Monday, August 13, 2007
Fuji has announced the FinePix F50 which from its specs looks to be the best compact digital camera on the market. These days everyone wants good low light performance and Fuji is known for being great in that respect because of their Super CCD sensor. They use a larger sensor than other compact cameras, and therefore have better picture quality and less noise in low light.
However, Fuji never had image stabilization, until now. The F50 has their super CCD AND image stabilization, which means low light photos should look great. Plus it has full manual controls (not common in compact cameras). Ships next month!
Few people look at sensor size when shopping for cameras, but it's pretty important. Cameras use smaller sensors because they are cheaper and you can use smaller lenses. But it's not all bad, smaller sensors let you build small super zoom cameras. In fact, I purchased the Panasonic TZ1 to take to the Virgin Festival last week. It has a 10x zoom and fits in my pocket!
That camera (not surprisingly) has a small 1/2.5" sensor size. What is surprising is I read it doesn't use the entire sensor! Instead of using a smaller sensor (1/2.7"), Panasonic is still using a 1/2.5" but not utilizing the entire surface area of the sensor. This could be because it works out better for them to use the same sensor across all their cameras, or because they want to be able to advertise 1/2.5" to people like me.
In any case, the best way I can tell to compare the actual sensor size used a camera is to do the math yourself. Divide:
Focal length advertised for the camera (35mm equivalent) / Focal length written on the lens itself
This gives you the "crop factor" for the camera. The higher this number, the smaller the sensor being used. For example, my Panasonic FX01 claims to be 28mm on the wide end. The lens itself is 4.6mm. That means it has a crop factor of 6.1. Some other crop factors:
Canon 5d: 1 (Full frame sensor, no crop factor)
Canon XT: 1.6
FX01: 6.1
TZ1: 6.7
Fuji F50: 4.5
These crop factors (which directly correlate to the sensor size) vary quite a bit for different cameras. So the take aways here are:
• If you want good low light performance, make sure the crop factor is not too high
• Don't trust the sensor size listed on camera specs to be an indicator of the sensor used
• The Fuji F50 looks rad
However, Fuji never had image stabilization, until now. The F50 has their super CCD AND image stabilization, which means low light photos should look great. Plus it has full manual controls (not common in compact cameras). Ships next month!
Few people look at sensor size when shopping for cameras, but it's pretty important. Cameras use smaller sensors because they are cheaper and you can use smaller lenses. But it's not all bad, smaller sensors let you build small super zoom cameras. In fact, I purchased the Panasonic TZ1 to take to the Virgin Festival last week. It has a 10x zoom and fits in my pocket!
That camera (not surprisingly) has a small 1/2.5" sensor size. What is surprising is I read it doesn't use the entire sensor! Instead of using a smaller sensor (1/2.7"), Panasonic is still using a 1/2.5" but not utilizing the entire surface area of the sensor. This could be because it works out better for them to use the same sensor across all their cameras, or because they want to be able to advertise 1/2.5" to people like me.
In any case, the best way I can tell to compare the actual sensor size used a camera is to do the math yourself. Divide:
Focal length advertised for the camera (35mm equivalent) / Focal length written on the lens itself
This gives you the "crop factor" for the camera. The higher this number, the smaller the sensor being used. For example, my Panasonic FX01 claims to be 28mm on the wide end. The lens itself is 4.6mm. That means it has a crop factor of 6.1. Some other crop factors:
Canon 5d: 1 (Full frame sensor, no crop factor)
Canon XT: 1.6
FX01: 6.1
TZ1: 6.7
Fuji F50: 4.5
These crop factors (which directly correlate to the sensor size) vary quite a bit for different cameras. So the take aways here are:
• If you want good low light performance, make sure the crop factor is not too high
• Don't trust the sensor size listed on camera specs to be an indicator of the sensor used
• The Fuji F50 looks rad