Sunday, February 12, 2012
Fujifilm digital cameras have proven to be the most reliable and feature-laden cameras of the bunch. Fujifilm's latest compact digital camera model, the FinePix F550EXR, has useful features not yet seen in many other digital cameras. The F550EXR takes the highest-quality photos we've ever seen a digital camera take and processes them in the blink of an eye.
Design
It's true that all compact digital cameras are designed to be small, sleek and lightweight, and we think that this camera has the best design. It's simple and durable, and although it's not the smallest camera we reviewed, the lens placement and screen size contribute to the excellent pictures this camera takes. The FinePix F550EXR is easy to handle, and the controls are within a comfortable distance of your fingers as you hold the camera.
This digital camera comes with a built-in intelligent flash and 15x optical zoom, which make taking photos quicker, easier and more precise. Although the flash can be weak at times, you can fiddle with other settings such as ISO and the color effects to get a perfect picture. The 3-inch screen displays vivid pictures and works well as an easel on which you can edit your photos.
At 16 megapixels, the FinePix F550EXR has one of the highest resolutions we've seen in compact digital cameras. Cameras with more than 12 megapixels are often praised for their crisp photos, and with 16 million pixels, the FinePix F550EXR takes highly detailed, professional-quality pictures.
As mentioned previously, this camera has a 15x optical zoom, 5x digital zoom and a wide-angle lens. These features allow you to shoot your subject from a number of distances and angles, and add to the high quality of images this camera produces.
Besides the resolution and zoom, there are several settings that more experienced photographers will enjoy. The shutter speed, at 8–1/2000, has a greater range than most digital cameras. The focus range is perfect for taking close-up shots of flowers and children. This camera has a great focal length and a large number of ISO settings. While shooting in S mode, you can set the ISO up to 12,800. For those who would rather not play around with ISO settings, there is an Auto setting which will optimize the ISO for the current lighting and colors.
Features
This compact digital camera is worth buying based on the abundance of fun and photo-enhancing features alone. Image stabilization, continuous shooting options, red-eye reduction and face detection are a few of the basic features the F550EXR has. The camera also includes several fun and useful tools not found in many of its competitors' cameras. Some of our favorites include the GPS Geotagging, face-recognition, image-categorization and web-uploading features.
The Geotagging function is perfect for those who travel. When you take a picture, the camera's built-in GPS finds your latitude and longitude coordinates and embeds them in the shot. The name of your location shows up on your picture as well. For example, a photo of your family standing in front of an erupting Old Faithful at Yellowstone National Park will include the coordinates 44°27′35″N 110°49′57″W, as well as the tag “Yellowstone National Park” at the bottom of the photo.
Not only does this compact digital camera detect faces when you're taking portraits or group photos, but it will also recognize up to eight different faces. You can register these faces, and whenever the F550EXR detects them, it will optimize its settings in the person's favor to help make them look their best.
After taking dozens or even hundreds of pictures on our digital cameras, many of us like to scroll through them to pick our favorites, show them to others and relive the moments. However, if you're looking for a specific image, it can be tedious and frustrating to scroll through hundreds of images. The F550EXR allows you to make photobooks, which can make searching for a particular picture easier.
Also included on this camera is an easy web-uploading feature that allows you to upload your photos and videos to Facebook and YouTube without saving them to your computer first. You can come back later and save your pictures to your computer, but this is a great feature to use when you're pressed for time but want to show the world what you've been up to.
The FinePix F550EXR includes all of these fun features and more, including HD video recording, red-eye reduction, pet-detection mode, 360-degree panoramas, a self-timer and continuous shooting modes.
Battery Life & Memory
The FinePix F550EXR comes with a lithium-ion rechargeable battery; however, the power adapter is sold separately. The battery will power the camera for hours and allows you to take about 300 pictures on a single battery charge.
We've all taken the memory card out of our cameras to upload pictures to our computers and then forgotten about the card sitting in our computer, leaving us with a camera without a memory card the next time a great photo opportunity arises. Luckily, the FinePix F550EXR has 39MB of internal memory that can hold up to about 50 photos. This may not be enough for whole trips and vacations, but it should be enough for a family activity or a night out with friends.
Help & Support
All Fujifilm compact digital cameras come with a one-year warranty. If you buy them through services like Amazon, you can purchase extended warranties. A one-year warranty may seem like a long time, but cameras can break easily, so sometimes it is a good idea to invest in a longer warranty.
Fujifilm has plenty of options when it comes to help and support. There are plenty of FAQs and other knowledge bases online, and Fujifilm includes online versions of the user manuals for most of its products. These manuals are helpful to glance through before you buy the product, and are helpful if you lose your own copy.
Fujifilm's customer support is easy to get in contact with by phone and email. Although a live chat option would be a faster and easier way to get help, we appreciate the helpful and timely response we received after we sent in a question through email.
Summary
We researched dozens of compact digital cameras, looking for the best ones, and when we found the FinePix F550EXR by Fujifilm, we knew we'd found the winner. This camera takes fantastic pictures and has tons of settings that let you mix and match with color, lighting and brightness in order to produce fun and artistic photos.
