Photo samples: Fujifilm FinePix Z5fd

For a budget ultracompact, the Z5fd displays a pretty good noise profile; there's little to no color speckling, and it holds detail as high as ISO 400. After that, things start to get a bit smeary.

The Z5fd has one metering mode: evaluative. That means it can't handle backlit shots like this properly, resulting in underexposed subjects. The manual instructs you to use fill flash for situations like this, but a snapshot camera should be smart enough to meter this scene correctly.

As you'd expect from a narrow lens like the 36mm-equivalent on the Z5fd, there's very little distortion.

The Z5fd's lens is pretty good, with solid edge-to-edge focus. And the camera seems to sharpen just enough without going overboard.

Where did the shadows come from in this photo? They weren't there in reality, though there were some less-bright areas. Sometimes you get poor exposures like this when the image processor doesn't do sufficient correction to bring out the midtones.