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January 19th, 2012 Fujifilm FinePix F505 16 MP CMOS Sensor and 15x Optical Zoom Digital Camera with 4 GB Class 10 SD Memory Card (Black)
- 16-megapixel EXR CMOS sensor
- Fujinon 15x wide-angle optical zoom lens; Image Stabilization (CMOS Shift + High ISO)
- 3.0-inch high-contrast LCD screen
- Face detection; RAW + JPG mode
- Includes 4 GB Class 10 SD memory card
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Small camera, big features,
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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 I take thousands of photographs a day to record historical documents for my job as a professional historian.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…
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|Simply Great,
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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’re paying for with this camera.
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|so far so good,
I love this camera so far. I bought it for a photography class I am taking next semester and have already used it more than I thought I would
Pros:
Comes with a free 4 Gb SD card
Has a GREAT picture, which is really the only important thing! The picture is better than my grandmas fujifilm that she paid $400 and I only paid $160
Has lots of different settings. When you put it on advanced it has a seamless panoramic setting. most panoramic settings you have to take three pictures and try to line them up just right and you always end up with two lines down the middle of your picture but this one you just pan the camera and try to stay level and then it calibrates the rest of it and blends it together and it looks seamless.
The EXR setting is amazing! the first day I got it my grandma had me take a whole bunch of pictures of a house she is selling and she needed inside and out. Different areas of the house were lighted different and it didnt matter, the EXR figured out the best setting it needed to be on to get the best picture and went there! the best part was that it could detect whether you were outside or not and it had the same quality picture everywhere. it didnt let so much sunlight in that it blared out the picture, and in low light it didnt turn out dark at all!
Its quite light weight for its size, but is heavy and sturdy enough that it doesnt seem chinsy
the flash pops up and the lens covers snap inside and it makes a cool little noise. Its not needed, but appreciated by nerds like me 
Another little thing that doesn’t really matter much is that when you turn it on it seems all techy and futuristic
Cons:
I really havent found any yet. The only thing that MIGHT be one is that the scroll wheel is super sensitive. Im sure that there is a way to change that, I just havent looked for it yet. Its easy to scroll past the picture you were looking for but its not a big deal.
If I find anything big that I dont like about this I will update the review, but for now I love it
Really I would recommend this to anyone who isnt a total professional and wants really simple great looking pictures without having to lug around a giant SLR.
If this was helpful I would really appreciate you taking a few seconds to hit the helpful button above. thanks
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