Fuji DL500
Previously on the Fuji DL500 Files: Our hero was uncertain of the quality from this optical oddity. In this episode it becomes much clearer that the lens performs best at 45mm despite the flare it causes and that the 28mm setting is a poor performer. As the 45mm focal length is achieved by swinging an additional optical group into the light path it is apparent that the central area of the lens is fine, it is the outer corners at which the wide setting fails. After only two episodes the Fuji DL500 files are cancelled.
I’m not quite sure how but according to the Technical Image Press Association it won the award for best 35mm compact camera in 1991, perhaps they never actually took any pictures with it.
February 5th, 2013 at 3:42 am
You don’t seem to like the quality of the images you get here, and that leads me to a question. Do you take safety shots with a better camera?
The reason I ask is that I like several of the photos you took with this, and while image quality can’t really be judged from these web jpegs, I would be very disappointed if all you do is toss these photos into a box of failures.
February 5th, 2013 at 9:29 am
It’s a mixed bag Nikhil. I don’t necessarily take the same shot with digital but sometimes a similar one. On occasions where I think there is something more worthwhile I will take a safety shot. A certain percentage of what I do is just visual noise and for fun, letting go and not caring if you absolutely nailed an image can be liberating. I usually know when I want to take a safety shot or go straight to a digital one.
February 6th, 2013 at 8:46 am
I hear you. For me it is very difficult sometimes to let go and just take the photo with the iphone, but once I do, I can enjoy the experience more. Not something you can do if photography is your bread and butter, but for an amateur it can be genuine fun.
March 1st, 2013 at 12:30 pm
Hi Wallace, a quick question as I have my eye on one of these in a local charity shop. I collect cheap plastic point-and-clicks and set myself one rule – does it do something that a camera I already have does not already do? As I have a light compact with a 28mm wide end (Pentax Espio 105SW) I suppose the only thing the DL 500 could bring to the table is a fast and/or quiet switch between focal lengths (rather than slow zoom motor whirring). I’ve never had one of these “two fixed focal length” cameras before, I assume the ethos is to save money and bulk, rather than to save time? But if the DL 500 is quick to switch between 28 and 45, I might be able to justify buying
Thanks!
March 2nd, 2013 at 1:58 am
It is much faster than zooming and another copy might perform better than mine but I wouldn’t pay much for one. That said it might be a better performer than the Espio anyway.
March 4th, 2013 at 8:53 am
Thank you for the confirmation sir! I bought it for £4, conveniently it came in a random softcase with a 2CR5 battery in it, and 2CR5s are usually £5-6 so I was quids in already. DL 500 worked with replacement CR2025, it is a funny little thing….yes the switch between focal lengths is a bit faster than zooming all the way with a little compact motor, but I kind of hoped it would be faster still. I like it though.
FYI the Pentax Espio 105SW has, unusually on this sort of camera, a bulb mode AND “bulb mode with flash”. I was pleasantly surprised with results
http://www.flickr.com/photos/blue-straggler/sets/72157631533262826/
March 4th, 2013 at 8:19 pm
Blue Straggler you might be interested in this http://wkoopmans.ca/notebook/?p=6042 or this http://wkoopmans.ca/notebook/?p=6076 what can I say I like cameras and taking pictures
March 5th, 2013 at 12:27 am
Thanks, loving your work! The yellow Pentax is cute indeed. As for the “ewwwwww”, I have a Fuji Zoom Date f/2.8 (24mm f/2.8 to 50mm f/slow maybe 5.6), which has beautiful form factor and an interesting raison d’etre – the 24mm wide end was not driven by a consumer desire for landscape shots and exaggerated perspective, but by a consumer desire to take photos of themselves by holding the camera at arm’s length. So it was a camera for vain people who had no friends to just take the pictures of them, and who did not own a tripod. The “ewwww” obviously beats it on telephoto and is probably smaller and lighter and probably has the bulb and “bulb with flash” mode that the “swwww” has, so I will keep my eyes peeled.