Fujifilm FinePix HS50EXR 16MP Digital Camera with 3-Inch LCD (Black) (OLD MODEL)

Fuji HS50 vs Pentax K-30 (dSLR)Test configuration:Fuji HS50 EXR Mega-ZoomBuilt in 24-1,000mm (42X) f/2.8-5.6 lens.Total cost: $320Pentax K-30 DSLR ($580)18-55 mm (27-83 mm equiv.) included55-300 mm (85-450 mm equiv.) ($439)Total cost: $1,019Summary:Fuji StrengthsCheaper2.22X greater telephoto zoom1.13X wider angle lensFocus as close as 1 cm (Pentax = 25 cm)Flash sync up to 1/ 4000 sec (Pentax = 1/180 sec)About size of Pentax w/ 27-83mm lensSilent operationBetter Viewfinder at nightFully articulating LCD (Pentax LCD doesn't move at all)Non-interchangeable lensPentax Strengths1/6,000 shutter speed (Fuji = 1/4000)Better optical viewfinder in daylightWaterproofInterchangeable lensBetter image quality, especially at high sensitivity (ISO)Better Manual focusBottom line is that the DSLRs allow you to crop more, down to 25%, on the computer, while retaining detail. The HS50 allows you to zoom in more with the initial photo, and refine the crop, down to about 50%, and still have a reasonable picture (without pixel peeping). But the fact is, I've taken excellent photos with my old 2 MP camera, that when enlarged to 8X10, no one could tell they were any worse than a 5 MP camera. So the whole issue of "image quality" at the pixel level, I think is way overstated.The most important question you need to ask is: What are you going to do with your photos? If you're going to share them on social media and enlarge them to a maximum of 8X10 prints. Then the answer is easy: get the Fujifilm HS50 EXR. If you'll be taking a lot of moody low light photos that you want to share professionally, get a DSLR.Image qualityAt ISO 100, the Pentax has slightly better quality, but you need to enlarge to the point of pixel peeping. At ISO 800, the Pentax is roughly equivalent to the Fuji at ISO 200 or 400. But once again, you need to be pixel peeping. At ISO 1600, the Fuji's noise reduction starts smoothing detail, so smooth areas look OK, but textures start getting lost. But, honestly, you need to enlarge greater than 8x10 to really notice.+++++++++++++++++++42X Zoom lensThe beauty of the Fuji is that, because of the lens, instead of cropping the image on the computer, you zoom in (telephoto), or move closer (macro) to get the shot. This more than compensates for the image quality because you rarely have to crop much.The strong telephoto zoom on the Fuji can not be over stated. To approach the 1,000mm zoom and f/5.6 aperture of the HS50 would be literally impossible with the Pentax. The longest lens available for the Pentax is 450mm (equiv.). To be able to crop an image to match the 16 MegaPixel sensor Fuji using a camera with a 450mm lens would require a 77 MegaPixel sensor. That's how much more detail the HS50 can zoom in on.Canon makes an $11,799 EF 200-400mm (300-600mm equiv.) f/4 with the 1.4X tele converter. The teleconverter would bring this up to about 840mm at f/5.6. That lens would produce about equivalent image to the HS50 in good light, but superior image to the HS50 in low light. But that's not a typo... it costs $11,799, it's 14.4" long and weighs 8 pounds.On the down side, at 1,000mm zoom, it can be difficult to find your subject without useful reference points. For example, a bird in the sky. You can start wide and zoom in, but it's easy to lose the subject doing this. As with binoculars, with time, this gets easier. With the Pentax, you can't zoom as close, but it's easier to find the subject.But the telephoto is only half the story. At 24mm wide, I can get closer to a large subject, like a building, or room interior and get more of the image in the frame. I can be photographing a landscape of a lake, and if a bird flies into the scene, I can immediately zoom to 1,000mm and get the shot. The dSLR would require a lens change, and the shot would certainly be missed.++++++++++++++++++Single Lens Reflex (SLR) Interchangeable Lens Camera (ILC) vs Fixed Lens CameraObviously, the Fuji has a built in zoom lens. This can be a positive and negative. As mentioned above, the Fuji has a tremendous range, so there is no need to acquire new lenses to achieve the focal length desired. Swapping lenses on an SLR requires removing the lens acquiring the new lens, removing the rear cap, placing the rear cap on the old lens, and mounting the new lens on the camera. Since all of these operations require 2 hands, you need to have a separate place to put a lens while you're fiddling with the other. This is a major hassle, especially in less than ideal conditions. The whole time, you risk getting dust and moisture in the camera and fingerprints on the lenses.Also, every time you remove a lens to swap in another lens, you risk introducing dust and moisture to the inside of the camera, and especially the sensor. While your lens is off the camera, even a "waterproof" camera is much more vulnerable to water and humidity.A coworker has an ILC lens, and within a couple months, her sensor was contaminated with 3 specks of dust that the dust removal (vibration) system was unable to dislodge. All of her photos are ruined until she gets it serviced. Of course, this means time without the camera, and a service fee (this sort of service is not covered by warranty).There are some distinct advantages of the ILC/dSLR though. You can get a lens with an aperture dial on the lens, which is more ergonomic than buttons and dials on the body. Although neither of the lenses I tested for the Pentax had an aperture ring.With an ILC camera, you can get some excellent "prime" lenses that don't zoom. These are much better in low light, and allow you to shoot with shallow Depth Of Field (DOF). I'll get into DOF and focusing a little later.++++++++++++++++Auto FocusingThe Fuji has both contrast detection, and phase detection autofocus, full time, and chooses the best system depending on the scene. The phase detection system is not available in most ultra zoom or point and shoot cameras, and puts the HS50 in a class itself. The Pentax uses phase detection when using the viewfinder, but contrast detection when using the LCD. Phase detection is much better, especially in low light, which means that the Pentax is handicapped when using the LCD, which sadly has better visibility than the optical viewfinder in lowlight.Focus speed on the Pentax was greatly dependent on the lens and focal length. At greater focal length the focus slows down. The 85-450mm lens could not compete with the Fuji at 500mm. in low light, the Pentax sometimes completely failed to focus at high focal lengths. But the 27-85mm lens was generally faster than the Fuji (at similar focal length), but not by much. I've read reviews complaining about the Fuji auto-focus speed. I can only assume they are comparing the Fuji at 1,000 mm to other cameras at much lower focal lengths, which isn't a fair comparison.If the Pentax could find the focus, it could continuously AF fairly well by just keeping your finger on the shutter. The Fuji didn't seem to know it had to refocus. However, a half press on the shutter and it snapped into focus quickly. This suggests that the Pentax can maintain focus on moving subjects in good light better than the Fuji.While the Pentax struggled to focus in low light at long focal length (FL), it has an excellent manual focus capability. While the focus ring on the Fuji actually just controls a focusing motor, the Pentax focus ring is mechanically coupled to the focus mechanism. This means that the focus ring on the Pentax has a gauge on it that shows you how far out you are focused. With the Fuji, you really don't know what the focal distance is until you lock in the focus. This is disorienting when the subject is so far out of focus that you don't know if you are focused too close, or too far. In manual focus mode, the Fuji uses a AE/AF button that zips it into what it thinks should be in focus. As with the Pentax, it might AF on on a branch in front of the bird instead. You then manually focus on the correct subject.Focus peaking is a system that highlights subjects that are in focus (high contrast). Both cameras have this system. While the highlights were much better on the Pentax, you need to use the LCD screen to see it. In bright light, the viewfinder (of either the Fuji or Pentax) is always easier to see. So in bright light, the focus peaking on the Fuji is better than the Pentax.++++++++++++++++++Fuji Electronic ViewFinder (EVF) vs Pentax Optical ViewFinder (OVF)I was shocked to discover that, in low light, the EVF on the Fuji was brighter than the OVF on the Pentax. The Fuji amplifies the light for a better view. You also get more information about camera settings in the EVF.The EVF can show you a view of the shot you just took immediately (for a few seconds). That's long enough to see if you got the shot. The preview clears the moment you touch the shutter button again. With the Pentax, you have to pull the camera away from your face, and switch the system to the LCD which normally only shows camera settings. This is a bigger hassle than it seems.The EVF can also show the full menu system. This means that I can quickly change settings without taking my eye from the viewfinder.The Fuji EVF has a sensor that sense when the camera is up to your eye and switches to the EVF. When you move it away from your eye, it switches to the LCD. This allows you to quickly switch between viewfinder and LCD without touching any buttons. The Pentax requires you to push a button that moves the mirror away with a clack, and switches to the LCD.++++++++++++++++++Rear LCDBoth cameras have good rear LCDs, but the Pentax has a fixed LCD, while the Fuji has a fully articulated LCD, so you can view it from multiple angles, and even take "selfies".The Fuji's LCD shows exactly the same thing as the viewfinder. On the Pentax, it normally shows camera settings. With a push of a button, the LCD will show a live view of the picture.I personally dislike using the LCD for taking pictures. In daylight, it's hard to see, and it is not as stable for controlling camera shake. This is especially important at a long zoom. You need to brace the camera against your head with elbows against your torso creating a three-point brace for the camera. Any photographer will tell you that is how to hold a camera for a steady shot.++++++++++++++++++Flash SyncThe Fuji can synchronize it's flash with its shutter all way to 1/4,000 second. The Pentax could only sync to 1/180 second. This means that, with the Pentax, fast moving subjects can still be blurred when using the flash. With the Fuji, I can take advantage of the 1/20,000 second built-in flash strobe to stop the wings of a humming bird in flight. I've got dozens of hummingbird photos to prove it. This is impossible with any DSLR.https://smile.amazon.com/clouddrive/share/3Zktp3q2X_2uUKlpQS1O-iDc_v8Ov1keMe-probo9F4++++++++++++++++++Depth of FieldThe Pentax has a much shallower depth of field at all focal lengths, due to the sensor size. This can be used to create nicely blurred backgrounds for portraits. The blurred background is called "bokeh" and is a favorite feature of professional photographers. The down side of this is that you can't get your background in focus if you want to. You can stop down your aperture to increase your DOF, but this still doesn't produce the depth of the Fuji, and what if you don't have enough light to do this?The Fuji Gives you much greater DOF whether you want it or not. While it's harder to get a good bokeh, it's easier to get your subject in focus, especially if the subject is moving towards or away from you. The Fuji also has a feature called Pro Focus Mode. This takes two or three photos in rapid succession. One with the subject and background in focus, and the other with them out of focus. It then combines the photos in the camera keeping the foreground portion of the photo focused and the background portion unfocused. It does this at a rate of 11 frames/second, so it's done in about 1/8 of a second (depending on shutter speed). This is fine for still, or slow moving subjects, but fast moving subjects wouldn't work.++++++++++++++++++Continuous shooting speedThe Fuji had a faster continuous shooting mode of 11 fps, to the Pentax 6 fps. But the Fuji filled it's buffer with only 5 shots at 11 fps. At 6 fps, the Fuji filled the buffer in 7 frames, while the Pentax filed it in 11 frames. Once the buffer filled, they both slowed to about 2 fps with a class 10 SD Card. While the Fuji doesn't have as big a buffer, it has "best shot continuous" mode. The Pentax apparently doesn't.One of the trickiest things about getting good action shots is knowing when the action will happen before it happens. With traditional burst modes, you might take a burst of photos expecting something exciting to happen, only to find that it was a dudd. In a soccer game for example, you might be expecting a shot on goal, so you start taking your burst of shots. But with any camera, eventually, the buffer gets full, and you have to wait for it to clear. Unfortunately, as Muprhy's Law dictates, the shot on goal doesn't happen when you expect it, but when the camera is clearing the buffer.But the HS50 (and some other cameras) has a "Best Frame Capture" mode. In this mode, you half-press the shutter, and the camera starts clicking away taking photos, but it is not storing the photos, just holding them in the buffer. It only holds 7 or 14 (depending on image resolution) in the buffer and it clears the older photos out. So this allows you to follow the action, continually taking photos for extended periods of time. When the shot on goal happens, you full-press the shutter. The camera will then save (for example) 3 frames before the full-press, and 4 frames after the press. So you get the approach, the shot on goal, and the celebration after the goal.++++++++++++++++++Image StabilizationThe Pentax uses sensor shift image stabilization. This means that the cost of the lenses can be less because they don't need to include image stabilization. The Fuji uses lens shift stabilization. Of course with a built in Lens, you don't have to worry about the cost of new lenses.My experience is that the lens shift stabilization is far superior to the sensor shift stabilization. At 450 mm zoom, the Pentax showed significant motion blurring where the Fuji was rock solid at 1,000 mm.+++++++++++++++++SoundEverything on the Pentax is loud. When the LCD was on there was a motor making noise as I aimed the camera at different subjects. At first I thought it was the aperture, but it stopped when I used the OVF.The focus motor on the 55-300 was downright loud. Then, the mirror makes a loud clack every time you take a photo. If you want to eliminate that, you can switch to the LCD, but that makes a loud clack as it switches modes, startling the bird you're trying to shoot. Also, remember that using the LCD disables phase auto-focus, and it's not as easy to see in bright light.The Fuji shutter is silent, it can make a beep to let you know it's in focus, but you can turn that off without making a sound.

Bridge cameras are a quirky lot: they're essentially a point-and-shoot camera with DSLR-like features. For the HS50EXR, the phrase "DSLR-like" sums it up almost entirely.There are many reviews on Amazon and elsewhere that touch on the HS50's main features, so I won't go into those beyond saying that the manual zoom is great and the image quality (which has been spoken poorly about in some cases) is actually quite good. This review is intended to hit on features that might not get immediate consideration when you're looking for a bridge camera.I purchased the HS50EXR as a backup to my DSLR, something that would be easy to carry and that my wife (who is not a photographer) could use and get good results. Also, I needed something with strong video capabilities that would auto-focus well. This camera delivers in spades. It's fantastic, full-featured, and easy for my wife to use but with enough control to give experienced photographers plenty to play with.A few points that don't get much press about this camera:Focus Ring: This camera features manual focus via a free-spinning focus ring behind the zoom ring. The focus control is strictly electronic, but the focus ring has a quick, responsive, and organic feel to it. Obviously, for video work you'd want to be able to exert a bit more control over focus, but overall it's impressive. In photo mode, there are focus highlights that appear on whatever the lens is focused on, a useful feature that the Magic Lantern crowd will recognize and appreciate. Sadly, that same crowd will be sorely disappointed to find out this feature is not present in video mode. Video mode will allow manual focus, of course, but without the handy focus peak highlights.Bayonet/58mm Lens: This camera includes a bayonet-style tulip lens hood (which was impressive to me), and also accepts 58mm lens accessories. That was my big gripe about other bridge cameras; there was no way to provide the glass with any protection. The HS50EXR lets you put a UV filter on the front, which is especially crucial considering you don't have the luxury of replacing a lens if it gets dinged up.Video Quality: One of the best things about this camera is its video quality. It is sharp, responsive, quick to focus, maintains focus easily, and there are a number of high-fps options for slow-motion video. Of course, the faster the shutter goes, the lower your resolution gets, but if you're looking to capture something cool at a high frame rate, this will definitely do it. One disappointment for video mode is that you are not allocated any control over exposure, so no aperture, shutter speed, etc that you would get on a DSLR.Articulated Screen: This is great for videographers like myself who need to frame a shot while being in front of the lens. Very handy.Q Button: This is a great feature for the camera to have. In true DSLR fashion, you have a dedicated screen to adjust ISO, white balance, shutter speed, aperture, etc. Fantastic, easy to use, and handy.Now, there are a few things that I would have changed on this camera that keep it from getting a full 5 stars:Plastic Tripod Socket: This camera is big and heavy, like a small DSLR. The tripod socket is a heavy-duty hard plastic, but I would have much rather had something metal.Lack of Control in Video Mode: I like that you can use manual focus in video mode, but other than that you get what the camera gives you, which is not exactly what I want. Still, the video mode is great on its own.Sensor Size: This is the biggest difference between the HS50EXR and a true DSLR. Even an entry level DSLR will dwarf the 1/2" sensor that this camera sports. The HS50EXR's sensor is the most tangible throwback to its point-and-shoot roots, but don't write it off immediately. While you'll never fool anyone into thinking your shots came from a DSLR, you'll be sure to get some excellent looking shots. Even some camcorders at this price level have smaller sensors than this, so it's not as bad as people say it is. In fact, I think considering its size, the images look amazing, but I would have liked to see Fuji use a bigger sensor to live up to the DSLR features and aesthetics.If you're looking for a good family camera that's a jack-of-all-trades that yields great results, this is what you're after. If you're on the fence about this camera and a full-fledged DSLR, go with the DSLR. I was glad I purchased a DSLR before purchasing this camera because it gave me a much better sense about what the HS50EXR can and can't do. Once you understand its limitations and capabilities, you can really start making great images with this camera. I definitely recommend it.