

We have one and are happy with it. My wife lost it in February in the snow, I found it two months ago so it had been outside for eight months in a leather case. Stills worked and didn't need charging.

I normally ride with a Canon 400D slr or a Canon powershot compact.
The compact is OK but can be a bit slow if you need to use it quickly.

There are lot's of fuji finepix models and they vary quite a bit. Which model was it you were looking at?

Fujifilm Finepix S2000HD Digital Camera

http://www.jessops.com/online.store/products/75243/show.html

I use an old Lumix TZ3. Great camera for not too much money. I've had quite a few shots from it used in the mag. Hard to beat for the money. The 10 times zoom is particularly useful from framing shots.

Cheers

Sanny

You'd certainly get great results with that, might be a but awkward to lug around though. I'm happy with a (Nikon) Coolpix compact; 'only' 5mp, I think, has enough settings for most occasions (sport, landscape etc) & small enough that the Lowe-Alpine case can be clipped onto the front of my camelbak – relatively out of the way. Not great zoom, but rarely looking for that when out with a group. Sample pic. –

(photostream)

Wouldn't dream of taking my decent camera for fear of damage / water ingress.

My Finepix is great, simple enough in Auto mode for my missus to use but enough fannying about options for me to play with and set apature, shutter speed, etc and try to get rapid action shots as well as long exposure pretty scenery pics…

Having said that I probably wouldn't take it out on rides, it's bulkier and priceyer than my cheapo crap camera, which does a great job for trail use, I wouln't care if I broke it, and under daylight conditions it works a treat anyway plus mostly I shoot video on the trail rather than stills these days as SD cards are so cheap you can trundle about with 8GB of storage for pennys… buy 2 cheapo camera for the trails finepix for "Best"…