Roundup: Compact Digital Cameras : FujiFilm FinePix J150W
16. FujiFilm FinePix J150W
J150W vs. J110W
Spot the difference... and heres a little help: there is only one to be found!
Yes, it is all in the LCD display. The J150W boasts a striking 3-inch (while the J110W has only a 2.7-inch to show off). A part from this, the characteristics are absolutely identical. So now you know.
The J150W boasts a 10 Megapixel sensor, a 5x optical zoom and a 28-mm wide angle lens, all this for an entry level price. So how does it compete with the other cameras on the shelves?
Handling
The brushed aluminum metal shell of the J150W is both stylish and elegant. The rear panel is composed mainly of a large 3.0-inch LCD display with 230,000 dots of resolution. This allows little space for anything else. Even the on/off and the shutter buttons are tiny. In terms of navigation, it is all very easy to grasp. A control dial to switch modes, a menu to change the sensitivity, a joypad for options such as flash, macro, mode... and to move around within menus...
Reactivity is pretty good. Focus in bright light is quick: 0.64 seconds. Burst mode at 2.7 frames per second is fine too. Sadly there will be little raving about the rest. Shutter lag requires 1.60 seconds and the recording time between two pictures takes 3.55 seconds.
Image Quality
The 10-megapixel sensor will provide sharp pictures with all the right color accents. No need here to use additional software to make colors look any more striking. A4 prints are satisfying. The lens is good, but as you can see below, there is a significant loss of detail on the left hand side.
There is also some underexposure, but you can still make out the details in the more washed out zones. At 100-percent, there is some colored fringing, but nothing too bad, and this becomes almost invisible on an A4 print. Outdoors, colors are vivid. Indoors white balance will produce reddish colors.
It all gets a bit trickier when shooting on the go, as there is no image stabilization. A decent image of our Barbie took 1/14 seconds. In low light conditions, sensitivity is higher (also to reduce the effect of shake) and the noise is more apparent too.
In terms of noise, there is little of it up to 100 ISO. At 400 ISO sensitivity, some starts showing and from 800 ISO there is quite a lot of it. However the blurry effect is still better than with other cameras we tested (such as the Panasonic LZ10). On the whole the image quality is a bit above that of the competition.
The Fuji FinePix J150w records videos though the zoom function is disabled during movie recording. Playback is good.
| FujiFilm FinePix J150W | |
|---|---|
| Pluses | Minuses |
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| Sadly, this Fuji does not offer any sort of image stabilization. Even though the camera fares rather well in high sensitivities, it is not enough to make all the pictures a success. It's a shame because the J150W has a lot of things going for it at a very affordable price. |  |
should have classified the cameras to at least price and/or final rating. i got discouraged to read.
should have classified the cameras to at least price and/or final rating. i got discouraged to read.
When you say classified, what do you mean? Do you mean the pages should go in order of price, or in order of rating? Such as the cheap ones at the beginning and the expensive ones at the end OR the best cameras at the top and the worst cameras at the bottom?
i meant group them by chosen price ranges/brackets or any feature you think is relevant since comparison between cameras is just difficult with the present format wherein it is only possible to compare models of a certain brand.
It would have been nice if all the cameras were given scores (yes I know this is very subjective, but so are all the comments and pro/con sections). Idealy they would be given su scores as well (i.e. a still picture score, a video score, a asthetics score, a usablity score, maybe some others) and then the cameras could be sorted by those scores with links, maybey a short blurb at each camera in the sorted list. Another thing that would be very usefull to myself and I assume other readers is a features table that allows us to compare all the cameras.