Compared to... Nikon Coolpix P5100

At first sight the Fujifilm F50fd and the Nikon P5100 don't seem to have too much in common, the F50fd being a point and shoot camera while the P5100 is targetting the more advanced photographer. But they do have something in common: They both offer 12 megapixels of resolution on a sensor that is slightly larger than the standard 1/2.5 in used in most digital compact cameras (1/1.6in on the Fuji, 1/1.72in on the Nikon) - and both offer aperture and shutter priority modes. We've included studio comparisons at each camera's lowest ISO setting, ISO 400, ISO 800 and ISO 1600.

Studio scene comparison (Fuji F50fd @ ISO 100, Nikon P5100 @ ISO 64)

• Fuji FinePix F50fd : Aperture Priority mode, ISO 100, Default Image Parameters,
  Manual white balance, +0.67 EV compensation
   
• Nikon Coolpix P5100 : Aperture Priority mode, ISO 64, Default Image Parameters,
  Manual white balance, +0.4 EV compensation
   
• Lighting: Daylight simulation, >98% CRI

Fujifilm FinePix F50fd	Nikon Coolpix P5100
ISO 100, 1/50 sec, F5	ISO 64, 1/40 sec, F4.9
4,438 KB JPEG	3,786 KB JPEG

I think it's safe to say the difference between the F50fd and the P5100 at ISO100 is very small, and certainly nothing you'd see in a standard sized print. The Nikon image looks a touch 'cleaner' but is also softer and suffers from slightly more corner softness (the F50fd - sharpening aside - is also capturing slightly more detail). Both images show the faintest touch of both noise and noise reduction, but you'd need to be printing images four and a half feet wide to be looking this closely at the pixels.