Cameras

[paulthepieman]

I am looking to buy a new Digital Camera and have been looking at the Fuji Finepix S5700, and I just wondered if anyone had used one or what camera they would recommend.

Thanks

Paul

Ps. I am looking to spend no more than £200 if i can help it.

[andy250]

Kodac c613 aint bad for the price. The pic quality is not as good as opitcal though its not far off, plus you can edit your vids from within the camera, so need download footage to create stills. I think they are on offer at photo plus for about £70.00

regards

Andy

[the bulber]

Found this at http://www.computershopper.co.uk, thought it might be helpful.

I am in no way connected to Fujifilm or Computer Shopper, but I do use a Fujifilm Finepix E550 camera. This is purely impartial.

Fujifilm's S5600 impressed us enough to give it a Budget Buy award when we reviewed it in February 2006. Its successor is only subtly different. Once again, there's a 10x zoom lens, a top ISO speed of 1600 and manual control over exposure and focus. There are the usual increases to resolution (from 5 to 7 megapixels) and screen size (from 1.8in to 2.5in). However, the really remarkable difference is the price. The S5600 was a bargain at £230, but the S5700 costs just over half that.

It's small and light for an SLR-styled camera and. Although the four AA batteries add to the weight, they also explain the fantastic battery life. Considering its petite design, it's extremely comfortable to hold, with an unusually long rubberised handgrip.

This is the second Fujifilm camera we've seen with both xD and SD card slots. The former is useful only if you already own xD cards, as SD media is cheaper and faster. However, neither gave great performance, with SD capturing a shot every 2.3 seconds. This is adequate, but below average by today's standards. Continuous shooting was particularly poor at 0.53fps, although dropping the quality setting increased this to 0.76fps.

Manual focus doesn't invoke an enlarged centre portion to help make accurate adjustments, so isn't much use. Manual exposure is better, with an exposure value (EV) display to help choose settings, although the histogram display merely reflects the brightness of the onscreen preview and not the exposure settings. The f/3.5 to f/13.6 aperture range is more generous than on most compact cameras, though, and is available throughout the zoom range.

The S5700 and Kodak Z712 IS are closely matched in features and price, so we put them head to head for image quality. They were hard to separate for detail, with the S5700 performaing better in some tests and the Z712 IS in others. The Z712 IS gave the best colour reproduction overall, with the S5700's vivid colours looking a touch oversaturated at times. However, it wasn't enough to cause any serious concerns and, in isolation, colours looked excellent.

Automatic settings had a tendency to jump to unnecessarily fast shutter speeds and ISO speeds when shooting in dimmer conditions, resulting in more image noise. However, noise levels were still significantly less than in the Z712 IS's images, and shots at ISO 800 and even 1600 were often excellent. This goes some way towards compensating for the lack of image stabilisation, as it allows faster shutter speeds to be used without spoiling photos.

The S5700's image quality is typical at this price, but the 10x zoom and manual exposure controls are unprecedented extras. The slow performance, lack of image stabilisation and awkward manual focus mean it's worth spending more on Panasonic's DMC-FZ50 if you can afford it. However, for creative photographers on a tight budget, the S5700 is fantastic value.

By Ben Pitt

SPECIFICATIONS:
7.1 megapixels (3,072x2,304), 10x optical zoom (38-380mm, 35mm equivalent), SD and xD slots (27MB internal), 4x AA batteries

[captain sensible]

I have a Fuji S5700 and I think it's great - picture quality is great (7 megapixels is as much as you'll need for everyday use) and the movie facility isn't bad either - although the microphone is very prone to picking up wind noise unless you're filming on an absolutely windless day. Even the battery life seems quite good! The only downside is that it can fall over on mini tripods if you aren't careful as the centre of gravity isn't over the hole where you screw in the tripod...

[Richard]

I'm very interested in this thread as I'm about to buy a new camera. The Fuji S5700 sounds just what I need. Thanks bulber and captain sensible, I'll go and look at it next time I'm in town.

[DungeonMasterOne]

I bought a Fuji FinePix S5800 PC World the other week as a backup camera and for general shooting - I use an S9500 as my main camera for the website.

If you're wanting to shoot "pro quality" work, it's the size of the lens (and hence how much light it can actually admit) that matters. An 8mpx camera with a tiny lens will take much worse pictures than a 3mpx one with a good "traditional-size" lens.

The 5800 doesn't have quite the same wide-angle capabilities as the 9500, I think it only pulls back to equiv-35, while the 9500 goes to equiv-28. The difference is noticable when shooting indoors, a wider angle lens lets you get more of a shot in view when closer to the subject.

The 5800 has good manual control options, though not quite as advanced as the 9500, but you can set it to shutter or aperture priority, do up to 4 second time exposures, and adjust the white balance to a wide range of lighting options. I've not tried using it to shoot video outdoors, but have shot bands playing live indoors with it, with impressive results.

I'd rate Fuji on reliability - my 9500 has taken over 60,000 photos in the last two years (I shoot gigs, railways, scenery, and architecture, as well as gunge), and I've not had any problems with it at all.

[the bulber]

I've scanned the pages of the what's new section, photography, of last months Computer Shopper.
I hope this helps anyone else thinking of buying a camera.

To view, right click on a picture and left click save target as.
After saving to a location, open and zoom in a little to read.

[andyo]

I've had 2 Fuji's, both were good - one was stolen between Heathrow and Paris, and the other's battery stopped holding charge and eventually the screen packed up. The blues/greens were very bright when captured - a little too much I now think when I look back at the shots

I'm now on my second Casio (EX-Z77) which is great for treating as a snapshot camera as it slips into a shirt pocket very nicely - the other Casio was stolen when my car was broken into - I always carry this one with me.

My serious camera is a Nikon D80 with 18-70 and 70-300 zoom - which is prossibly a bit over budget here.

Whatever camera you get, buy the fastest memory card you can for it - this saves the pictures so much quicker, enabling you to get onto taking the next shot. Typically £40 for 4gb SD card.

Andy (first post, and now back to lurking)

[jammed06]

i was in hospital at weekend seems my magazine choice of the gadjet magazine has it uses as they were reviewing digital camera for £100 and under.

the one that came out ontop as the hot buy was the fujifilm finepix A920 for just £100

the review as follows:

fuji must have struck a deal with the fallen one - how else can you explain this? image quality from the 9MP sensor and 4x zoom lens is top-drawer at this price - even with flash and macro shots - plus operation is fast and the LCD is clear and bright

rating 5 stars

there's nothing to complain about at this price. simply awesome.

tech: 9MP - 4x zoom - 2.7in LCD - XD/SD/SDHC slot