Fuji F50fd

Today I am writing about the best compact digital camera in the market: the fuji f50fd; Although I am not a fan of fuji's compact models, the flagship model has gained a reputation with amazingly high image quality at high sensitivities with the F30 and F31fd.

These models did not get the crowd's attention, probably because they were not very fashionable and didn't play the megapixels race, with only 6Mp when the competition were going above 8Mp.
Fuji failed us coming to the MP race with the F50fd but, to be fair, it is still ahead of competition when it comes to good high iso response. Even if we compare it with more expensive and well known models as Canon G7 or G9 and Nikon P5100 the Fuji is the winner if we are looking for iso over 400.

Here is the proof:


It retains highest quality up to iso400, and is really good at iso800, decreasing at 1600 and being terrible at 1600 and 3200.
If we do not compare it with results from other compact cameras these may even look very noisy, but once we compare it with the G9 or P5100 the Fuji really shines.

The downside is, they did not make pictures from the F50fd any better than F31fd, despite having 12Mp instead of 6. If there is plenty of light and you want to print the picture on an insanely big size for a compact camera, you may get slightly more detail with the F50fd, but for printing posters, you should go for a digital reflex for starters (even with less MP).
On the other hand, the screen is very good, colors are accurate to the output, and, while lacking an optical viewfinder the screen sports an extra-bright mode, that when in use makes the screen perfectly visible with direct sunlight.

Another feature unique from the fuji its modes to simulate different kinds of films. There is one for color called "chromo" and another for black and white pictures.
Here is the comparison between chromo and standard color:



In my opinion, there are only two big issues with the Fuji F50fd.
Firs of all, battery does not last very long, maybe too tight for a photo-intensive day. It is worse than its predecesors, F30 and F31fd.

The second drawback is the user interface. If you choose one mode you may not even see option that are not selectable in that specific mode, so you can be driven crazy looking for something in the menus, that simply is not there in that mode.
It also makes you navigate through too many items to adjust F or S in Manual mode, this body needs more dedicated buttons and a reorganization of the user interface. Despite this, in about an hour, you can master it all.

This camera is, until further notice, my preferred compact camera and the one I would recommend most. Great image quality, good price -specially if you look for it-, many features, really compact and feels well built and durable.

There is a better review in dpreview if you want it.

External Hard Drive Monster: Iomega Ultramax

Today I am making a mini-review after a few months using an external hard drive, peculiar to say the less.



Actually, it is not A hard drive, since it has two drives inside, that is the reason the case is so massive. The case is made completely of brushed aluminium, a perfect design match to a Mac Pro or a new iMac. Indeed, it came formated with HFS+ (mac filesystem).



What makes this drive special, is its performance. The Drive comes configured as a Raid0, providing speeds up to 70Mb/s of sustained read. To achieve this awesome performance, the drives provide two Firewire800 connectors; Despite very rare on pc's, we can easily find this interface on mac pro, iMac and even MacBook Pro as an standard component. For further compatibility it also comes with usb2.0 and firewire400 connectors, which are mainstream.



Another interesting feature about its connectivity is that it has 3 usb ports and another 3 firewire ports, so you even add connectors when attaching to your computer, nice detail!!

Performance is astonishing, providing constant 70Mb/s through firewire800, 40Mb/s with firewire400 and 30Mb/s with USB2.0; Even with Fw800, this drive is interface limited!!
Compared to the newest and biggest 750gb and 1Tb single sata drives, this speed might not seem to high, but for laptop users or iMac users, getting this performance with an external device is awesome!!







Comparing speeds between interfaces makes clear usb is only meant for times when we have to use it with computers without firewire, since it is the slowest and most resources demanding of the three.

Because I use a Sony Vaio, not a pro Mac, I haven't got any firewire800 embedded on the notebook. The solution was difficult, since firewire800 cards are difficult to find and purchase despite I could go for an express card or a PCMCIA device. I found the solution through ebay, spending 50% less than buying to a specialized shop. First I got an Apiotek card, but it didn't work, with 10 or more computers that I tried; The funny thing is it worked fine with 2 different Fujitsu-Siemens computers, no idea why.
The ebay seller changed the card for another one, without any kind of name on it, and with funny caution advices on the base:







All in all, the drive runs smoothly, well, smoothly but noisy; The fan changes speed and sometimes it becomes REALLY annoying. I assume it is because of the metal case, since it is not soft attached. Being this professional oriented, it is a big deffect, specially for those of us with almost silent computers.