Fuji Finepix S5500 Review

Overall Rating

Great pictures. Ease of use. 10x optical zoom. Good design (most settings can be selected by pressing buttons with the camera still held up to your viewing eye.)SLR feel and looks. Full manual mode. Value for money.

No image stabilizer. Low light focus. Digital zoom not available on 4MP setting, (though you shouldn't need it with 10x optical) No allocation for an additional flash gun.

The Fuji Finpix S5500 is a great camera which gives great results time and time again.

First of all it looks and feels like a 35mm SLR and also feels rugged with its rubber coating. A lot of thought has gone in to the design with its indents to accommodate your fingers and thumb making it easy and comfortable to hold and with all the buttons being sensibly placed for easy access.

It has a multitude of settings: Full automatic, program, program shift, shutter priority, aperture priority, full manual, movie, night time, sports, scenery and finally portrait mode.

It has a good range of auto-focus settings with a focus lock switch to prevent you from accidentally changing focus mode. Manual focus can be a bit tricky to use. It does struggle with focusing in low light but I normally put it in program mode and set the focus to multi. In the multi setting mode the camera scans the frame looking for the best focusing point. I find that it also struggles with focusing in telephoto but again I use the multi focus setting and find that switching the macro on also helps.

Other features include a continuous shooting mode that only captures the last 3 frames. Bracketing where it takes 3 shots, 1 at the correct exposure, 1 underexposed and 1 over exposed allowing you to select the best shot. The bracketing range is user adjustable. Exposure compensation, if you take a picture that is too bight or too dark you can take it again and compensate by using the exposure compensation. Macro mode allowing in-focus close up shots of flowers, insects etc. You do need good lighting for this and if using the flash in Macro mode you need to take of the lens adaptor ring to prevent getting a shadow. It has an electronic version of several FujiFilm 35mm film types, standard, chrome and black and white. ISO settings are auto, 64, 100, 200, 400. The included lens adaptor ring allows the use of filters with a 55mm thread and Fuji wide angle and telephoto lenses.

You can use the LCD screen or the electronic view finder to frame your shoots and view your pictures. You switch between these by the press of a button. It has a useful feature for people who like to take a bit of care framing their shots. By pressing a button you get a grid on the screen or in the view finder (depending on what you are using) allowing you to use the rule of thirds some photographers favour.

When showing my S5500 to my brother in law, who was a semi pro photographer all he could say whilst trying it out was "Wow". All in all I would recommend this camera regardless to if you are an amateur or a more advanced user.

Price wise I couldn't find cheaper then C&A Electronics (www.rankhour.com) I paid £198.98 including VAT & P&P. For xd-picture cards I find Ebuyer.com the best for price. If you are only put of by the size of this camera, look at the Fuji F455. This is basically a pocket version of the S5500 omitting the 10x optical zoom.