Fujifilm Finepix F50fd 12MP Digital Camera with 3 x Optical Image Stabilization | 
| Brand: Fuji
List Price: $279.95
Buy New: $199.95
You Save: $80.00 (29%)
New (34) Refurbished (2) from $183.99
Rating:  46 reviews
Sales Rank: 2375
Color: Silver
Media: Electronics
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Batteries Included: Yes
Optical Zoom: 3
Display Size: 2.7
Battery: 1 NP-50 Li-ion Rechargeable battery
Maximum Focal Length: 24
Minimum Focal Length: 8
Maximum Resolution: 12
Has Red Eye Reduction: Yes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 3.6 x 2.3 x 0.9
Legal Disclaimer: Warranty does not cover misuse of product.
MPN: FinePix F50fd
Model: FinePix F50fd
UPC: 074101401707
EAN: 0074101401707
ASIN: B0002EQUIA
Release Date: September 19, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Features:
| • | 12-megapixel Super CCD sensor | | • | 3x optical zoom with Dual Image Stabilization; 2.7-inch LCD display | | • | Face Detection 2.0 optimizes focus/exposure for up to 10 faces | | • | Wirelessly transfer images to IrSimple-equipped devices, including other digital cameras | | • | Stores images on xD or SD memory cards (not included); powered by lithium-ion battery (battery and charger included) |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Take and share great pictures with Finepix F50FD! Up to ISO 1600 at full resolution; Up to ISO 3200 at 6MP and ISO 6400 at 3 megapixels i-Flash Intelligent Flash Durable all metal chassis Mode Dial with 15 Pre-programmed Scene Modes Rechargeable Li-ion battery delivers up to 250 shots per charge Fully automatic modes for simplicity and Full Manual Photographic Control for creativity IrSimple for fast wireless image transfer - Transfer your images quickly and easily from your FinePix F50fd to any IrSimple equipped device. A fast infrared technology. Want to share with your friends? No problem, you can even transfer images to another IrSimple equipped camera too. Backward compatible to IrDA devices at alower speeds xD - SD - SDHC Media Compatible Slot for flexible memory storage choices Multimode electronic-flash Shutter speed 8 sec. to 1/2000 sec. (depend on Shooting mode); Continuous shooting - Top-3 (max 2 frames/sec)/ High-speed Top-12 (max 5 frames/sec, 3 Mpixels or lower /ISO400 or higher) Video Output NTSC / PAL selectable Digital input/ output USB High-speed; Windows PC and Macintosh computer transfer Unit Dimensions - 3.6(W) 2.3(H) 0.9(D) in. (excluding accessories and attachments); Weight Approx. 155 g/5.4 oz.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 41 more reviews...
I didn't think I would, but I'm probably going to get one now... October 1, 2007
Vladimir Ratner (Upstate NY)
154 out of 164 found this review helpful
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.
a good camera, but a bit disappointed September 26, 2007
Edwin Olson (Cambridge, MA United States)
64 out of 68 found this review helpful
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.
Head of the class October 31, 2007
spin_nin (Chicago, Illinois United States)
31 out of 32 found this review helpful
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?
 Best Camera I've Seen On The Market Today October 14, 2007
Mindy (Virginia)
24 out of 29 found this review helpful
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 want to fall in love with it, but I could not October 26, 2007
R. Shu (Goleta, CA USA)
22 out of 22 found this review helpful
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.
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