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Average rating:
4.02
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Fujifilm FinePix F50fd12.0 megapixels | 2.7" screen | 35 – 105 mm (3×)
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Average rating:
4.02
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Opinion: There are still a number of these out in the market, on ebay etc. being sold as clearance and refurbished units. I got one of these lately at a very low price (more than 50% off the original retail price). Previously, I've owned an F10 (superb little cam!) and F45 (decent camera lacking only in battery life, true IS and more creative modes).
F50 Pros:
- Has shutter and aperture priority modes, I use the A mode quite often.
- Slim and easy to carry around
- Larger, clearer LCD than my older F series cameras
- Good face detection though I seldom use this feature
- Nice pictures in bright light
- Good quality mostly metal casing and nice build
Cons
- useless image stabilization (sensor shift). I got this camera and sold off my F45 thinking this would be an upgrade since it had true IS but much to my disappointment, the IS is very ineffective. There doesn't seem to be any positive differences with it on or off. Sometimes, pictures appear even more blurry with it on! I could get pictures just as good with it off and like I said, sometimes even sharper pictures than with IS on. Only a small number of pictures shot in a series with in on are sharper than when shot without IS. Very inconsistent and ineffective! I now shoot with it set to off.
- Poor battery life. My F10 could shoot 500 pictures per charge. My F45 could do about 300. I find myself running low on power after just 200 pictures with the F50.
- Noisy pictures even at low ISOs when shooting in less than ideal lighting conditions. I would not shoot above 400 ISO with this camera, it's just too noisy and the noise reduction blurs away a lot of detail.
- Verticle lines appear in 1600 ISO and are also visible (though faint) in 800 ISO pictures.
In short, the F50 is a big disappointment for Fujifilm's F-series fans. It could have been a very good camera if they had stuck to just 6 or 8 megapixels instead of 12. The IS is also highly ineffective.
Problems: Vertical lines in 1600 ISO, a known issue it seems.
Opinion: I've been looking for ages for the right pocket camera to supplement my d300 and finally after four previous compacts i've found it. Its reasonably small, gives a degree of manual control and delivers images that are pleasing to the eye with a minimal amount of fuss. it will accompany me on the slopes in France and in the bars on Apres ski and deliver all that I want to supplement the proper DSLR shots.
Problems: ISO performance aint great so pretty much all indoor shots require flash. Therefore some control over flash strength would have been useful.
Opinion: Let me start out by saying, I'm very picky on the way my photos look. Probably more picky than I should be. Recently, I have purchased the Canon SD850 and SD900, as well as the Sony DSC-T100. All three cameras were extremely disappointing and got returned after one week. My previous camera was a cheap little 3 megapixel Fuji. I wanted something newer and faster, but after side by side comparisons of photo quality, the three cameras I purchased could not compare to my six year old clunker. I decided to keep my old camera and watch for new models.
Now, onto this camera. Wow. I can't say enough about it. The pictures are beautiful, even in low light. I'm not sure where the bad reviews are coming from...from picture number one to the pictures I took tonight, they have turned out very perfectly (except for a few of my errors every now and again).
I initially held out on Fuji because of the lack of the optical viewfinder and the slow XD card format. So far, I haven't found lack of the optical viewfinder to be an issue for me. Beginning with the F40 (which I didn't want because of bad reviews and it doesn't have the manual controls), Fuji now supports SD and XD formats alike.
I have an active three year old son, so the speed of the camera matters to me. The Fuji F50SE (or F50FD, they are the same) gives me just what I wanted. I'm using a 2GB Sandisk SDHC card and the writing speed is super quick (comparable to all of the other major competition).
The manual controls were a big selling point to me, but I also wanted a camera that would perform well as just a point and shoot. Once again, on full auto mode, the pictures come out great.
As far as the interface, I have had no problems just picking up and using the camera. Maybe it is because I have owned a Fuji before, but I really don't think so. A lot has changed in 6 years (as I hope it would), but the features and menus are very easily accessed. I really like the fact that with the press of one of two buttons, you can turn on and off the face detection and image stabilization. To review the pictures, there is a playback button on the back of the camera (much easier than a wheel) and to get out of playback mode, you press the shutter down halfway. Very handy and intuitive.
Face detection on this camera works about as well as the Canons. It doesn't always lock on to faces, but that is to be expected. 2 times out of 10 it won't recognize a face. Not a big deal. When it does, it will snap the shot and immediately thereafter show you a close up of the eyes and will remove any red eye that it finds. This has worked flawlessly for me so far. With the Canons, you have to review the picture and then go into a separate menu to correct for the red eye (or just do it in a photo editor), but I found this to be painfully slow and most of my shots ended up keeping the red eye. With the Fuji, this is a two second automatic process (when you have face detection on).
Battery life seems to be about average for this type of camera/battery. As with all of the major manufacturers, the batteries are proprietary and I would recommend getting a second battery for backup.
The features can just go on and on. The two main things I wanted in a camera were photo quality and speed. Isn't that what everyone wants? I never realized how hard it was going to be to find. Now that I've been playing with this camera, I keep finding little things that make me smile and thank Fuji for a job well done.
All in all, I would recommend this camera to anyone and everyone. Most Best Buy stores have them in stock, so you can go play with the floor model before you buy. I'm extremely pleased with my purchase and hope that my year long camera ordeal will help others to not have to go through the same.
Opinion: A great camera for its cost. For perfect captures you should reduce ISO upto 100-200, which is valid for all compact cameras.
Opinion: Don't buy it! :-(
I bought this camera because of the recommendation on this website, but unfortunately have to disagree with the reviewer's opinion on image-quality. I'm severely disappointed, and returned the camera as soon as I could. I own a Canon PowerShot S50 for 5 years and it still delivers superior images over this Fuji.
I tried a Panasonic TZ4 for a week before returning it and going for the Fuji F50fd -- the Panasonic was disappointing compared to the old Canon. But oh boy, it was far better than this Fuji. Not only in ease-of-use and zoom-range, but most importantly, in image quality!
Problems: First problem:
Noise. Noisy, noisy, noisy images! Even in good outdoors light, there's noise very clearly visible on (for instance) dark pants. There shouldn't be any! Not under those light conditions!
Indoors shooting: hardly any picture on which there wouldn't be very visible noise. A white wall is noisy, whereas the same white wall shot under comparable circumstances with the Panasonic TZ4 was evenly white.
The images of the TZ4 didn't always look very sharp; the noise-reduction probably took away some detail. But the F50fd doesn't bring me any more detail, and it brings me a really unpleasant amount of noise!
Second problem:
Depth of colour seems to be lacking. Not sure how to explain this better - probably it's the dynamic range which is too limited. But it's like there are just not enough colour gradations. Colours on images from the TZ4 often seemed to be pale / not quite right. The F50fd does overall deliver vivid colours, although the colours are unnatural (for instance, the green grass is unnaturally green and dark red becomes bright red/blue). Depth / gradation of colour is also missing, resulting in pictures which look like 8-bit GIF images instead of 32-bit JPEG images.
Third:
When taking photos in automatic regime, the image is too dark even under decent light conditions. White balance in the photos with sharp division of sun/shadow is distorted (light parts are over-exposed, darker parts are under-exposed, resulting in the image being indistinguishable.
Fourth:
Autofocus just does not seem to do its job. Tried various modes; however, the vast majority of the pictures, with hardly any exceptions, is not sharp enough.
Fifth:
Ease-of-use and ergonomics are not nearly as good as the TZ4. Not really bad, but a big step back after even a week of using a Panasonic TZ camera. The camera misses intuitive navigation through the preset shooting modes; most menus are digital and not really straightforward. One week of intensive (though frustrating) use did not make the camera more convenient. Camera's size is great (small and fits in every pocket/bag), but that's about the only positive comment that can be made about it.
Conclusion:
It might be an OK entry-level camera for an absolute beginner like a young kid (or someone who goes purely for a "12 megapixel" label), but it is not really a "simply point and shoot" camera delivering decent images as one would expect from a modern compact camera.
Opinion: I had read mixed reviews about this camera but decided to buy one anyway. I have a S7000Z which has never let me down but wanted a small camera to carry round with me. It is easy to use, well made and the image quality is excellent. A bigger optical zoom would have been nice but it still does all that I want from it.
Problems: none so far
Opinion: Fantastic Picture quality for ISOs up to 800. Vivid but natural colors, quick response, top build quality. I believe this is the best Compact Digital Camera in the World today!
Opinion: Lovely camera for pictures which I bought on the good experience I had with a previous FuijiFilm. The pictures are excellent (although in common with all FujiFilms there is purple fringing at high contrast boundaries when viewed at 100%). However, the video was so bad that I have returned the camera. Details below. I have my nice Canon SLR for still images so video is an important component of a compact camera for me. Without good video the camera is flawed in my opinion.
Problems: The video works well apart from when the camera is pointed into the light. With light falling on the lens the entire image gets a horrible purple cast. This is very clear if you rotate through 360 degrees whilst videoing. Additionally, any darker objects get a shadow "smeared" across the video frame (top to bottom). I don't know whether this is down to the lens coating or internal reflections but if was sufficiently serious to warrant returning the camera - especially as I use it a lot skiing where the effect on white snow is particularly bad.
Opinion: I LOVE this camera. I bought it as a pocket size point and shoot and it is great. Action shots of my grand kids on bikes, closeups of flowers, portraits, all great. Easy to learn and use. My Canon G3 does better digital zoom but otherwise the Fuji is fabulous. I've taken over 400 shots and maybe 2 or 3 are a little blurry.
I dropped it from about 4 ft onto the pavement and it still works fime. A few scratches.
Problems: None
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