Natalie, I am a canon girl through and through but I actually saw that camera in Tesco yesterdays and had a wee look at it. I had a Fuji bridge camera once which produced excellent macro's and I notice yours has a super macro function. I'd be having a wee play with that for certain. Also the 30x optical zoom gets a good write up as does the double stabilisation.

I think you are going to have a lot of fun and I can't wait to see the results

One thing you will discover is the more you learn about photography the more there is to learn. As others have said take it step by step and don't try and master everything at once. First obviously is auto mode where you can learn about composition etc etc . Then move on to shutter speed to Aperture settings and the same with ISO. There is the urge to get things right straight away, but in the real world that only comes with practise. No one ever shows their photographic failures and we all have made a right mess of a shoot at some stage or other,so your not alone.

Bazza

I have only been taking photos for a few weeks. I found reading that the instructions again after playing around and reading stuff on here re ISO, shutter speed and aperture etc for a few weeks first then made more sense. Took over 100 photos of the moon a while back. Got a few half decent shots at the end of it. Just experiment and have fun.

Another tip when reading the manual.

Buy a small notebook and jot down anything that you find interesting and slip the notebook in your camera bag.........

Jot down things you would like to photograph.

Jot down any settings you use that worked out great......

In fact jot down anything important [to you] that you think you might forget.........

Natalie. Keep hold of this link, it's your manual, http://www.fujifilmusa.com/shared/bi..._manual_01.pdf and if you get stuck on anything or want to know what something does just ask and post the link. Someone will help you.

Thanks everyone. Really appreciate all the advice and support. Skyline, really appreciate you getting that link, I will save/bookmark on my phone too. Jols, notebook idea is a great one!! Can use for everything you pointed out and also for comments etc etc to go along with any pictures that may be used in a memory book...
Richard, I think your right, the more I go out with the camera and get used to it, the more the manual may actually mean something to me.
Bazza, thats a good point I suppose you forget that you dont see other peoples dodgy shots.. well you about to see some of mine anyway that is right after I read that bit of the manual..

I forgot to mention earlier I carry these in my bag
the small one came with the camera, the bigger one was about £5 and is wipe clean water proof fold up.
there may be one for you camera or with a laminator maybe make one

thanks, I have a laminator, I never thought of that either! I think there's like 100 pages though Even if there is a particular few pages I realise I could be doing with though, that is a good idea. Thank you.

Partly scared of taking the camera out much at the moment as the bag hasn't arrived yet...at least when it does I will have a list in mind, of what to take

got mine from here if it helps anyone else

http://www.thedarkroom.co.uk/trainin...ld-guides.html

here are the photos, I know they are not the best but here they are anyway.





I am going to try to think of what I can take photos of that interest me and then go and practice, hopefully mid-week, as these were basically taken for the sake of trying the camera out