The Fujifilm Fine Pix Camera is a great gift for the holidays.
REVIEW BLOG FOR FUJIFILM FINEPIX F505
REVIEW BLOG FOR FUJIFILM FINEPIX F505
Fujifilm FinePix F505 16 MP CMOS Sensor and 15x Optical Zoom Digital Camera with 4 GB Class 10 SD Memory Card (Black)
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40 of 45 people found the following reviews helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Simply Great, November 15, 2011
I shoot with Sony DSLRs and have great glass, but when I got this for review, I decided to hang my Sonys up for a month and shoot with nothing but this. I'm not a pro, but I am a very serious amateur. Wherever I go, I carry a camera. I take pictures everyday. It's an obsession and I'm obsessed with good quality gear.
And this is good quality gear which fits in my pocket. The camera is responsive, has the shooting modes you'd expect, though I've been leaving in on full auto, because for once I've found a camera that really might be smarter than me. The camera is dead easy to use, but most of all, it takes great photos. It is pricy, but you get what you pay for. Actually, in my opinion, you're getting a lot more than you've paying for with this camera.
By
Dave Mayer (Huntington Beach)
This review is from: Fujifilm FinePix F505 16 MP CMOS Sensor and 15x Optical Zoom Digital Camera with 4 GB Class 10 SD Memory Card (Black) (Electronics)
And this is good quality gear which fits in my pocket. The camera is responsive, has the shooting modes you'd expect, though I've been leaving in on full auto, because for once I've found a camera that really might be smarter than me. The camera is dead easy to use, but most of all, it takes great photos. It is pricy, but you get what you pay for. Actually, in my opinion, you're getting a lot more than you've paying for with this camera.
5.0 out of 5 stars Great camera, very good quality images, November 6, 2011
By
This review is from: Fujifilm FinePix F505 16 MP CMOS Sensor and 15x Optical Zoom Digital Camera with 4 GB Class 10 SD Memory Card (Black) (Electronics)
There is talk about how point and shoots will be phased out soon, but I don't think so, especially with camera like these that really is good quality, it is encroaching on dslr space 5.0 out of 5 stars Small camera, big features, November 14, 2011
By T. Simmons (Austin, Texas)
I'm an unusual and especially demanding camera user, but not because I'm an expert in photography. I take thousands of photographs a day to record historical documents for my job as a professional historian. Otherwise I'm a typical camera user with a typical knowledge about how digital cameras work - the exact kind of person who would be purchasing a high-quality point-and-shoot camera like this one. It's difficult to avoid superlatives when describing this camera. I really am very impressed with its quality and features.
The good:
1. This camera produces the best-quality photographs of any small(ish) point-and-shoot camera I have ever used. It's almost impossible to take a bad photograph.
2. I believe the reason the photos are so good (per my comment above) is that the auto mode, called EXR on the Fujifilm, is simply amazing. It's way better at doing its job than comparable auto features on other digital cameras. You don't have to be an expert at photography because the camera does all the technical work for you. It makes all the right adjustments in macro, aperture, white light, shutter speed, etc. If the room is dim, the photos are bright (as they would appear to the human eye). If the scene is bright, the camera adjusts accordingly to prevent washout. When the subject is lit by incandescent or, worse, fluorescent lights, the camera adjusts the white light filter to prevent those ugly yellowish or washed-out photos that you probably get with your current camera. These are things that all cameras are SUPPOSED to do, but very few compact cameras do it as well as this one.
3. The LCD screen is huge, extremely sharp, and unusually bright.
4. The shutter and auto-focus is very fast for a compact camera - almost instant, in fact. None of that waiting around while your camera focuses and finally snaps the shot. This is a handy feature if you have pets or kids or regularly take action shots.
5. The zoom is fantastic. It's extremely rare to get a 15x zoom in a camera this small. My old semi-SLR is three times the size and only has 12x. The zoom also works pretty fast. You don't have to wait forever for the camera to zoom, focus, and take the shot. It can literally go from wide-angle to 15x and be focused for a shot in about 2-3 seconds.
6. Even better, the same lens that gives you 15x for those long-range shots also does amazing wide-angle shots (24mm). This feature comes in handy when you want to make pictures of your house or garden look more spacious than they really are. It also helps for those big group shots when the whole family gathers together for the holidays.
7. The battery life is very good. I can shoot for about 4 or 5 hours continuously without a charge and get over 1,000 photos in that time when I'm working on historical documents. I imagine you could take pictures periodically all day on one charge.
8. The batteries are cheap, lightweight, and readily available. The replacement Fujifilm brand runs about $12 plus shipping. A well-rated aftermarket replacement here on Amazon can be purchased for less than $4.00 including shipping! (...). For the price of a burrito you can have three spare batteries plus the original to keep you going for days of continuous shooting. (EDIT: I can't include a link to these batteries, but you can find them by searching for the NP-50 battery here on Amazon. You can also find out more about compatible accessories (chargers, AC adapters, etc.) on the Fujifilm website.)
9. The options in the menu help you know what exactly you're changing. You might even learn something new from this thoughtful feature, like I did!
10. The camera is relatively lightweight and pretty small for the features you get. It easily fits in the front or back pocket of my jeans. Basically this camera gives you the features of a semi-SLR but fits in your pocket with ease.
11. The camera has a handy feature for reviewing your photos - and RETURNING TO READY MODE. To review your photos you simply push the little green display button like on any camera. Ordinary stuff. But have you ever had that problem where the dial was turned to "review" and you couldn't get it back to ready mode in time for a great action shot? Yes, we all have. Well, with this camera, you simply give the capture-image button a light tap and you're back in action. It's way faster and way easier than any other digital camera I've used.
12. The video quality is really high and you can adjust it to different sizes and speeds if you need more space for a long day of shooting.
13. It's pretty ergonomic. It's big enough to fit in your hand but not so big that it's heavy or awkward. One hand picture-taking is pretty easy with this camera. There's also a little rubberized indention on the right side where your fingers can grip.
14. It has an effective built-in flash that goes down when the camera is off but rises when you turn it on. The automatic flash sensor seems to work pretty well too. It flashes when you need it and stays off when you don't: none of those annoying flashes at the wrong time.
15. The special features are better than on most compact digital cameras. (a) First there's a feature specially designed for low-light conditions. The camera actually takes multiple photos and then laces them together to get the best light and contrast. Photos in a dimly lit room, or, say, around a campfire, look as good on this camera as they do to the naked eye. This is a big improvement from every other digital camera I've owned, which have tended to take really dark, blurry photos whenever the light is low, even when I have manually adjusted the aperture and light settings to where they ought to be. (b) Then there is a portrait enhancer that smoothes the image and makes a face look better. (c) There is a feature for taking close-up shots of, say, flowers, where the camera takes multiple photos, sharpens the main object (the flower), and blurs the background. It's a very nice effect and something that normally can be done only with SLRs. (d) Finally there is a feature that takes a burst of four shots and then lets you either choose the best or keep all four. This is nice for action shots and for portraits of a big group of people who might blink or make faces.
The bad:
1. The flash is positioned bad. It rises on the top left of the camera where most people would habitually place the left forefinger. Once you get used to it, the problem doesn't seem so bad, but it'll probably be one of the first things you notice.
2. The printed user's manual is useful but not very detailed. It just gives the basics. To learn more, especially about what certain camera terms mean, you'll have to use the software that comes with it. That may not be a problem for you, but I personally would prefer to have a printed copy in my hand right out of the box.
3. The battery takes quite a while to charge - about two hours. This is OK, I guess, since the battery lasts so long once you get a charge, but it's a little frustrating if you find your battery drained and need it for instant action. That's why you should buy spares, I guess.
Despite the three reservations listed above, I'm very impressed with this camera and recommend it highly. It's the perfect way to get near-SLR quality photos in a small package that is both cheaper and easier to use. It's made my job of photographing documents much, much easier and much, much faster. And it has made my everyday photos of family and pets and scenery and sites so much better than I ever thought possible in a camera of this size. Five stars for a home run by Fujifilm!
