Fujifilm FinePix F50fd

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By Edvarcl Heng, CNET Asia
Oct 25, 2007

Once darkness falls, it's often a lost cause for compact camera users. The throw distance of your itsy-bitsy cam's flash is too short and the aperture is too small. Even the world's greatest image stabilizer system isn't a help if your max exposure time is a near-pittance.

But by brandishing a heightened light sensitivity, Fujifilm thinks it has that covered. At ISO 6,400, the FinePix F50fd's is the Japanese firm's beacon against the shadow of blurred night-time shots.

Design

But does it look good while brightening up your night shots? In a sense--no. Despite the new curves, which Fujifilm calls the Aero (Vista?) design language, the F50fd is still decidedly clunky (155g).

Click to see larger image: Dual IS menu; menu captions; 100 thumbnails

Yet the layout of the controls made us a little more forgiving. Help captions are plentiful. Turn the jog dial, and onscreen instructions will tell you what you are looking at.

Buttons are well-spaced-out and the user menu's learning curve is less taxing on the new user. During shooting, pressing the menu button once will conjure up a contextual menu that's relevant to the current camera mode. To enter the main menu, you will need to scroll down to the setup tab.

There's also an italicized "F" button that serves as a shortcut menu for ISO, megapixel quality and color mode. It's convenient, but there isn't a provision for customization.

The Mode wheel requires more thumb muscle than we expected since it's stiff, but some will like it for its precision. There're also two custom keys for image stabilization and face detection, but usually users don't meddle with these, so the pair may be better off serving other features.

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