Fujifilm Finepix S5500

Review Date: March 17th 2005

Features

The Fujifilm FinePix S5500 Zoom has a 4.23 megapixel CCD that delivers 4 million recorded pixels. There are 4 image sizes available (2272 x 1704 (3.87 million) / 1600 x 1200 / 1280 x 960 / 640 x 480), which can be recorded as JPEGs in a range of different quality settings or in an unprocessed RAW file format. The FinePix S5500 Zoom can record movies at 640x480 pixels at 30 frames per second, recorded in the Motion JPEG (AVI) format. The Fujifilm FinePix S5500 Zoom features a 10X optical zoom lens that is equivalent to a 37 - 370mm lens on a 35mm format camera. The Fujifilm FinePix S5500 Zoom uses the xD-Picture Card memory card format.

The Fujifilm FinePix S5500 Zoom 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 FinePix S5500 Zoom has 4 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 at the wideangle lens setting and f3.1 to f9 at telephoto. Shutter speeds range from 15 seconds to 1/2000 second. The camera has a Macro setting which allows you focus as close as 10cm from your subject.

There are 4 selectable ISO speeds available on the Fujifilm FinePix S5500 Zoom (equivalent to IS0 64, 100, 200, 400) which are available at all image resolutions. 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) plus a new Custom setting. Exposure compensation is available from –2EV to +2EV in 1/3EV increments.

The FinePix S5500 Zoom has a continuous shooting mode with various options. Top 3 allows you to take 3 frames/sec. up to 3 frames and keep the first 3 frames of the sequence. Final 3 allows you to take 3 frames/sec. up to 3 frames and keep the last 3 frames of the sequence. Long-period continuous takes up to 40 shots at up to 1.6 frame per second, but this option is only available in the Auto shooting mode. There is a self-timer mode with either a 2 or 10 second delay.

The built-in flash offers a range of different modes; Auto, Red-eye Reduction, Forced Flash, Suppressed Flash, plus Slow Synchro, Red-eye Reduction and Slow Synchro in the Manual shooting mode. The effective range is 0.3m to 4.5m at the wideangle lens setting and 0.6m to 4.0m at telephoto.

To compose your images, you can use the LCD monitor or the electronic viewfinder. The FinePix S5500 Zoom has a 1.5 inch colour TFT LCD monitor which has 115,000 pixels, and a 0.33 inch electronic viewfinder with 115,000 pixels. The camera is powered by 4 x AA size alkaline batteries or 4 x Ni-MH rechargeable batteries. 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, A/V cable, 4 x AA type alkaline batteries, shoulder strap, lens adapter ring, lens cap and a CD-ROM containing various software. 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 8 JPEG images at the best file quality setting of 4M Fine. You will also have to budget for some rechargeable batteries and a recharger, as the supplied alkaline batteries don't last very long.

PhotographyBLOG is a member of the DIWA organisation. Our test results for the Fujifilm Finepix S5500 have been submitted to DIWA for comparison with test results for different samples of the same camera model supplied by other DIWA member sites.