"Picky Details" for the Fujifilm FinePix S5100
digital camera
(Timing, Power, and Storage Info)
Timing
When you press the shutter release on a camera, there's usually a lag time
or delay before the shutter actually fires. This corresponds to the time required
for the autofocus and autoexposure mechanisms time to do their work, and can
amount to a fairly long delay in some situations. Since this number is rarely
reported on (and even more rarely reported accurately), and can significantly
affect the picture taking experience, I routinely measure both shutter delay
and shot to shot cycle times for all cameras I test, using a test system I designed
and built for the purpose. (Crystal-controlled, with a resolution of 0.001 second.)
Here are the numbers I collected for the Fujifilm FinePix S5100:
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(secs) |
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| Shutdown |
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First time is time to retract lens, second time is worst-case buffer-clearing time. A little slow, but not too bad.
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| Play to Record, first shot |
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Time until first shot is captured. A little slow.
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| Record to play |
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First time is that required to display a large/fine file immediately after capture, second time is that needed to display a large/fine file that has already been processed and stored on the memory card. About average for this class of camera.
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| Shutter lag, Full Autofocus |
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First time is at full wide-angle, second is full telephoto. About average, not bad for a long-zoom digicam. |
| Shutter lag, Continuous Autofocus | 0.98 | As is usually the case, continuous AF doesn't help at all with static subjects, and actually slows shutter response somewhat. (Rather slow.) |
| Shutter lag, Manual Focus | 0.57 | On the slow side for manual focus. |
| Shutter lag, Prefocus |
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Time to capture, after half-pressing shutter button.
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| Cycle Time, max/min resolution |
1.94 / |
First number is for large/fine files, second number is time for "TV" mode (640x480) images. Times are averages. No buffer to fill/clear, all shots are this fast. Not blindingly fast, but not too bad, either. |
| Cycle Time, "Top 3" mode | 0.29 (3.45 fps) |
Shoots a burst of 3 images at the same rate in large/fine mode or "TV" mode. Times are averages. Buffer clears in 4.9 seconds for large/fine images, 3.4 seconds for lowest resolution. Very fast. |
| Cycle Time, continuous mode, max/min resolution | 0.81 / 0.67 (1.23 / 1.49 fps) |
First number is for large/fine files, second number is time for small/basic images. Times are averages. Shoots up to 40 images in either resolution and clears the buffer in about a second. Fairly fast, particularly considering that it can shoot more or less indefinitely at this rate. |
Average shutter lag and cycle times. With full-autofocus shutter lag times ranging from 0.79 - 0.83 second, and shot to shot cycle times for large/fine images just under two seconds, the Fuji S5100 comes is a pretty average performer - neither greatly faster nor greatly slower than much of its competition. It's very fast when "prefocused" by half-pressing and holding down the shutter button prior to the shots itself (a shutter lag of only 0.055 second), and cycle times in its "Top 3" continuous-shooting mode are very fast at 3.45 frames/second, albeit only for three frames. Overall, not a bad camera, performance-wise, and potentially very useful for sports shooting, if you can take advantage of its fast prefocus response and good speed in Top 3 continuous mode.
Power
The Fujifilm FinePix S5100 uses four AA batteries for power.
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(@5 volts on the external power terminal) |
(four 1600 mA cells) |
| Capture Mode, w/LCD |
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| Capture Mode, no LCD |
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| Half-pressed shutter w/LCD |
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| Half-pressed w/o LCD |
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| Memory Write (transient) |
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| Flash Recharge (transient) |
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| Image Playback |
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Really excellent battery life! With a worst-case run time of just under four hours with a "standard" set of 1600 mAh NiMH rechargeable batteries (and proportionately longer with modern, high-capacity cells), the Fuji S5100 has some of the best battery-life numbers of any camera currently on the market. (Run time in playback mode is an astonishing 7.45 hours.) You'll still want a couple of sets of good-quality NiMH batteries and a good battery charger, but the S5100 will run a long time on a single charge.
Storage Capacity
The Fujifilm FinePix stores its photos on xD memory cards, and a 16 MB card
is included with the camera. (I strongly recommend buying at least a
64 MB card, preferably a 128 MB one, to give yourself extra space for extended
outings.) The chart below shows how many images can be stored on the included
16 MB card at each size/quality setting.
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Resolution/Quality 16 MB Memory Card |
Fine | Normal | |
| 2272 x 1704 | Images (Avg size) |
8 1.9 MB |
16 962 KB |
| Approx. Compression |
6:1 | 12:1 | |
| 1600 x 1200 | Images (Avg size) |
- | 25 626 KB |
| Approx. Compression |
- | 9:1 | |
| 1280 x 960 | Images (Avg size) |
- | 34 465 KB |
| Approx. Compression |
- | 8:1 | |
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Images (Avg size) |
- | 124 128 KB |
| Approx. Compression |
- | 7:1 | |
Download Speed
The Fujifilm FinePix connects to a host computer via a USB interface. Downloading files to my Sony desktop running Windows XP (Pentium IV, 2.4 GHz), I clocked it at 932 KBytes/second, a pretty good rate. (Cameras with slow USB interfaces run as low as 300 KB/s, cameras with fast v1.1 interfaces run as high as 600 KB/s. Cameras with USB v2.0 interfaces run as fast as several megabytes/second.)
S5100 Test Images
S5100 Specifications
S5100 "Picky Details"
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