Full review posted for Fuji FinePix S5000!
By
Dave Etchells
(Saturday, November 1, 2003 - 23:01 EST)
Long-zoom digicams have suddenly become a hot market segment, with virtually every major manufacturer offering a product in that area.
Fujifilm's standard-bearer here is the S5000, something of a cross between last year's wildly successful S602 and the lower-end F3800. The new S5000 has a 10x zoom, a 3 megapixel SuperCCD, and a feature set that says "advanced point & shoot." It lacks some "enthusiast" features (see the forthcoming S7000 for that), but provides enough flexibility to bring back good shots under a range of conditions, while remaining simple enough to operate for novice users.
The cameras high points are its long zoom lens, pleasing color, amazing battery life, and clever "Final 5" continuous shooting mode that makes it a good choice for sports and action shooting. On the downside, the S5000's pictures showed more image noise than some competing models, no doubt due in part to its aggressive minimum ISO rating of 200. (I really wish Fujifilm would let their SuperCCD cameras reach down to ISO 100, as I expect that'd clean up the images a fair bit.)
In truth though, average users are unlikely to notice the noise if they're mainly outputting prints at 8x10 or smaller. Overall, a solid entry in the long-zoom derby, but one that faces strong competition on several fronts. (The "Final 5" continuous-shooting mode is a standout feature though.) Check it out!
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