Customer Reviews

Fujifilm Finepix Z5fd 6.3MP Digital Camera with 3x Optical Zoom (Brushed Silver)

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

It has a very cool feature: the face recognition, it works very nicely. I have been toying with it just for fun and the camera recognizes most of the faces as long as they are fully facing the camera or not looking away more than 50% to the sides. It's a very cool feature and it does it's best job in focusing and color compensating to make the faces look better.

The camera is very slim and fits nicely in any of my pockets. To turn it on you just slide the cover to the side and are ready to shoot. Plenty of manual settings and some buttons to get to specific functions.

With a 2Gb memory card I get almost 30min of video at VGA resolution, more than enought to get the funny little videos and show panoramic views of a place.

Another cool feature is the "normal & flash" option, which takes one picture with ambient light and immediately another with flash, so you can be sure to get a good picture at least.

I'm very happy with this camera.

Only low grade I can give is the lack of an optical viewfinder, I find that the large LCD display is not very useful on harsh daylight (as I'm used to reflex cameras) and I don't like to hold the camera so far away from my body because of the instability that causes. It would be nicer to hold the camera against my face to provide support.

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Additions after reading the above reviews:

All true complaints of the reviewers, but there are some solutions.

Set the auto switch off to 2 minutes, even if the camera is turned on in your pocket (it does when you slide it into the pocket due to the direction of the opening motion).

Battery, at my pace, the battery won't last a full day, so I bought a backup battery, very cheap and convenient.

Finger blocking the lens, is just a case of learning how to hold the camera. At first is annoying but is no big deal after a few days.

Quality of lens, hey if you want professional quality, this is not the camera, this is an point and shoot camera, convenient to carry at all times, just to grab the photo opportunity and avoid blaming yourself the rest of your life for not getting "that shot" on time.

This is a decent camera. Like most compact cameras is suffers a bit in low light but it's still better than any I tested in the Sony line. Every time I pick the camera up, I'm blown away by how light it is. It almost doesn't feel like I'm holding anything. The photographic power of the cam is pretty good... to the point that I gave up the 8mp Sony T20 for this 6mp. This cam doesn't take pics as fast as the Sony but it is still unlikely that you will miss a shot. This camera isn't slow, the Sony is fast. I always say go to a store and try before you buy as I did and I can say I'm pretty satisfied with this buy.

Bought this (in the nice brown color) after great experience with two other F30 cameras. It has the same sensor but not a great lens, so I was a little skeptical of image quality.

As expected, the sensor is good (but not as great as the F30) and the lens is a letdown. Colors are very accurate, but images come out fuzzy due to noise. Camera loves 400 ISO when on auto.

I set it manually to 100 ISO and took an indoor shot. The center of the image was very sharp but the edges came out pretty soft and *noise is visible* at this lowest ISO setting; an important issue to note. I bought the Z5fd mainly for indoor shots. Outdoors, on a bright day, I have no doubt that the results will be excellent.

I agree with most other reviews about the excellent metering. Pictures come out very nice.

It is a good pocket-able camera at the ~$150 price-range. My only other experience with a similar camera is with a Sony T9 which takes horrible indoor shots. The T9 has an image stabilizer while the Z5fd compensates with face detection.

People looking at the Z5fd camera may instead want to pick up the F20 while it is still available. I would return the Z5 but wife loves it (sleek and brown in color) so it stays.

I have mixed feeling about this camera. It has a good form factor, great build quality and ease of use, but image quality is a letdown.

In short:

Image Quality: above average for folded zoom optics; below average when compared to an F20/F30.

Build Quality: Excellent

Lens: barely Average

LCD: Nice and fluid

Metering: Excellent

Image stabilization: NO

Face Detection: Yes

I own a Fuji S3000 big view finder, 6x zoom, takes the best pictures in the world BUT it was too big to carry at an outing all day long. Loving my Fuji, I decided to stick with what I know, so I purchased the Fuji Z5fd 6.3MP.

No regrets, I love it. It is user friendly, most can figure it out without reading the owners manual. Its small, I like the slide over the lens to protect it when not in use. The pictures and videos are outstanding!! The function to shoot the same scene with and without flash is my favorite.I have found a lot of my pics inside look better w/out a flash since using this. The button for this setting is right on the back of the camera (no having to look through menus to get to it) I'm not going to retire my big Fuji, but now my little fuji can go every where with me without carrying a camera case. My one dislike, no view finder But it seems all other brands are omitting them on the compact cameras also.

I'm very pleased with this camera. I love that:

1) It's smaller than an iPod. I can carry it in my purse or slide it in my pocket.

2) All of the pictures look great--even shots of animals. I take a lot of photos for an animal shelter, and my old camera took horrible pictures of pets. The animals were always blurry with neon green eyes! This camera has taken great pictures of the animals, with and without flash.

3) It is PINK. It's really not wine red--it's actually an adorable, iridescent pink. Love it.

Oh-- I also love the video camera option, and the battery, which lasts a really long time, even when I watch and re-watch the videos.

This camera is great! In terms of photo quality it's not going to best a bigger bulkier camera - but it's VERY good, I would say better than most (all?) subcompact cameras in its class. The best part about this camera is that it's quick. It's quickness is a combo of two factors, design and processor. The sliding lens cover doubles as the power switch - it's very easy to pull it out and slide back the cover very quickly. If you have the flash disabled it's ready instantaneously, with flash it'll take just a second to charge. The focusing mechanism functions very fast and the auto exposure is very robust and can handle many situations - faster and better than other cameras I've used (the exposure is notably better than the F series in regular or high light level situations)

The construction of the camera (build quality) is incredible at this price point. It's really built solid - and has the finish of a luxury product. I have it in the brown color and have gotten many compliments. The logo on the front also lights up at power up and when a photo is taken. It's a nice touch that adds just a little extra polish; you can disable it if you like (another nice touch!). I've used Sony's offerings in this class (W50, W80) and they feel cheap by comparison.

I bought this a couple months ago - it's not a super new camera at this point, but it's still very current - especially with the "lower" resolution - you avoid the noise and file sizes of those first generation cameras with the 10-12 megapixel CCDs. Plus you're not paying out the nose for that higher pixel count which really doesn't help the quality of your photos. There is a newer version of this model (Z10), but I'm not a big fan of where they're taking it design-wise.

I also have a Fuji F30. Obviously the image quality of that camera is better with its bounty of manual options - however the 'F' series isn't the greatest in terms of compactness. The F30 also bothered me - it takes a while to get a decent picture - even longer to get the ideal exposure, there's just a lot of fiddling to do to get the job done - something that's not always possible in every situation. The Z5 is the opposite, you might not get the highest quality possible, but you're going to get a great shot in the shortest amount of time in just about all the situations the F30 can handle.

Low light performance isn't on par with the F series, but it's head and shoulders above everything else in its class.

Face detection works pretty well - not every time, but it generally does a good job regardless of light level and is a welcome addition.

My only quibbles with this camera are that the lens cover can sometimes slide open in your pocket, it would have been preferable to make it slightly harder to open, but it's minor - only happened a couple times so far. I also wish that there was another quality setting for the 3:2 aspect ratio - for the lowest compression level (best quality) you have to use the standard size. Fuji has another camera coming out that is similar in design to this model (I think it's going to be the Z100 - it's not on the site yet), but adds optical image stabilization. I'll probably pick that model up after it drops in price a bit. I really love my Fujiflm cameras, very high quality in every regard, definitely the best value out there.

I'd give it five stars if it wouldn't open in your pocket all the time draining the battery.

It does what it should exeptionally well for its size.

snapshots outdoors and indoors without flash and little movies that is.

More than enough features like face detection and normal flash where you take an image with and without flash automatically and later on choose wich you like best. The Macro function is great and picture quality and start up speed, I would rank amongst the best in this category. Don't forgett this thing is way smaller than yor blackberry ...

thumbs up

Best thing about this camera is the lightning fast shutter. For me the shutter lag is one of the first things I want to know about a digital camera that I might buy. The picture quality is as good as I've seen from any other non-SLR digital camera.

First of all, this thing is surprisingly rugged. For people that complain about LCDs breaking, I have worn this thing all over in a small bag on a belt loop.

Outdoors, it takes fantastic pictures. I travelled through France and the dynamic range and color are very good. I own a digital SLR but this thing is tiny and easy to carry.

Low light performance is dependent on playing with the settings which people looking for a point and shoot normally don't want to do. It still has the great Fuji option of offering a dual picture with natural light and then with flash. Results will vary with user's ability.

Finally, some people overlook the user interface. This is probably a personal preference but I like not having any tiny dials to turn. Everything is pushbutton.

This is our third Fuji camera and it's the best of them all. We keep coming back to Fuji because of the easy interface and the image quality. My favorite thing about it, the glowing 'Z5' when you turn it on and after every shot, may be the least functional aspect, but it's the most telling. These small, quality & design tweaks add to the solid Fuji technology. And I love that there's finally some color available now, since the camera has become such a fashion accessory.

It does lack some clarity in nighttime and low-light shots, but I have yet to see and small digital camera that doesn't. And it does seem to prefer ISO 400 for everything, but again, you can override this.

For a camera that is quick out of the pocket and grabs the shot you were looking for, this is it. It's got all of the current technology a digital should have for a great price and good looks.