Fujifilm Finepix J50 Review
Review Date: March 21st 2007
Author: Mark Goldstein
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Image Quality
All of the sample images in this Review were taken using the 8 megapixel Fine
JPEG setting, which gives an average image size of around
2.5Mb.
Noise
There are 4 ISO settings available
on the Fujifilm Finepix J50 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 a lot as
the
camera blurs detail to try and hide the noise, and by ISO
800 the results have become a smudgy mess.
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 slightly soft 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 J50 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 J50 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 J50 offers
a Macro setting that allows you to focus on a subject that
is 5cms 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 J50 are Auto, Red-eye Reduction, Forced Flash, Suppressed Flash and 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.
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Auto
Flash - Telephoto (185mm) |
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And here are some portrait shots.
Neither the Auto or Red-eye
reduction modes caused any red-eye.
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Auto
(100% Crop) |
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Red-eye
reduction (100% Crop) |
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Night Shot
The Fujifilm Finepix J50's maximum
shutter speed is 4 seconds in the Night scene mode, which
is not very good news if you're seriously interested in night
photography.
The
shot
below was taken using a shutter speed of 2 seconds, aperture
of f/5.2 at ISO 200. I've included a 100% crop of the image
to show what the quality is like.
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Night
Shot (100% Crop) |
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Overall Image Quality
The Fujifilm Finepix J50 produced
images of below average quality during the review period. The 8 megapixel images are slightly soft straight out of the camera
and ideally require some 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 J50 produced few signs of
chromatic aberrations, with limited purple and fringing effects
appearing only
in high contrast situations. Macro performance is about average,
allowing you to focus as close as 5 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 OK, but the maximum shutter speed
of 4 seconds won't be sufficient for all night photography opportunities.
The Fujifilm Finepix J50's
offers a rather limited ISO range of
100-800, further compunded by only
ISO 100-200 really being usable, with lots of noise and blurring
of detail at the higher ISO speeds of 400 and 800. Together with the lack of an optical image stabilisation system, this makes the Fujifilm Finepix J50 poorly suited to low-light photography.
 PhotographyBLOG
is a member of the DIWA
organisation. Our test results for the Fujifilm Finepix J50 have been submitted to DIWA
for comparison with test results for different samples of
the same camera model supplied by other DIWA
member sites.
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