Fujifilm FinePix F50fd

Manual Control Options
The F50fd has a Manual exposure mode on the dial, but it isn’t entirely manual. It doesn’t allow the shutter speed and aperture to be independently controlled. Control options are limited to white balance, ISO, and exposure compensation. That said, the Fujifilm F50fd has more manual controls than most compact digital cameras in its class. That’s because it has Aperture and Shutter Speed Priority modes along with its fleet of other exposure options.

Focus
Autofocus (8.25)
The Fujifilm FinePix F50fd has a through-the-lens autofocus system that can function continuously or only when the shutter release button is pushed halfway. The autofocus frame can be set to fix upon the center or tackle multiple points.

The F50fd can focus from 1.5 feet when zoomed out and 2 feet when zoomed in – unless the Macro mode is activated. In that case, the Fujinon lens and the autofocus system can focus from 2.8 inches to 2.6 feet (wide) and 1 to 2.6 feet (telephoto). When the Quick AF mode is activated (curiously, this is done through the power management portion of the F-mode menu), it can focus from 3.2 feet to infinity. This feature speeds up the autofocus system.

The autofocus assist beam shoots out when needed; it has a white beam that isn’t as intrusive as other cameras’ orange or green lights.

One of the major upgrades on the F50fd is its face detection system. Fujifilm was the first to introduce face detection on the F31fd in 2006 (besides Nikon’s ineffective "Face Priority mode"). The F50fd includes what Fujifilm calls "Face Detection 2.0." The older system recognized faces from the front, but the new system can detect them from profiles, as well. It can recognize when faces are tilted 135 degrees up and down, and 90 degrees to each side. The angling of the face detection is the big improvement; the F50fd can still only detect 10 faces at a time in 1/500 of a second.

Fuji’s face detection system has a formidable opponent in Canon. Recent Canon digital cameras, such as the PowerShot SD870 IS, can recognize up to 35 faces at a time from many angles. The Canon is really only better if photographing very large group portraits often, though. Fuji’s system is very fast and effective at recognizing, focusing on, and tailoring the exposure to faces.

Manual Focus (0.0)
Despite all its other manual controls, the Fujifilm FinePix F50fd does not have manual focus control.

ISO (8.25)
This digital camera has an expanded ISO range, something Fujifilm F-series cameras have been doing for awhile. The F31fd was one of the first compact digital cameras to offer ISO 1600 at its full 6-megapixel resolution. The F40fd also has ISO 1600 available in its manual ISO range and 2000 for anti-blur and Natural Light modes. The Fujifilm FinePix F50fd has ISO 100 to1600 options at full resolution, but offers ISO 3200 when resolution is decreased to a still-decent 6 megapixels. The resolution is chopped much lower, to 3 megapixels, for ISO 6400. The F50fd’s images aren’t as noise-free as some of its predecessors. In fact, the F50fd has a considerable amount of noise above ISO 100. Read more about the camera’s noise performance in the Testing/Performance section of this review.

The F50fd has automatic, auto 400, auto 800, and auto 1600 ISO options in its F-mode menu, as well. With all these automatic modes, they hardly seem automatic anymore. It does allow the automatic ISO to expand farther than it normally would, but this is something most point-and-shooters are unlikely to set. And if they do, noise will likely follow.

White Balance (7.75)
The white balance can be changed in the more manually-oriented exposure modes from the standard Shooting menu. The live view shows the effects of the various white balance settings via the live preview. Auto, fine, shade, fluorescent daylight, fluorescent warm white, fluorescent cool white, incandescent, and custom are the options available. The custom white balance can be set by pushing the shutter release button when prompted by the on-screen directions. It isn’t terribly difficult, but may intimidate beginners.

Exposure (8.5)
The exposure can be manipulated in several ways. In the Aperture Priority and Shutter Speed Priority modes, the particular manual control can be changed along with the exposure compensation. The exposure compensation is also available in most other modes. It offers the same +/- 2 range in 1/3 steps that is on almost every digital camera on the market – and it comes with a live view.

Metering (7.75)
Fujifilm masks its Metering mode under the title "photometry," which will likely confuse point-and-shooters who pick this camera up. Once users find it in the Shooting menu, though, they will find the standard options available: Multi, Average, and Spot. The Fujifilm F50fd uses a 256-zone metering system and incorporates the brightness of faces when the face detection feature is activated.

Shutter Speed (4.25) 
The Fujifilm FinePix F50fd has shutter speeds that range from 8 to 1/2000 of a second, although the range is limited depending on the selected exposure mode. The Fireworks scene mode keeps shutter speeds at 4 seconds or less. The Night scene mode keeps pictures in the 1 to 8-second range. There is a Shutter Speed Priority mode, but its range is shortened to 1 to 1/1000 of a second. This is an improvement over the F40fd, which had shutter speeds that slowed only to 3 seconds.

Aperture (4.0)
The Fujinon lens is the same one included on the F40fd, so these cameras share the same 3x power and 10-step aperture. The aperture opens as large as f/2.8 at the widest end of the lens, but that quickly diminishes to f/5.1 when the lens is zoomed in. The aperture can be manually controlled in the Aperture Priority mode. The exposure compensation portion of the multi-selector must be pushed for the following aperture choices to appear: f/2.8, f/3.2, f/3.6, f/4, f/4.5, f/5, f/5.6, f/6.4, f/7.1, and f/8.