Fujifilm FinePix HS50EXR Review

The FinePix HS50EXR is Fujifilm’s latest offering in the super zoom segment, which replaces the HS30EXR. Mind you, it’s not a cosmetic upgrade along with higher zoom and a few other improvements over its predecessor. Although it’s difficult to differentiate between the two at the first glance, they’re poles apart when it comes to what they offer. Let’s find out how exciting the HS50EXR is and how it fared in our tests.

Fujifilm’s latest flagship with 42x zoom lens and loads of features

Design and features

Before delving into what’s packed inside the shell, it goes without saying that the HS50EXR is built like a rock. It feels extremely sturdy and weighing in at slightly above 800 grams (with the battery), it’s a whopper of a digital camera. With the design akin a DSLR camera, all-black body and a massive telephoto lens that can’t go unnoticed, the HS50EXR comes across as a serious shooter.

Top panel and the lens at full zoom

Starting with the lens, it’s a step up from the 30x zoom lens in the HS30EXR. “HS50EXR” suggests this camera boasts a 50x zoom lens like most flagship cameras by other brands do, but you get 42x optical zoom. The equivalent focal length ranges from a nice and wide 24 mm to a whopping 1000 mm, making it practical both indoors and outdoors. Be it wide group photos, portraits, extreme close ups, wild life and sport photography, the all-purpose lens lets you do everything. The largest aperture at the wide end is f/2.8, which is quite bright in low light. At the telephoto end, you can stop down to f/5.6, which is respectable for an equivalent focal length of 1000 mm. A unique feature of the lens is manual zoom using twist-barrel mechanism, like in DSLR lenses—twisting the barrel clockwise extends the lens to zoom in. At full zoom, the lens measures around six inches in length. The actual and equivalent focal lengths are indicated on the tube that extends outwards. The manual zoom does give you fine grained control over zoom while taking still shots, but it can be painful while shooting videos. You don’t get steady, gradual zoom that you get with motorised zoom.

10x optical zoom—240 mm

42x optical zoom—a whopping 1000 mm!

One of the biggest upgrades over the HS30EXR is the use of a new sensor. There’s no change in the size of the sensor and resolution. The HS50EXR uses a 1/2-inch type CMOS sensor that has a resolution of 16 megapixels. However, the inclusion of phase detection pixels on the sensor helps achieving quick autofocus. Fujifilm claims the HS50EXR can autofocus in as little as 0.05 seconds in ideal conditions.

A pair of stereo microphones is placed in the front, just above from where the lens starts. The top panel is identical to that of the HS30EXR, except that the print on the pop-up flash is changed to bear the new model number. The hot-shoe located behind the flash allows using flashguns with this camera. The right side is home to the mode dial, shutter release, hotkeys for drive mode and EV that double as zoom in and out respectively in playback mode, and a jog dial for navigation.

Fully-articulating display allows shooting from odd angles

The rear panel is quite elaborate, but not as much as that in HS30EXR wherein you had a stack of hotkeys on the left side of the LCD monitor for ISO, metering, AF, help and white balance. In the HS50EXR, stack of hotkeys is replaced by the swivel mechanism of the fully-articulating LCD monitor (the HS30EXR featured a tilting-type display). You lose out on a few useful hotkeys, but you get a Q button in the top right corner that brings up a screen with tiles displaying various shooting parameters like ISO, dynamic range, white balance, movie mode, image quality, noise reduction, tone and sharpness. The bottom row has tiles for metering, AF mode, IS mode and LCD brightness. You get to see all the shooting parameters in one place, plus rotating the jog dial cycles through the available options of the selected tile.

Moving to the right, there’s the EVF/LCD button to the right of the Q button to switch between the EVF, LCD and eye sensor mode, which automatically turns off the LCD monitor and switches to the EVF when you bring the camera to your eye. A dedicated button for video recording is placed above the top right corner of the LCD, within easy reach of the thumb. A slightly recessed thumb grip layered with textured rubber— for almost the entire thumb and not just the tip— takes up the top and a little area to the right of the D-pad. The D-pad offers a customisable Fn button and shortcuts to flash mode, self-timer and macro/super macro mode. The Fn button can be assigned one of the 13 available functions in the settings, including ISO, image size, white balance, movie mode, AF mode and IS mode.

Ridged rubber grip on the lens barrel and focus mode switch

The left side of the camera has a new addition, which is a switch to set the focus to single servo AF, continuous servo AF and manual AF. The button in the centre toggles zoomed view to check the focus in manual AF mode. You adjust the focus by rotating the ridged ring on the lens barrel, towards the body. Also present on the left side are jack for external mic, miniHDMI port and USB port, all housed under rubber flaps for protection. The right side houses the SD card slot, which is covered by a plastic flap that slides out and opens. So, you don’t have to open the battery compartment to eject and insert memory cards. The camera draws power from a 1260 mAh Li-ion battery pack that goes into the compartment on the bottom. 

User interface

The user interface of the HS50EXR isn’t very different from other digital cameras by Fujifilm. Pressing the Menu/OK button in the centre of the D-pad brings up the shooting menu from where you can set the shooting parameters and also adjust the device settings. The shooting parameters are spread across four tabs and the ones you can change depend on the active shooting mode. You have to use the D-pad or the jog dial to move the selection up or down and then use the Menu/OK button or right key on the D-pad to change values. Most of the commonly settings are available in the Q menu, but settings like flash intensity, focus area, mic level and face detection are only accessible via the shooting menu. The menu navigation is quite intuitive, but the use of animation for submenus and selection add a bit of lag.

The Q menu provides quick access to many important parameters

The shooting modes that the HS50EXR offers will appeal to both beginners as well as advanced users. Half the dial comprises PASM modes and a custom mode. So, you have the option to keep the aperture or shutter speed fixed, manage all the settings manually or use the program mode to allow the camera to manage both the aperture and shutter speed. The other half has the EXR mode, auto mode, Advanced filters, two scene preset positions and Panorama mode. The addition of two positions for scene presets is useful as it allows quick switching between two presets. You get 13 most commonly used presets like Portrait, Landscape, Sport, Night, Fireworks, Sunset, Snow, Beach and Flower. 

Mode dial and hotkeys for EV and drive mode

The EXR mode is similar to Smart Auto mode available in many digital cameras, but it allows you to prioritise dynamic range, low noise at high ISO and reproduction of details. Another interesting feature is the Film Simulation option in settings. This is nothing but colour options like Vivid, Soft, B&W and Sepia. These are also available for video recording, which means you can record videos in black and white or Sepia tones. The HS50EXR can record full HD videos at 60 fps. High speed video recording at 120, 240 and 480 fps is also possible but at lower resolutions (640 x 480, 320 x 480 and 320 x 112 respectively).

The Advanced Filter mode offers a basket of effect filters like Toy Camera, Miniature, Pop Color, High Key, Low Key and Partial Color (red, yellow, orange, green, blue and purple).  You can shoot with the filters enabled, but cannot apply them to photos that have already been shot in playback mode. Apart from effects, the Advanced Filter mode also has advanced presets called Pro Focus, Pro Low-light and Multiple Exposure. The Pro Focus enhances the focus by blurring the background. The background blur here is more pronounced because the camera shoots two photos of the frame to calculate and apply the blur. The Pro Low-light mode helps you get steady shots with very less noise in low light. The camera shoots a burst of four frames and uses noise reduction to get the best possible shot in low light. The Multiple Exposure mode lets you shoot two different frames in succession and overlay the results for a multi-exposure shot.

Build quality and ergonomics

We’ve already said that the HS50EXR feels rock solid. Fujifilm has made no compromise with the build quality. From the smallest button to the shell and the lens barrel, everything is well built. The body has a matte rubberised finish, which not only enhances the aesthetics but also infuses a rugged feel.

When it comes to handling, the HS50EXR feels no less than a DSLR. The generous use of rubber inspires good confidence. The ridged rubber grip around the lens barrel makes it easy to twist and zoom. The large body grip is also layered with textured rubber, just like the thumb grip. Even though it feels safe to use the camera single-handed, the heft makes it slightly cumbersome. The placement of dials and buttons is spot on. Everything is within easy reach of the thumb and index finger.

Performance

Photos and videos look a bit too punchy on the LCD monitor in playback mode; however, it isn’t actually so if you view them on the PC. They look just perfect when viewed in full screen with good saturation, brightness and contrast level. However, the flaws surface when you view the photos at 100 percent zoom. The details are a bit patchy even at ISO 100 due to the presence of slight noise and JPEG compression. You get acceptable quality at up to ISO 400, beyond which the details go for a toss. At ISO 1600, the details appear flat and the images are too grainy even in brightly lit conditions.

ISO 100

ISO 400

ISO 800

The HS50EXR excels when it comes to shooting close ups, macro shots and portraits. Not to mention, the forte of this camera—super zoom. At full zoom, the heft of the camera actually helps keeping the hand steady. The optical image stabiliser is very effective and it’s easy to get crisp, shake-free shots at 42x zoom with the camera hand-held. Effect filters are the most fun to use —if used well, you can get very creative shots. The quality of video recording is very good. You get almost jitter-free videos if you use a Class 10 memory card and pan gently while shooting. 

Sample shots (click on the photos for full view)

Shot using super macro mode

Miniature mode—blurs the top and bottom of the frame and boosts colours

Pop Color effect filter yields very punchy shots

Shot using Partial Color (yellow) filter

Good background blur in close-ups

Good colours and details in close-ups

Verdict and price in India

The Fujifilm FinePix HS50EXR is priced at an MRP of Rs 32,999, but you can buy it online for around Rs 1,000 less. Considering what you get and the kind of performance this camera offers, we feel it’s a bit overpriced. It would have been an attractive deal for Rs 28,000—the price at which many flagship super zoom cameras retail. Our recommendation is still the Canon PowerShot SX50 HS, which features 50x optical zoom and performs significantly better. It doesn’t feel as solid as the HS50EXR, but weighs a whole 200 grams less!