Fujifilm FinePix J50

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By Leonard Goh
Jul 21, 2008

The 8-megapixel FinePix J50 was first announced during PMA in January and it belongs to a new lineup in the FinePix family. Seen alongside was the FinePix J10, a scaled-down version of its sibling. Targeted at first-time digital camera users or those who are looking for a no-frills shooter, don't expect the J50 to come with fancy features or avant-garde image quality. But it does have a handy 5x optical zoom and delivers best at what it is expected to do--snap shots with minimal fuss.

Design

The aesthetics of the J50 is nothing to shout about. In fact, we consider it rather bland. On the front is a small ledge to improve the grip, and we found it did help a bit due to the protruded end that our finger could hook on to.

The battery flap is situated at the side of the shooter instead of at the bottom.
(click for larger image)

The four-way navigation button on the rear showed that Fujifilm put in some thought when designing it. Unlike most point-and-shoots whose buttons are flat, the navigation tool on the J50 concaves to the middle where the Menu/OK button pops up. This decreased the number of times we hit the wrong button when sifting through the menus.

The mode dial has ridged edges to prevent fingers from slipping off when turning the dial. Also, it has ample resistance so we would not overshot the intended mode.

Most shooters have the battery/memory card compartment at the bottom, but for the J50 this is found on the side. Which makes it kind of interesting because the flap opens up sideways, giving a bit of character to an otherwise plain-Jane snapper.

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