4-megapixel sensor captures enough detail to create photo-quality 11-by-15-inch enlargements
10x optical zoom; 3.6 digital zoom
Captures video clips with sound; 1.5-inch TFT LCD screen; PictBridge compatible
Store images on xD Picture Cards (16 MB xD card included)
Powered by 4 AA-size batteries (alkaline included; rechargeable Ni-MH recommended)
This review is from: Fujifilm Finepix S5100 4MP Digital Camera with 10x Optical ZoomThis is my 2nd digital camera, and it replaced my Olympus 4000, which was excellent, but I wanted more zoom, an electronic viewfinder, and longer shutter times. The 5100 has certainly delivered, with a couply of relatively small compromises. The Olympus 4000 menus and controls are a tough act to follow. However, it seems that Olympus and Fuji share some technology, icons, and ideas. The physical handling of the 5100 is excellent, with a very secure-feeling, molded grip for your right hand. I found all the control buttons well-placed and easy to manipulate. When you sort through all the cameras out there, looking for 10x optical zoom, extended grip, and the ability to use AA batteries, the list quickly narrows! I use sets of 2500 mAh nickel-metal AA batteries, and an inexpensive charger. Another great feature is the included lens tube adapter, lens cap, and cap-keeper. Just screw on a 55mm UV or skylight filter, and you can completely enclose and protect the lens assembly. At the fully wide position, you will see a small amount of vignetting (shadowing) at the corners if you have more than one filter screwed on. I found the electronic viewfinder to be more helpful than an optical viewfinder, and still visible outdoors in sunlight. You can also read and manipulate the settings without taking your eye from the viewfinder. I purchased a couple of 512 MB XD cards with the camera. You will really need the extra memory when you take movies. Movie mode, at a full 30 frames/sec, was surprisingly good, even if you can't change the zoom or focus once you start a movie. Startup, and writing pics and movies to the XD card is nice and fast. The self-timer includes an extra 2-second setting, which is useful for activating the shutter without shaking the camera, such as for long exposures or telephoto shots on a tripod. The adjustable white balance works quite well. The slickest way to make the most of this feature and to set exposures in manual, is to use a photographic gray card. The one I bought was 8x10 inches. I cut out a smaller rectangle, about 4x6 inches, that fits in my photo bag. One side is pure white, and the other is a special shade of gray. To set the white balance, place the card with the white side toward you, in the same light as the subject, zoom in on it, and activate the manual white balance function in the menu. This assures you of near perfect color no matter what the lighting is. The manual exposure mode of the camera allows you to set the shutter and aperture quickly, and there is an exposure meter in the display that shows you how your settings compare with the automatic metering. The slick way to set exposure is to use the gray side of the gray card, place it in the same light as the subject, zoom in on it, and set your shutter and aperture until the exposure meter is centered. Once, done, you can just concentrate on zooming and framing to compose your shots, as long as the lighting is the same. I tested the S5100 with a remote flash unit and a slave trigger adapter, which allow you to create professional, portrait-type lighting quite easily. Unlike my previous digital, the S5100's flash synch and metering seems to be compatible with this technique. You set your external flash to automatic, which is calibrated for a specific ISO film speed and aperture. It's easy to use the aperture priority mode in the S5100 to match these settings. Then using an inexpensive slave trigger device that clips onto the hot shoe of the external flash unit, you can place the external flash/trigger assembly on a mini tripod off to the side and up high, perhaps on a bookshelf, aimed at your subject. The S5100's pop-up flash illuminates the subject from the front, and the slave trigger fires the external flash at the same time, providing the main light from above and to the side. The power saving function of the S5100 worked just fine as set from the factory. It blanks the LCD/viewfinder after 2 minutes, to save power, and will shut the camera off if you don't press any buttons after that. A neat feature that is not apparent in the specifications is the ability to record a 30 second (or less) voice memo with each picture. You can record these any time after the pic is taken and stored on the card. When you play back a pic, you can hit a button to play back the corresponding voice memo, which is stored as a separate audio file. You can also hit another button to display all the technical exposure information for each pic, which is automatically stored in each pic file. So far, ...
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