One of my all-time favorite point-n-shoot digital cameras is the Fuji FinePix F10 (below). This camera is GREAT. Its a 6.3 MegaPixel (which is plenty for most people) it has a very quick shutter and recovery time and it operates well in a variety of situations. The menus are easy to use and the battery life is great. Most of the photos I’ve taken are with this camera and its the standard that all others are held to.
So - when my dad said he wanted to get my mom a smaller camera, I immediately looked to the same family of cameras to see what’s changed and compare it to other models/brands that were highly recommended. I learned that the F10 eventually became the F30/31, which performs even better in low-light … so much so that a lot of review sites say the F30/31 sets the standard for what a camera this size should do.
The F30/31 has just been updated to the F50 - which JUST came out but has had some good reviews as well. So, we bought this for my mom and eagerly awaited the opening of her gift:
After several days of playing around with this camera, the list of features I LOVE is very long and includes menus that tell you exactly what the setting does, a smart face detection / red eye removal, fast recovery time and one of the fastest continuous shot modes I’ve seen (in a camera this size). However, there is one very, VERY big problem: the pictures look terrible!
Here’s an example (I have MANY more, but won’t bore you with them). This was shot in the evening with lots of ambient light in the area. It was on the “auto” setting, so the camera was doing what it thought was best for the situation (I took the same photo with various ISO, flash and mode settings - all did the same thing as the photo below):
Now … I had to scale down this 12 megapixel photo for the web, but if you get close to your screen you’ll see lots of colors in Johna’s sweater. Incase you’re wondering, its a brown sweater — and not a terribly dark one. The camera really had a tough time with low-light photos on darker colors … which is a problem since a lot of my mom’s photos will be taken in those settings.
We’re still doing research on what the replacement will be for her. But as of today, we’ve thrown in the towel and returned the F50.
In the past several days, we’ve visited most of the “expert” camera stores in their city and have yet to talk to anyone who has heard of the F50 camera (it came out in the last month or so). Also, no one can agree on what brand makes the best low-light cameras (Sony, Panasonic, Canon, Fuji and Olympus have all been mentioned as “the best” by sales people at different locations of the same store chain).
When we discover the perfect camera, I’ll let you know.
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