Customer Reviews

Fujifilm Finepix F50fd 12MP Digital Camera with 3 x Optical Image Stabilization

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

I must say that I was very negative about this camera when it was just announced. Why? I've got one word for you - Megapixels! I realize that for a regular consumer the more megapixels in a camera, means better picture quality. But if you know even just a little more about the digital technology and how it works, then you know that the above statement is nothing but simply a myth. The more megapixels on the same size sensor only means that you can blow up the picture that you've taken to a larger size. But what good does it do for you if the picture quality is actually worse?! By "worse" I mean that there is more digital noise present in photographs at higher ISO's. Several months ago I actually considered getting an F30, and the only reason I didn't was because it uses the stupid, and very slow xD card format. I have waited for Fuji to fix this "mistake" and implement the somewhat standard nowadays SD format, but they didn't with F31fd. Then shortly thereafter came F40fd, and I almost wet my pants out of excitement when I found out that Fuji finally did include the support of SD, in addition to xD format. They did of course increase the number of megapixels from 6 to 8, but they also put a larger sensor in it, so that was actually not a bad thing. However, I was extremely disappointed when I found out that not only the picture quality slightly decreased for some reason (judging by the samples that I've seen), but also Fuji decided to eliminate the manual controls (shutter and aperture priorities) from it as well. Why, for crying out loud?! So my quest for the "perfect" compact digital camera continued, and I ended up with Panasonic LX2, which I'm still very happy with. However, since I've decided to replace my wife's Casio S770, and always wanted to have something better for low-light situations, I kept my eyes open on Fuji's line of F-cameras, which are considered to be the best in its class for that type of photography, mainly due to the Super CCD sensor that they use. And from what I've seen in the past, I wasn't very surprised when I heard the announcement of a new F50fd camera soon. I was expecting more megapixels, but I was still a bit upset to see a jump to 12MP. Believe me, unless you're printing poster size pictures, 6MP is more than enough! So my expectations of the camera were very low, despite the fact that Fuji kept the support of SD card format, and even brought back the manual controls! I was waiting for some samples/reviews to show up on the web, but up until now haven't seen any, probably due to the fact that the camera hasn't been sold anywhere yet (Amazon lists October 1st as a shipping date). So imagine my surprise when I saw it at a local Best Buy store this afternoon. I happened to have my SD card with me, so in it went into the camera, and half an hour later (I didn't have more time as I was on my lunch break) I came out of the store having a card with a bunch of samples. After I came back to work, I loaded the sample images from the card onto my computer, and all I could say was WOW! Even at large magnifications, the pictures still maintained a good amount of clarity and detail. I was really amazed. I'll break it down to Pros and Cons again for the ease of use:

PROS:
Ergonomics - Very well designed and solidly built. I don't think I would add and/or subtract anything from it. The form, the lines, the button layout were certainly very well thought of by Fuji engineers, so the camera is easy and pleasant to use.

Display - The LCD is big and bright. It's got the same number of pixels as previous models, but it's slightly larger, 2.7" vs. 2.5", and it's a welcome upgrade.

Image Stabilization - YES!!! Finally, Fuji decided to implement this very important feature in this model. It really helps if your hands are a little shaky, and/or when shooting in dim light.

Picture Quality - As I already mentioned, I didn't expect this to be the case, but the picture quality is actually very, very good. I was really surprised to see an output like that from a tiny compact digital camera, especially considering the amount of megapixels that they've managed to squeeze into such a small sensor. The colors were very natural, the pictures looked very sharp all throughout, properly exposed, with good amount of detail, even when enlarged at 100%. Hats off to Fuji! However, if you are expecting to see less noise at higher ISO's comparing to F30/F31fd models, you will be disappointed - it's actually noisier. But no doubt that those who approach it with lower expectations will be delighted.

CONS:
Wide Angle - I'd love to see the lens that starts at more than just 35mm. I think it's very much doable, and wouldn't require a lot of effort on Fuji's side. Why didn't they do it? I don't know. But it sure would be nice to take beautiful panoramic shots with this camera.

Zoom - 3x Optical Zoom just doesn't cut it these days. We need more!

Menus - Perhaps I just got spoiled with Casio's controls and navigation menus, but some of the ones that I've seen on this Fuji just didn't seem very logical to me. It's probably just a matter of preference and getting used to though, since I've never owned a Fuji camera before.

Megapixels - Yes, the picture quality is excellent. I could only imagine though how much better it would be if this was only a 6MP camera! Too bad, but I understand why they did it - market demands.

SUMMARY:
To summarize, I'm going to repeat myself here, but I didn't expect much of this camera when it was announced. However, after I got a chance to evaluate it, I must say that my opinion has changed dramatically. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that the picture quality that this camera is capable of producing is on par, and even better than most of the top point and shoots out there, and in competent hands will produce stunning results. However, I'd recommend to wait for some professional reviews, as well as compare samples so you can judge for yourself prior to making a purchasing decision.

I've now played with my F50FD for about a week. It's very easy to use, and I'm happy with it overall- it will serve me well as a extremely portable grab-n-go camera. (It fits in my jeans pocket *with* my cell phone and keys. It's very thin!)

The user interface is clean, easy to use, with helpful on-screen reminders that manage not to get in the way. Other pluses: the battery charger is travel-friendly (no cord), and there's no lens cap to lose. Autofocus performance is quite good-- hugely better than my previous Optio 555.

But my expectations were high, and it hasn't met them all. As we all feared, image quality above ISO400 is a disappointment. ISO800 is marginally useful, but at higher resolutions, the distinctive "oil painting"-style artifacts caused by their noise reduction algorithm become increasingly significant. At ISO1600+, your photo may be 12MP, but the effect of the noise reduction is that there's probably only about 1MP of actual information in the photo. I would much prefer that Fuji allow us to save photos in RAW format, so that we could use better noise reduction algorithms ourselves. The higher ISO modes should be viewed as a novelty.

Flash performance is mixed: red-eye hasn't been as bad as I feared, but the flash seems a bit weak. On sunny days, I could not coax the camera to adequately fill in the shadows on a subject's face from a distance of about 7'. On the other hand, the camera seems to be able to reduce the flash power as needed, making it usable at close ranges without burning out the subject.

The image stabilizer was of course a big draw, and there's definitely some improvement with it. There are no miracles here, but it's good for an f-stop or two.

Other nits: movie mode disables the zoom (grr!), and I cannot imagine a use for the IR transfer feature.

Overall, it's a fine camera and I'm happy with it. It didn't live up to all my expectations, but this camera had a lot of (perhaps unrealistic) buzz to live up to.

I own a Canon S2IS and was looking for something more compact and less complicated to use. The first camera I tried was the Fuji F40fd. It's watercolor NR system and lack of a dual IS left me wanting more. Shortly after I purchased it the F50fd came out so I returned the F40 in favor of the F50.

I tried a few other compact cameras as well which are included in the following list but so far nothing has been able to nudge out the F50.

Sony Cybershot DSCW80 7.2MP Digital Camera with 3x Optical Zoom and Super Steady Shot (Silver)

Fujifilm Finepix F40fd 8.3MP Digital Camera with 3x Optical Zoom (Silver)

Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ3S 7.2MP Digital Camera with 10x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom (Silver)

Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ7S 7.2MP Digital Camera with 6x Image Stabilized Zoom (Silver)

In "blind" (not knowing which camera took what photos) tests, I asked family and friends to view, compare, and comment on images (both on the computer screen as well as prints), and the F50fd was consistently chosen as having the sharpest photos with the most "true" color representation among all the other cameras mentioned above. The F50fd is on par with the Canon S2IS in regards to image quality. It lacks the 12x zoom and the full manual controls of the S2IS but the F50fd is compact, easy to transport, handle, less complicated, takes much better low light and night shots than the Canon.

What I liked about the F50fd:

* Dual image stabilization.
* The noise reduction system is an improvement over the F40fd.
* The LCD on the F50fd is slightly larger.
* The F50fd is an excellent low light shooter.
* Face detection 2.0 is a definite improvement over the previous model's fd system.
* Manual aperture or shutter control.
* A simple and intuitive menu system.
* Great battery life.
* Options for memory cards (XD, SD. SDHC).


What I didn't like:

* The F40fd's "auto" mode started @ ISO 100. Fuji changed the "auto" mode to a minimum of ISO 400 on the F50fd (?).
* Fuji removed the on screen histogram from the F40fd (?).
* Continuous shooting speeds are a very slow with both models.

Keeping the ISO @ 100 seems to be a growing theme these days among compacts. Anything above 100 and you get noisy fast or a NR system kicks in and blurs all your details away. Fuji's "noise" is still easier to deal with than that of other camera manufacturers in my opinion. Sure you could use ISO 3200 but why would you want to? Even a DSLR would have noise issues at that speed. This camera isn't a replacement for a DSLR. Its a fun, compact, good low light shooter. The ability to set either manual aperture or shutter speed along with the "night" mode and the "night" mode with "long exposure" makes for some amazing low light / night shots. I think that compared to other models in this price range the Fuji F50fd still manages to stay above the competition (Especially when you consider the $[...] rebate). The F50fd isn't perfect but what is?

The legendary Fuji Finepix F31fd made huge waves in compact/ultra compact digital camera market since it was announced. It got 5 stars rating on all reputable DP review web sites: DPreview.com, DCRP.com, Cnet, consumersearch.com, digitalcamerainfo.com, digitalphotographyblog, you name it. Today, it costs you $590 to $730 for a new/used one if you still can find it on Amazon or eBay. I have been waiting for its successor, F50fd. After long waiting, I finally got one from Amazon on Oct 6, 2007 although there were a lots of mixed comments on F50fd. I decided to test it by myself. Here are my findings:

PROs
1. super resolution (12 mpix)
2. i-flash does help to improve accurate exposure
3. great aperture and shutter priority manual controls make serious shooter's dream come true.
4. effective red-eye remove feature
5. very accurate light metering
6. with reliable face detection combined with accurate light metering even beginners make great people/portrait shots.
7. very attractive price. Packing up so many fancy features together in a ultra-compact body, Canon product probably will charge you $400-450.
8. Double image stabilizers.

CONs
1. noticeable noise level starting with low ISO 200. Noise is skyrocketing after ISO 200. Comparing with F40fd I owned, the 8 mp brother does much better in noise reduction. F50fd definitely is not a good low light performer.
2. Slow response: starting the very first shot, from shot to shot, saving image, starting displaying images. I can live with this if everything else with F50fd could up or close to F31fd.
3. yellow/brownish tint on most low light flash shots. I suspected it was cause by inaccurate 'auto white balance'.
4. image colors are not impressive comparing with Fuji's first rated compact cameras and most similar Canon product.

In current 12 mp ultra-compact camera hot racing, reduction of high noise is a tough challenge facing all manufacturers: Canon, Fujifilm, Pentax, Casio, olympus.....So far no winner yet. More research on noise reduction and data transferring speed is needed

I returned my F50fd to Amazon after 2 weeks testing. Here are some thoughts on my mind. Fujifilm should get out '12 mp hot racing' and cool down. Return to basics. First, reopen F31fd model product line. Starting from there, develop a new 8 mp model with all attractive/reliable features/functions on F30fd.

I would recommend a sound review for those who are interested in purchasing Fuji F50fd:
http://www.digitalcamerainfo.com/content/Fuji-FinePix-F50fd-Digital-Camera-Review-16019.htm
The review is based on scientific/quantitative procedures.

I am an amateur enthusiast who owns an Olympus 7070, 8080 and Sony R1. I purchased this little camera for my parents who wanted to have a small, pocket-sized camera with image stabilization. I picked the Fuji F50 because it seemed to fit the description... however, I was in for a surprise when I received it!

First of all, I think that this is a beautiful camera. It is very well-built and the design is gorgeous. Very nice indeed. The large LCD screen is wonderful and I love how substantial it feels in my hand despite its small size. It is very different from many similar cameras that feel cheap and plasticky. The F50 looks and feels expensive.

The menu is not necessarily the most intuitive but it's OK. I love how you can choose from many languages though.

Now, the surprising part - if you are a true casual photographer who just wants a P&S that does everything automatically for you, then this is NOT the camera you want. The automatic mode has a default ISO of 400, which makes the photo rather grainy and noisy. I see why Fuji did it, but IMHO it was a bad decision. I believe that those people who posted rather negative reviews of this camera basically have this problem. I really should have known about this before making this purchase, as my parents probably just wanted something totally automatic... sigh...

However, if you actually start to use its manual settings (yes, it's nice to have manual settings for such a small, compact camera), then you can really get some great images with very little noise indeed! The colors are great and the focus is sharp. Nice white balance too. Unfortunately, for this market segment, I am not sure how many people actually bother to experiment with manual settings...

That's why this is a surprising camera. It is really way more than just a simple, regular P&S camera. In fact, you need to avoid the "auto" mode to get the best images. However, it is really in the automatic P&S category. It probably will be way under-appreciated by many who just wanted an automatic everything P&S camera. Really, it is a very nice camera, you just need to know how to use it properly. This is probably why it has received so many great write-ups by expert reviewers but the casual reviews have been rather less than stellar.

Yes, I made a mistake, I should have bought a much simpler and straight forward P&S for my parents... but it does not alter the fact that this is a great little camera.

I wonder if Fuji can do a software upgrade to change the default setting for the "auto" mode so that the ISO will be set at 100 instead? I surely hope so... in the meantime, I am trying to convince my parents to use more manual control! :-)

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 two 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.

I am a big fuji-o-phile. I have taken this camera out 2 or 3 times and I own several of their f series cameras (f10 and f30 and of course the f50).

My feeling is this camera is below average in its performance when compared to other cameras of its class. The stabilization is *great* and the face detection is first rate, but the f series has become known for its performance and this camera does not meet THOSE expectations which is what most of the reviewers are complaining about. Sadly, my f10 takes *far* better low light photos than the f50.

If you look at the camera from a price/performance perspective you still have an excellent camera, but rumor has it the f60 will be out around mid feb.

First off I should state that I do not own this camera. I've been using my friend's F50fd against my own F31fd. He picked up the F50fd simply because he enjoyed how my camera worked.

It uses Fuji's typical interface: Simple but a bit clunky. After you've used it a bit you'll find it quite easy to configure to your liking. Of course changing modes to adapt to new conditions quickly is another story altogether.

Overall I'm torn between the handling of this and the F31. The smaller size does make it a lot easier to store in a pocket... and it just feels a bit more stable in my hands. This is of course due to the lack of massive battery and the fact that I'm left handed. I don't think it's a lot lighter but it just feels better. Then again I didn't get the same sense of security when I held the F50... it felt like it would slip out of my hands and shatter much easier.

In terms of performance it actually holds its own against its predecessor... at least in terms of well lit conditions. As most others have already stated when you restrain the ISO the pictures are sharp and full of detail. Colors are still a bit dimmer compared to say, a Canon camera. Then again it could just be the fact that Canon cameras tend to boost colors. Still... I like vibrant. In light pictures are also not as blown out as the F31. While taking a sunrise photo on a canyon his F50 basically bested my F31. It handles that sort of lighting much better.

In terms of shadow I'd have to say I'm rather disappointed. As most have said there is quite a bit of noise and fuzziness in the pictures. To be fair though when compared to some of the reviews of other 10+ megapixel cameras (*cough* Panasonic *cough*) they still look a bit more detailed. Then again this is comparing a real world shot to an online review. I'd hammer this part of the image quality more but it seems to have already taken a beating by everyone else.

EDIT: I know that my comment about the F50's performance in low lighting is rather harsh and perhaps unfairly biased. In truth it does no worse in low light than most cameras I've seen and toyed with. I believe that a lot of the major backlash stems from the excessively high expectations that people have held this camera to. Had it done low lighting well at 12 MP it would've been a small miracle. There are cameras with fewer MP that actually perform WORSE in low lighting than the F50.

On the plus side if you were to take away the 6 extra megapixels the camera has a lot going for it. The image stabilization works quite well. I was worried that because it's a bit of a hybrid between digital and sensor shift that it would end up looking much noisier but I was quite wrong. It's nowhere near as bad as having to boost the ISO and shutter speeds. So I like it. The face detection seems to work a bit better too. I never use mine much but the F50 seems to work a bit faster and could catch a face it odd positions much faster. I would test the whole standing on the head to fool the face detection feature but I don't feel like adding more stress to my life.

I hate the fact that this camera can take SDs and xDs. It's so easy to find them, and so hard to find the (hopefully) dying xD format. Not to mention a great deal cheaper.

Overall I like every single change that Fuji made to the F50... except the sensor. Since it is bigger I don't see why they couldn't have stopped at 7 (lucky) or even just at 8 or 9. It's like they took the F31, fixed its main weaknesses, and stripped it of its best strength. It's sad really... but it doesn't mean that this is a bad camera. Just don't take it against the F31 (at least when lighting conditions aren't optimal).

EDIT 2: This camera does take wonderful photos in mixed lighting situations. Though I'm no photographer I could never do that with my F31fd. Take a picture of a sunrise/sunset and you'll find it a bit easier to have a decent photo with the F50 and a much more difficult time with an F31.

I purchased this camera to replace a three year old 5MP Sony Cybershot. The 12MP, stabilization, red-eye removal, and face recognition were big pluses for the Fuji F50fd, and the multitude of various settings you could manually control was very appealing. It didn't measure up - my three year old camera beats it!

When I got the camera, I tried it out at my in-laws on Thanksgiving. The light was moderate - not very bright, but certainly not dark. I tried many different settings - full auto, indoors, manual, etc. There were posed shots and impromptu. I also took some video. 80% of the photos were very disappointing.

First off, the "face detection" worked only in bright lighting - the moderate lighting of my in-laws living room (overhead and lamps) was not enough to enable its use. The red-eye removal was very spotty - sometimes it worked and sometimes not. Now let's move on to the real disappointments...

The picture quality was terrible. Most of the photos came out incredibly grainy, almost like tiny pebbles that were used in a mosaic of my loved ones. Not only that, they were dark and sometimes out of focus. And the image stabilization touted simply did not work very well. I had blurry shots, even in posed photos. This is from a line of cameras that are famous for being great low-light cameras!

Less important, the video was very grainy and pixilated. It was a little better than the Sony I have now, but not by much. I expected more from something much newer than what I had.

Look, I bought this camera having seen the other bad reviews out there, but I figured they were blowing it out of proportions, and not only that, but the camera got good reviews from a lot of people and a lot of reputable websites (CNet, for one). But I was wrong - this was a terrible camera. I'm now back with my Sony (the pictures look better than the Fuji's) until I can find a camera that beats it.

The claims made by this camera about ISO are false. It doesn't take pictures at an ISO above 400 or 800 without the noise becoming incredibly high. In repeated attempts, I was unable to get any remotely clear pictures from this camera at ISO 1600 (let alone 3200 or 6400). The noise problems in this camera effect all of its operations. The video is run at high ISO and is full of noise. The flash is pulled down to 14 feet from 21 feet on previous, lesser-ISO versions (according to the Washington Post), meaning that you don't even have a flash option if you're taking a picture indoors of something that is across the room. The "natural" and "natural/flash" features are really neat... until you realize they are set at 1600 ISO and full of, you guessed it, noise, even at snapshot sizes.