Fuji F10 vs. E550?

[wirawan0]

Hi.

I'm a newbie here. :)

Will anybody care to comment the differences, advantages, disadvantages of these two cameras from Fuji (F10 vs. E550)? I've read about the hype of the ISO800 and ISO1600 of the Fuji F10. Assuming that the CPU and SuperCCD are the same between the two, wouldn't they turn out to give the same quality of pictures?

And how about the mechanical aspect of these products. Seems like many have complaints about the "cheap" construction of these cameras. Would you think that they would fall apart quite easily?

Thanks!
Wirawan

[speaklightly]

Wirawan-

I own the E-550 and I have the F-10 on order. The body appearances are indeed quite similiar and I believe that they share the same lens as well. The big difference is that these two digital cameras use different processors. The new processor in the F-10 is what allows it to go to 1600 ISO.

As to durability: I have had no problems at all with my E-550. I has been a great camera and has worked perfectly for over a year and shows no wear or tear.

Sarah Joyce

[wirawan0]

Hi Sarah,

Now I learned (from looking around) that you're a photography freaks (1600 ISO, no flash? Wow.) :-)

What's your comment on the noise reduction of E550? Does it perform up to the ISO800 given there? I would not compare it to DSLR, for sure. But does it give a good quality pics under medium lighting (fluorescent lights, to be exact)?

I'm tempted to compare the image quality of E550 against Panasonic FZ20. For example, here (and many other pictures, too):

http://isomerica.net/gallery/Dan/Events/2005.03.13_Charleston_SC/P1010366.JPG?width=640

These were indoor pictures (taken with FZ20) with fluorescent lighting, and most taken without flash. Most are using ISO 200. I notice that the shutter time is often too big to produce blurred pics. More disturbing to me is the noise. I can recognize noise everywhere if I look at the pics with 1:1 zoom (on a computer monitor). I wonder what would happen if E550 is subjected under the same situation (medium/lower lighting, no flash). How far can we push it go. Do you have some sample pics for E550 under such situations? I haven't found it on the web.

Thank you,
Wirawan

[speaklightly]

Wirawan-

Please go to:

www.digicamlady.smugmug.com/gallery/369133

for a sample of an ISO 400/no flash digital photo taken with a Fuji E-550, as you requested. There are 6 photos in that gallery all taken with various point and shoot digital cameras using ISO 400.

The samples from the Panasonic FZ-20 that you provided a link to all show either camera movment or rather poor focusing. They were handheld as are all my shots, but as you can see but there is a stark difference in terms of sharpness and clarity.

Using a higher ISO number would give you a faster shutter speed which would stop the blurring. The highest usable ISO number on the FZ-20 is only ISO 400. The Fuji F-10 I spoke of in my previous post can use ISO settings as high as 1600. Simply translated that means that you can take photos with much less light.

Below you will find another sample photo taken at ISO 1600/No Flash.

Sarah Joyce

[Geoff Chandler]

I will very interested to see how this one fares.
Initial impressions from owners, and hopefully soon a review.
How good is that 1600ASA going to be?? Most Point & Shoots get a bit
noisy/grainy at 400.
Lets see.
Sarah, let us know once you've got yours and experimented a bit.
Geoff

[speaklightly]

Geoff-

You're on! I really have very positive feelings about the Fuji F-10. Certainly the dpreview was very positive! And it even had great ISO 1600 examples in that review.

The Fuji F-10 is scheduled for delivery on 18 May 2005, so please stand-by and I will be cranking out ISO 1600 photos for you to take a very good look at in detail.

Sarah Joyce

[Rex914]

It looks like you were right. Other manufacturers are starting to catch on to this 1600 ISO business. Olympus' new camera also goes up to 1600 ISO. I think the others will soon follow.