Fujifilm FinePix A500 review

The Fujifilm FinePix A500 uses a 64-zone matrix to determine exposure, with shutter speeds from 2 seconds to 1/1,500 second and apertures of either f/3.3 or f/8.5. The 38mm-to-114mm zoom lens (35mm-camera equivalent) is narrow at the short end of the scale and produces nearly unusable photos at the far telephoto end. The macro mode lets you get as close as 3.9 inches, however.

This minimalist shooter suffers from very sluggish performance. The FinePix A500 took just less than 3 seconds to power up and fire its first shot, after which it could shoot no more than once every 3 seconds. The flash was on the puny side, good out to only 10 feet at the lens's widest angle. When shooting telephoto, the flash effectively reaches to only 7 feet. The red-eye-reduction system seemed worthless, having no effect on red pupils. The Fujifilm's shutter lag fared better, scoring a merely adequate 0.8 second under high-contrast lighting and 0.9 second in low-contrast scenes. This camera has no autofocus-assist lamp.

Image quality at wide-angle and medium-range focal lengths was acceptable, especially if you take the time to adjust the EV settings. Without tweaking, we found exposures to be quite erratic and frequently overbright with blown-out highlights. Using exposure compensation to dial it back a bit produced better images. Pics shot at the lens's telephoto end were quite soft but displayed good detail at less extreme settings. Colors were accurate but unsaturated, and JPEG compression artifacts reduced image sharpness. Noise wasn't bad: almost unnoticeable at ISO 100 and pronounced but acceptable at ISO 400, though at ISO 400, the FinePix A500's noise levels were better than those of some cameras at lower sensitivity settings.

The Fujifilm FinePix A500 is a very basic camera with sluggish performance and washed-out, mediocre photos that match its low price tag. That said, it's easy to use and inexpensive, so it might satisfy those with thin wallets, poor eyes, and patience. You're better off setting down your two bills to buy the far better Canon PowerShot A530.