Here we compare the Fuji Finepix F100fd with its predecessor, the Fuji Finepix F50SE. Images below are all 100% crops from their respective cameras. ISO was set on each the camera. Every other setting was left on automatic. All images were taken at the highest resolution possible for the set ISO sensitivity. For the F100, ISO 100 to 3200 are crops from 12 megapixels images, while ISO 6400 and 12800 are cropped from 3 megapixels images. The F50, on the other hand, supports a maximum of 6 megapixels at ISO 3200 and 3 megapixels at ISO 6400.

From the crops below, the Finepix F100 shows around a half-stop advantage at each ISO sensitivity compared to the Finepix F50. Thus, the Fuji Finepix F100fd becomes the best-in-class in terms of noise among ultra-compacts. There are also a bit more details in the shots from the F100, making its images appear slightly sharper. While the F50 starts eating details at ISO 400, the F100 starts at ISO 800 which is still usable for a moderately large print. By ISO 1600, possible print sizes are limited by high levels of image noise. Nevertheless, small prints are relatively good up to ISO 3200. The last 2 ISO settings still produce a recognizable subject, but all fine details are lost, so these modes are of very limited use.