The Fujifilm FinePix F50fd is a 12 Megapixel compact camera with a 3x optical zoom lens and built-in sensor-shift stabilisation. Announced in July 2007, it numerically follows the F40fd, but is the real successor to the legendary FinePix F30 and F31fd models. These shunned high resolutions for excellent performance at high sensitivities and set the benchmark for what could be achieved with a compact under low light. As such the new F50fd has a lot to live up to.

The F50fd certainly makes big noises – hopefully not literally – about high sensitivities, sporting nothing less than a 6400 ISO option, albeit operating at a reduced resolution of 3 Megapixels. The 3200 ISO mode operates at 6 Megapixels, but for the full 12 Megapixel resolution you’ll need to work between 100 and 1600 ISO. The F50fd also now includes image stabilisation which should further help shooting under low light.

Like its predecessors the F50fd allows a fair degree of manual control with a switchable Aperture and Shutter priority mode, alongside fully automatic modes which also include face detection. And like Fujifilm’s latest models, the memory card slot supports the choice of media: xD or the much more common and affordable SD cards.

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