Fuji Finepix J150w Review

The Fuji Finepix J150w is a 10 megapixel digital camera with a 5x wide angle zoom lens. This is a budget digital camera and is one of the lowest price models with a wide angle lens.

The Finepix J150w scores well for ease of use and as mentioned above it is one of the cheaper digital cameras to come with a wide angle lens. The 3 inch LCD screen is also larger than standard for a camera in this price range.

Outdoor 1 (Medium Zoom)
As the Finepix J150w comes with a low price tag we should not expect too many photographic masterpieces from it. There are problems and issues with the photo quality as I will describe below. On the whole these picture quality issues will not greatly affect you if you are looking to make small 6 x 4 inch prints. If you go much larger you are likely to experience at least some of the problems I encountered.

When compared to other digital cameras in the same price bracket my first test shot is no better than average. Sun glare has caused big problems and this suggests scenes with either light areas or dark areas may not show up much detail at all. The light striking the boats has also caused a number of the blue lines on the boats to take on a purple tinge.

Outdoor 2 (No Zoom)
Definition is lacking in some areas of this photo. Some of the trees appear more as blobs without a great deal of detail at all. There are also patches on water where it is quite hard to make out much detail.

Outdoor 3 (Maximum Zoom)
My result here is similar to my other test shots. Towards the edges of the photo focusing becomes very soft. On top of this there is also some purple fringing showing in the photo. At the levels it is showing it is unlikely to be much of a problem with smaller prints.

Outdoor 4 (Building)
Looking at the brickwork it is not as sharp as some other budget digital cameras have produced. As with my other outdoor scenic tests there is an overall softness to the photos.

Outdoor Portrait
Even in this picture the definition levels are not great. This is because there is quite a lot of noise showing in the photo.

Indoor Portrait with Flash
In this effort the Finepix J150w blasts the light from the flash out. This washes colour from the shot. More sophisticated cameras tend to do a better job when it comes to dampening the amount of light from the flash.

Indoor Portrait without Flash
Focusing in this shot is better than with a number of much more expensive digital cameras I tested at the same time. The picture is let down by the amount of noise showing. This affects the overall quality of the photo.

Colours
The colours produced by the Finepix J150w are strong. This is especially true for blues. Colour preference is a matter of personal taste though and you may like the extra vividness the colours bring to the photos.

Macro
This is a reasonable effort from a budget camera. I would also expect the Finepix J150w to produce a better macro shot when natural lighting is used.

ISO 400 and ISO 1600
Based on my indoor portrait without flash it is no surprise to find noise at ISO 400. By the time ISO has been increased to ISO 1600 most of the picture quality has disappeared.

Overall
Obviously I have been quite critical of the Finepix J150w. It is unfair to expect too much of cameras in this price range, but I think there are other cameras available at a similar price that offer better picture quality.

Compared with most other budget digital cameras the Finepix J150w posted reasonable times in my shutter lag tests. A single photo recorded 0.39 seconds and five 13.82 seconds. With the flash on the times taken were 0.58 seconds for a single photo and 15.3 seconds for five photos.

The camera is on the slow side to turn on and take the first photo. The time recorded was 3.97 seconds.

You can compare this camera to other models by taking a look at the Shutter Lag Comparison Table.

The Finepix J150w looks very much like a standard rectangular digital camera. It is small enough to fit into most pockets. The build quality feels so much better than many cameras in this price bracket.

92 x 57.9 x 22.6mm

146g

Lithium ion (NP-45). Fuji supplies both a battery and charger.

24 megabytes of storage have been built into the Finepix J150w. This is enough for around 9 shots. The camera is also compatible with SD and SDHC cards.

Click here to save money on memory cards..

With not too many features to get to grips with there should not be any major concerns with ease of use. This is a simple point and shoot camera.

Large LCD Screen - Easy to use - Build quality for price

Picture quality

A camera that operates on similar lines is the Olympus FE-360. This is another surprisingly small entry level camera. It does not have the same length of lens or offer the wide angle capabilities the Finepix J150w does, but it takes a good snapshot and offers impressive value for money, with better picture quality.

The Fuji Finepix J150w is o.k. if you are looking to make small snapshot prints or to play back your photos on a television screen or computer. If you are looking to make larger prints then you are likely to come across some issues with picture quality. This camera does have some pleasing features when compared to other similar models such as the larger 3 inch LCD screen.

Front View

Back View

Top View

Sample Menu

Although every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of the information on this site, please make sure you double check the feature set and specification at the point of purchase.

Fuji Finepix J150w