The Fujifilm FinePix JZ300 is a slimline travel-zoom compact announced in February 2010 as part of a batch of budget J-series models, selling new for around £150. A near-identical JZ305 variant was sold through some retail channels.
It packs a 10x optical zoom covering a useful 28-280mm equivalent into a pocketable body, paired with a 12MP CCD sensor, sensor-shift image stabilisation, a 2.7-inch LCD and 720p24 HD video with usable zoom while recording. Controls are simple auto-led fare with scene recognition, aimed squarely at family and holiday snappers.
The JZ300 has no enthusiast pretensions, but it represents the vast fleet of early-2010s CCD travel compacts now recirculating through the UK used market as cheap first cameras, backups and digicam-aesthetic purchases - a trend that has given cameras like this an unexpected second act. Its wide-starting 10x lens made it one of the better-specified budget compacts of its year.
At the prices these fetch, faults are not worth tolerating: cycle the power a few times to ensure the lens extends and retracts cleanly without error messages (stuck-lens failures are the model's most likely death), photograph a plain bright surface to check the ageing CCD for dead columns or purple smearing, and inspect the battery contacts for corrosion. Confirm a genuine NP-45 battery and a charger are included - chargers frequently go missing - and check the tripod bush and USB port.