Fuji Finepix S5000

amazing - redbubble.com/people/stevenmcewan all apart from castles were taken with this camera

Camera was great until it did not power on again. I sent it to Fuji Canada for repairs and was given a ridiculous estimate for $277.00. The camera was NOT inspected. The screws were never removed and remained in the same marked position that I left them in. DO NOT BUY FUJI PRODUCTS

We have owned this camera for 4 years now and love it! The functions are a lot to learn as a camera newbie, but the menu's are easy to scroll through and find what you are looking for.

This camera uses the xd memory cars which is much smaller than the sd or flash memory cards.

Slow shutter speed is the only drawback to this otherwise e perefect camera.

If you compare the fuji S series of cameras to the others, you'll find that this camera offers the most features with the greatest optical zoom feature for half the price of the Olympus, Nikon's and Cannons.

The flash is adequate and the atuo focus works well. the classic outer case design is contemporary and functional for those of us with large hands.

This camera offers so many features that I have yet to use, even a mid level camera enthusiast would find this camera adequate for recreational shooting purposes.

I will definitely buy another Fuji finpix camera again!

The Fuji S5000 has a memory chip in it which retains the day/date/time information, but after 12 months to 2 years this chip losses its capacity to hold a charge therefore losing the date/time. Fuji wants $250 to replace the chip! My camera failed a few weeks out of warranty. Each time I change batteries, I have to reset date and time. What a pain in the neck!

Let me say from the outset that the Fuji Finepix is my first serious camera. Before this I was restricted to taking snaps with my wife's APS. Having owned the S5000 for 6 weeks now, these are my comments.

Bad points first: The manual focus control is very fiddly, requiring you to press a button on the top of the camera and use the zoom control at the same time. I would have preferred either a separate focus control, or to be able to "caps lock" the focus feature. You do need to use the manual focus quite often, as the auto focus regularly gives up when taking extreme close ups or zooming in on small objects. I guess this is a "feature" of auto focus and not a criticism of this camera. Some of the on-screen icons to change between modes are a bit subtle - the 3 types of rapid-fire for example, but I'm really being picky now.

Good points: Taking great photos (well, shots that I'm impressed by) with this camera is like taking candy from a baby! Set it to any of the auto or semi auto modes, point, lock and shoot. Lovely! It has every override that I as a beginner would want, although I admit not having fathomed them all out yet! My dad took one look at my camera and bought one himself.

Points to consider: go to the shop and buy a bigger memory card and some rechargeable batteries. Then buy some more! This guy really chews those AAs! Expect only ONE session of shooting from a set of 4 batteries if using the flash. I have lost count of the times that I have kicked myself for not having a spare set of batteries in my camera bag. At least it uses AA batteries, which are ubiquitous enough to never leave you without.

To summarize, although I don't have experience of many other cameras, I find the S5000 good value and easy to use. The pictures it produces are rewarding and I have not given full marks only because I never give full marks out of principle

The Fuji Finepix S5000 is my second digi cam and cost twice the amount of the first but was money well spent. This little baby does everything a novice like myself could ever want. The auto settings are great, but for the expert it has all the manual stuff too. Great zoom(10x optical---2x digital). This camera is so easy to use so you can concentrate on what's in front of you. The photos are clear, sharp and have great colour. You should consider putting a bigger memory card in it. I upgraded to 128mb which holds about 270 pics on the lowest setting. There is talk of a 1gb card coming out next year....go buy it, you won't regret it.

A delight to handle and use the S5000 is the only digicam (apart from the 602) which I could use just like my SLR Nikon, felt comfortable right from day one.

I am very impressed with the 10x zoom which operates smoothly and the autofocus remains sharp throughout the range. At, or close to maximum zoom camera shake can become a problem so an eye must be kept on the warning indicator, I do not consider this a fault as a conventional camera with a long zoom would perform identically. I can see how this would give rise to some complaints I have seen relating to the S5000, nothing wrong with the focus, it would be easy for the digicam owner used to 3x zoom to forget to monitor the shutter speed.

The 2.8 lens is fast enough for available light work in conditions where other digicams need the flash. Image quality is very good for a 3.2 MP camera, I regularly print A4s straight off the card with no other enhancement and the results are superb. JPEG compression is quite severe and the onboard image processing (sharpening) will often leave discernable artifacts in images (though not usually noticeable unless you crop/enlarge) however changing the sharpening setting to 'soft' seems to reduce the effect.

Like most of the Finepix range the S5000 accentuates reds noticeably, but renders skin tones beautifully so this is an acceptable tradeoff. Fuji's system of arranging the imager elements diagonally seems to produce even, sharp images but it is very difficult to discern any image improvement at the 6MP setting, however even at 3MP images are ahead of other cameras of the same resolution.

The range of manual settings is excellent, shutter and aperture priority along with program and manual modes render top quality images in almost every situation, with plenty of scope for individual expression. The exception being the manual focus which is next door to useless as there is no way to determine sharp focus either in the EVF or LCD, however the auto focus gets it right 99% of the time so again not a biggie.

The pop-up flash is grunty and far enough away from the lens so as to minimise red-eye, no need to dive into the setup menu to disable the flash, if you dont need it, don't pop it and you will get those available light pics perfectly exposed almost every time.

IMHO no manufacturer has yet produced the perfect digital camera but until that happens the S5000 will be the best feature set for dollars alternative in its price range, sure its not a pro digital SLR but it is aimed specifically at the enthusiast market, as a semi-pro I find it does all my work with ease and my photographically challenged family can take great shots using the auto setting.

I bought this Fuji Finepix S5000 digital camera after using a sony mavica fd-91, was very impressed, has good zoom and as i do lots of aviation photography it comes in very handy for close ups. I invested in the 1.5x converter and that improves photos no end with no loss of quality.

It cost me 250 pound after seeing it in store and I have not regretted buying it, battery life could be better though as it soon drains AA batteries if you use the lcd a lot.

I have 4 xd picture cards and it is simple to upload to a laptop or pc. If ever bring a bigger brother out to the s5000 then i will invest again as fuji have it just right.

I have had this Fuji Finepix S5000 digital camera for a few days and am very impressed! It is very similar to the options on my very expensive proffesional quality SLR, film camera, but is a bit smaller which I find to be a plus!! ISO speed selection is a very handy tool for taking shots at different times and events. I love the speed in which you can take pictures, which is pretty much as fast as you can press the button, most digital cameras take time to save the pic. you can snap off 3-4 even 6 or 7 pics very quickly. Overall I am 100% pleased with this cam! and I think it is perfect for the beginner looking to enhance there ability and skill in digital picture taking.

The Fuji Finepix S5000 is a very very good camera. It's my first Digital Camera but it took me three or four attempts with other models before I exchanged them for this little beauty. I feel it has everything most people would want and need unless your a pro.