Fujifilm F31fd or F50fd?

[dingdongbubble]

Hi

Well I got myself the Pentax K100D and love it but my family might want somehting smaller and easier to use, in short a dreaded P/S. So I came across the latest dpreview.com review on the Fujifilm f50fd. It says that its successor was considered the best in ISO performance and I checked the conclu and it said that it is highly recommended. I ahve hardly come across P/S highly recommended cams.

So I was wondering if you know any other P/S cams which got rated as highly recommended by dpreview and are like the f31fd?

More importantly which one would you recommend buying the f50fd or f31fd?

 

[johny5]

I am no pro but do like a good camera. I owned a canon digital ixus before retiring it with a Fuji F31FD after it came out the all winner in a group test on the "gadget show" uk.
I think it is an absolutely great camera with good light levels and a good range of manual controls along. I keep looking at digital SLR's to jump into the pro type of camera but the everyday shooting that i do is fully justified and complimented by this little beauty!
I have a 1 year old daughter and take loads of perfect macro shots every day.

Last night as the sun was setting there were some funky cloud/sun effects that I had to capture, with everything on auto look at the pic i took.

 

[johny5]

lol, I just read up about the F50 and to be honest its a no brainer to go for that camera with it superseding the F31d and that being a superb camera I dont think you can go wrong. 12 megapixels in a compact camera and advanced face detection 2 makes me want to buy the F50 now!
Theyre very cheap also at £149 from pixmania.co.uk

 

[Abstract]

I am no pro but do like a good camera. I owned a canon digital ixus before retiring it with a Fuji F31FD after it came out the all winner in a group test on the "gadget show" uk.

It replaced my IXUS as well, and now I won't know what to do the next time I look for a compact. They keep making them worse and worse, and the Fuji F30 and F31fd were legends. Nobody will remember the IXUS 1000 or most other point and shoots in the same way.

The F50fd isn't nearly as good as the F31fd. In fact, Fuji made something that is essentially a clone of everything else on the market, which isn't a good thing. It's as bad at ISO 200 and 400 as other small cameras, which is a shame, because the F31fd was clean and usable up until ISO 800. Some people say that the noise reduction was strong and gave everything a "watercolour" effect, but honestly, which other compact camera gave you such photo quality? People complain, but these people always complain about things not being good enough.

Also, the flash on the F31fd cannot be beat. I'm sorry, but that flash is very good for a compact, and on slow sync mode, it exposes very well.


PS: Get a Fuji F40 if you want a decent Fuji. It doesn't have image stabilization, but I just read the DPReview review (just like you did), and the IS doesn't work anyway, so there's no benefit. High ISO will always work, so....

 

[cube]

PS: Get a Fuji F40 if you want a decent Fuji.

If you can't find the F31fd or F30, the best option is the F20, which is basically the automatic-only version of the same, and without the useless ISO 3200.

 

[Over Achiever]

lol, I just read up about the F50 and to be honest its a no brainer to go for that camera with it superseding the F31d and that being a superb camera I dont think you can go wrong. 12 megapixels in a compact camera and advanced face detection 2 makes me want to buy the F50 now!
Theyre very cheap also at £149 from pixmania.co.uk

I've actually used both cameras (as well as the larger Fuji S6000fd) and while the F50fd looks good on paper, I'd go with the F31 if it's a reasonable price. Actual use was quite disappointing (optical image stabilization doesn't really do anything, ISO 800 is worse on the F50 than the F31, ISO 3200 and 6400 essentially useless). I think there is a slight gain in resolution and slightly better white balance and sharpening, and the F50 takes SD cards, but that's about all it has going for it. That and the fairly good price.

I'd go with the F31, or F20/40 if you can find them.

 

[johny5]

I've actually used both cameras (as well as the larger Fuji S6000fd) and while the F50fd looks good on paper, I'd go with the F31 if it's a reasonable price. .

Thanks for putting my mind at rest..... I always like/want the latest techy things and after bumping into this post I wanted an F50, only real benefits i thought of were the higher resolution (although maybe not a benefit unless your planning on printing large posters + also image storage would increase dramatically) and also the face detection 2. The low price didnt help either as its easily within my grasp but after your reply and the fact ive only had my F31d for under a year, i will stick to it!

 

[Abstract]

If you can't find the F31fd or F30, the best option is the F20, which is basically the automatic-only version of the same, and without the useless ISO 3200.

Yeah, same with the F40, except that the F20's image quality is slightly better (we're talking miniscule differences, here). The F40's menu system is better designed (ie: not as bad as the F30 and F31fd), so that makes it around the same as the F20.

 

[dingdongbubble]

So in short can u tell me which camera to get in terms of preference? First F31fd, then F40, then f20 and if I cant any of those then F50fd? And are there any other cameras as good as these form other manufacturers?

 

[cube]

The order would be: F31fd, F30, F20, F40

Fuji uses their own Super CCD sensor technology. There's nothing like that.