Though its photos can be pretty good, the Z5fd performs inconsistently. On one hand, I see no lens distortion or focus problems, nary a compression artifact and only the occasional case of purple fringing.

Photos look relatively sharp and white balance reasonably neutral. If you want that typical vivid snapshot appearance, you’ll have to switch into Chrome (as in slide film) color mode, because the standard mode looks a little flat relative to most point-and-shoot models.

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The Fujifilm FinePix Z5fd’s performance ranges from good to just about average, depending on what you’re trying to do.

Startup time is a little sluggish at two seconds, but shutdown time is almost instant. Shutter response is good at both wide angle and telephoto, at 0.55 and 0.75 seconds respectively, and even faster at 0.29 second in High Speed AF mode. “Prefocusing” the camera by half-pressing and holding down the shutter button before the final exposure results in an impressive lag time of only 0.018 second. Shot-to-shot cycle times are slower than average, at about 2.65 seconds for large/fine JPEGs, and the camera appears to capture shots continuously in single-shot mode without having to stop and clear the buffer. Continuous mode is average, at 0.52 frames-per-second for 20 large/fine JPEG frames. The flash takes 5.7 seconds to recharge after a full-power shot, which is on the sluggish side. Connected to a computer or printer with USB 2.0, download speeds are fast enough that you shouldn’t need a separate card reader.

Overall, the FinePix Z5fd is responsive enough for most average family and travel shooting situations, though its shot-to-shot time is somewhat on the slow side.

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