f31 or f50

[sheryl]

hello

so i want to buy my first camera to use under water, i had decided on f31 now f50 has come out dont know which to buy, any suggestions as to which is best?

i just want to do basic point and shoot stuff lol will be taking pictures mainly in uk waters and just generaly have a play till my skills improve

[SilvaFish]

I'm looking at getting an f50 in a few months time, Robin Hood water sports are doing a package deal for around £320 which looks good. Am impressed with the shots that people take with the f30 though.

[sheryl]

i have found couple of cheaper deals
this company have camera at 145 pounds (not sure how reliable they are though!)
Direct Distibutor of Apples, Nintendos, Microsofts and Sonys #1 Products! - Fujifilm FinePix F50fd Digital Camera - Silver (12MP, 3x Optical Zoom) 2.7" LCD

and amazon are selling the housing at 124 pounds
and can pick up 1gb sd card for bout 10
so whole lot works out roughly 279ish

or sunderland scuba centre have dive package for 299

[Rocko Diver]

Other people have also asked this question, search for ChristianG, he has some comment on the matter or search forums for F31 & F50.

I have some pics with the F31 if you would like to see any, I also take video with it and think its quite good (for a beginner anyway). The video can be viewed on you tube look at YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.

[Rocko Diver]

Also see F30 Samples on the thread by David P a few threads below this one

[Bardo]

General consensus of opinion seems to be that Fuji dropped the ball a bit with the F50 by trying to squeeze too many pixels out of such a small sensor. If it were my money, I'd go for the F31fd...

[Early Rub-up]

having had both the f30 and now the 50fd i would go for the f31 (f30 no longer made) over the 50fd why well you cant tell the difference between the 6m pixels and the 12m the f31 can take the fish eye lens, not yet made for the 50fd and i could be wrong but i think the f31 has a really hi iso of 3200 but the 50fd hasnt to my knowledge it only has 1600
(there we go i was right i was wrong)

[BJ]

F50fd has 6400 Iso at lower pixel ratings.

[sheryl]

thanks very much for your replys

f31 it is then

[David P]

If you've read the many other previous threads on this (as no doubt you will have done by now) then you'll gather that the concensus seems to be (i) you'll be happy with either, but we tend to favour the F30/31 (particularly if it's cheaper), (ii) it's more important learning to use it properly, than worrying about which of the two to go for, and (iii) depending on your style of photography, an extra strobe or wide angle lens comes highly recommended, and you need to allow for memory cards and a card reader. (The one drawback with the F30/31 is it's XD card only.)