Fujifilm Finepix F50fd Review
Review Date: October 25th 2007
Author: Mark Goldstein
Leave
a comment about this Review
Image Quality
All of the sample images in this Review were taken using the 12 megapixel Fine
JPEG setting, which gives an average image size of around
4.5Mb.
Noise
There are 7 ISO settings available
on the Fujifilm Finepix F50fd which you can select at any
time if the camera is in the normal shooting mode. There
is no discernible noise at the slowest setting
of ISO 100, but noise and slight loss of detail is
already apparent at ISO 200, particularly in the shadow areas.
At ISO 400 image quality has deteriorated quite a lot as
the
camera blurs detail to try and hide the noise, and by ISO
800 the results have become a smudgy mess. ISO 1600 resembles
an impressionist painting and should be avoided at all costs.
The fastest settings of 3200 and 6400 might look good on
the specfication list, but look terrible in reality, even
at the reduced image resolutions (6 and 3 megapixels respectively).
Here are some 100% crops which show the noise levels for
each
ISO
setting:
Sharpening
Here are two 100% crops which have
been Saved as Web - Quality 50 in Photoshop. The right-hand
image has had some sharpening applied in Photoshop. The out-of-the
camera images are fine at the default sharpening setting,
with further sharpening in a program like Adobe Photoshop
not really neccessary. Unfortunately you cannot change the
in-camera sharpening levels, so you will always have to do
some post-processing if you don't like the default results.
File Quality
The Fujifilm Finepix F50fd has 2 different
image quality settings available, with Fine being the
highest quality JPEG option. Here are some 100% crops which
show the quality of the various options, with the file size
shown in brackets.
Chromatic Aberrations
The Fujifilm Finepix F50fd handled chromatic aberrations well, with some
purple and green fringing only evident in areas of high contrast,
especially at the edges of the frame, as shown in the examples
below.
Macro
The Fujifilm Finepix F50fd offers
a Macro setting that allows you to focus on a subject that
is 7cms away from the camera. The first image shows how close
you can get to the subject in Macro mode (in this case a
compact flash card). The second image is a 100% crop.
Flash
The flash settings on the Fujifilm
Finepix F50fd are Auto, Red-eye Reduction, Forced Flash,
Suppressed Flash, Slow Synchro, Red-eye Reduction + Slow
Synchro.. These shots of a white
coloured wall were taken at a distance of 1.5m. There is
noticeable vignetting at the wide-angle lens setting.
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
Auto
Flash - Telephoto (105mm) |
|
|
 |
| |
|
And here are some portrait shots.
The Auto setting caused obvious red-eye, which the Red-eye
reduction mode almost completely removed.
|
|
Auto
(100% Crop) |
|
|
 |
| |
|
|
|
Red-eye
reduction (100% Crop) |
|
|
 |
| |
|
Night Shot
The Fujifilm Finepix F50fd's maximum
shutter speed is 8 seconds in the Night scene mode, which
is fairly good news if you're seriously interested in night
photography.
The
shot
below was taken using a shutter speed of 8 seconds, aperture
of f/2.8 at ISO 100. I've included a 100% crop of the image
to show what the quality is like.
|
|
Night
Shot (100% Crop) |
|
|
 |
| |
|
Anti Shake
The Fujifilm Finepix F50fd has an anti-shake mechanism (CCD-shift type), which
allows you to take sharp photos at slower shutter speeds
than other digital cameras. To test this, I took 2 handheld
shots of the same subject with the ISO speed set to 100.
The first shot was taken with anti shake turned off, the
second with it turned on. Here is a 100% crop of the image
to show the results. As you can see, with anti shake turned
on, the images are much sharper than with anti shake turned
off. This feature really does seem to make a difference and
could mean capturing a successful, sharp shot or missing
the opportunity altogether.
Overall Image Quality
The Fujifilm Finepix F50fd produced
images of average quality during the review period. The 12
megapixel images are sharp enough straight out of the camera
and don't require any further sharpening in an application
like Adobe Photoshop. Unfortunately there are no in-camera
sharpening options if you don't like the in-camera default
results. The Fujifilm Finepix F50fd produced few signs of
chromatic aberrations, with limited purple and fringing effects
appearing only
in high contrast situations. Macro performance is below average,
allowing you to focus as close as 7 cms away from the subject.
The built-in flash worked well indoors with good overall
exposure, and the Red-eye Reduction flash setting successfully removed most signs of red-eye. The
night photograph was fine, with the maximum shutter speed
of 8 seconds sufficient for most night photography opportunities.
The Fujifilm Finepix F50fd's
offers an extensive ISO range of
100-6400, but only
ISO 100-400 is really usable, with lots of noise and blurring
of detail at the higher ISO speeds of 800 and above. Anti-shake
is a feature that sets this camera apart from its competitors
and one that works very well when hand-holding
the camera in low-light conditions or when using the telephoto
end of the zoom range.
 PhotographyBLOG
is a member of the DIWA
organisation. Our test results for the Fujifilm Finepix F50fd have been submitted to DIWA
for comparison with test results for different samples of
the same camera model supplied by other DIWA
member sites.
Compare Prices
Support PhotographyBLOG: Buy the Fujifilm FinePix F50fd from
one of our affiliate retailers:
|
RSS
Feeds
