Fujifilm and the FinePix HS50EXR

My friend happened to grab a Fujifilm FinePix HS50EXR at a duty free at Japan a few days ago and I got to play with it for a while this morning.

My first reaction holding it was, HEAVY. At almost 810 grams it was certainly heavy, but that probably added to the sturdy look and build. It is also big in build, especially in this range of its competition which attempts to bridge the gap between the PnS mega zoom and the entry level DSLR.

A 1/2-inch EXR CMOS II with primary colour filter is the brain behind the 16 Mega Pixel capability of this camera, which churns out pretty decent images at the near end of the 42X digital magnification capability. A 3-inch vari-angle 920k-dot LCD monitor, the likes of what is found in a 600D, provides a good look and feel of a DSLR while the 920k-dot electronic viewfinder with eye-sensor for automatic switching is extremely easy on the eye.

The aperture ranges from the now standard 2.8 to 11, ISO from 100 to 12800 and a shutter speed from ¼ to 1/1400.

A full 1080p HD movie recording at up to 60fps with stereo sound provides decent film footage. A separate button for Video at the rear of the camera was thoughtful. This is possibly the highlight of the camera which does complete justice to the hype at full HD.

I also liked the customizable Fn button on the rear navigation circular pad which can be customized for often used settings like ISO, WB, Flash etc.

The 1260 mAh Li-Ion battery is scouted to last for ages and is touted to be one of the best in its breed.

A wide array of shooting modes, including a new introduction in the form of EXR and film simulation give this camera an extra arm to fight the competition.

On the flip side, though the menu is easy to navigate, I thought it took an awful lot of time to navigate between screens. Sometimes the wait was extremely frustrating, which was one big irritant.

Though the ISO capability is 12800, I found daylight images to be very noisy at 800 ISO. Even at 400, there were faint traces of noise.

I’m told it retails at 27K INR (at flipkart) but my friend picked it up at around 400 USD at the Narita airport – Japan.

regards
Rajan