Fujfilm FinePix S5000 Zoom

Review Date: 16th June 2004

Features

The Fujfilm FinePix S5000 Zoom has a 3.1 megapixel CCD that delivers 6 million recorded pixels. There are 4 image sizes available (2,816 x 2,120 (6.0 million), 2,048 x 1,536, 1,600 x 1,200, 1,280 x 960), which can be recorded as JPEGs in a range of different quality settings or in the RAW format. The camera features a 10X optical zoom lens that is equivalent to a 37 - 370mm lens on a 35mm format camera. The Fujfilm FinePix S5000 Zoom uses the xD-Picture Card memory card format.

This camera offers four selectable exposure modes - Programmed AE, Aperture Priority AE, Shutter Priority AE and Manual - plus 4 scene modes (Portrait, Landscape, Sports, Night Scene). The Fujfilm FinePix S5000 Zoom has 3 exposure metering modes, 64-zone TTL metering-multi, spot and average. There are four types of focusing available, Autofocus, AF Area Focus, AF (Centre) Focus and Manual Focus, and the aperture range is f2.8 to f8. Shutter speeds range from 2 seconds to 1/2000 second. The camera has a Macro setting which allows you focus as close as 10cm from your subject.

There are 3 selectable ISO speeds available (equivalent to IS0 200, 400, 800), but ISO 800 is only available at the 1M resolution. There are 7 different White Balance settings to choose from (Automatic, Manual (Fine, Shade, Fluorescent light (Daylight), Fluorescent light (Warm White), Fluorescent light (Cool White), Incandescent light).

The Fujfilm FinePix S5000 Zoom has a continuous shooting mode with various options. Top 5 allows you to take 5 frames/sec. up to 5 frames and keep the first 5 frames of the sequence. Final 5 allows you to take 5 frames/sec. up to 5 frames and keep the last 5 frames of the sequence. Long-period continuous takes up to 40 shots at up to 1.8 frame per second, but only using the 1,280 x 960 pixels image size.

The built-in flash offers a range of different modes; Auto, Red-eye Reduction, Forced Flash, Suppressed Flash and Slow Synchro, Red-eye Reduction and Slow Synchro. The effective range is 0.3m to 6m.

To compose your images, you can use the LCD monitor or the electronic viewfinder. The Fujfilm FinePix S5000 Zoom has a 1.5 inch colour TFT LCD monitor which has 114,000 pixels, and a 0.33 inches 110,000 pixels electronic viewfinder. The camera is powered by 4 x AA size alkaline batteries or 4 x Ni-MH rechargeable batteries.

The Fujfilm FinePix S5000 Zoom can record movies at 320x240 pixels at 10 frames per second, recorded in the Motion JPEG format and can be played back by QuickTime 3 or later.

The camera's dimensions are 112.7mm (W) x 81.1mm (H) x 79.3mm (D), and it weighs 337g without batteries and storage card fitted.

Finally, the standard box kit contains a 16Mb xD-Picture Card, USB cable, AV cable, 4 x AA type alkaline batteries, shoulder strap, lens adapter ring, lens cap and a CD-ROM containing various software. As usual you will need to invest in a few more xD-Picture Cards to store your images on, as the supplied 16Mb can only store approximately 10 JPEG images at the default 6M file quality setting. You will also have to budget for some rechargeable batteries and a recharger, as the supplied alkaline batteries don't last very long.