JediKermit's Full Review: FUJIFILM FinePix S5100 Digital Camera
I'd be some sort of horrible husband if I didn't come right out and say that my absolute favorite Christmas present of last year was the Rubber Duckie quilt that my wife spent hours and hours and hours and hours on. She has her own quilt that's her "blankie" for all intents and purposes, and after being married for (almost) five years now, she decided I needed one. So that's my favorite un-reviewable Christmas present.
But this one is my favorite purchasable, reviewable Christmas present. And it came as quite a surprise. On December 24th, we were sitting around, pondering the significance of the holiday season--probably by gorging ourselves on treats and watching something Muppety. Then there was a knock at the door, and DHL dropped off a package. I knew I hadn't ordered anything, so I assumed it was some sort of surprise from my wife...and then it turned out she hadn't ordered anything either. We opened the package, and there was a digital camera that looked pretty darn expensive. For our budget. After some wrangling, we figured out that it had come from Epinions, and that I was somehow randomly chosen to be one of the lucky reviewers that got something usable and desperately wanted. If I could have chosen from fifty items last Christmas, I would have picked the digital camera. And that's how the cards happened to fall. So thanks, Epinions!
This review took a long time in coming--partially because I feel like I'm such an inadequate camera/technology reviewer. So this review is more emotional than technical in scope, although I will do my best to get all the technical stuff in there.
We had owned cheaper (less expensive and cheap quality) HP cameras before, so we were hoping that with the Fujifilm we'd have better luck. We did. The camera is altogether more solid construction, more durable, and delivers higher quality pictures than our old HP did. Good thing.
There are basically three reasons I love this camera (besides that it came to me as a complete surprise, and was completely free!):
It works.
It's easy to use.
It's fun.
First of all--it works. One of the biggest problems we had with the HP was that it was a battery vampire--and there was no Buffy to slay it. We tried rechargeables, we tried not using the LCD screen, we tried ancient voodoo rituals, and nothing would make batteries last more than 20 exposures. With the Fujifilm, batteries seem to last forever. And we're using the LCD screen all the time--that's one of the benefits of a digital camera! We've only had a few dozen of the shots printed--we usually take pictures to share online or use on websites--but the pictures we have had printed have all turned out remarkably crisp. There hasn't been a single time that we've taken a picture and had an error on the camera's end of things--it's there when we need it, has a quick "warm-up," and it doesn't drain batteries. In other words, it works.
It's easy to use. Because I'm not a professional photographer by any means--I barely qualify as an amateur photographer--I don't know very much about camera settings. I need a camera to do the work for me if a picture's going to turn out well. And this camera does that. My wife knows more about changing settings and exposures and everything than I do, and she's really gotten into experimenting with the camera. But for my purposes, it's easy to use.
There are several automatic settings that will help dummies like me with Portraits, Landscapes, Action, and Nighttime photography, and I've used each of those to good effect. The "Action" setting is especially useful when capturing those toddler moments--those boys don't know when they're supposed to hold still! More often, I just have the camera on "Auto" setting; this tries to figure out what I want to do, and is usually successful in giving me a better quality photograph than I would have been able to get on my own.
The Macro setting comes in handy for the only specialized photography I do do--taking pictures of my dumb little toys. Those of you who have known me for some time know about my sick little hobbies, but it was one I wasn't able to indulge in with the HP camera, which had no Macro setting. I use it quite often, so your Fisher Price Little People are no longer safe. Goodness knows mine aren't.
Scrolling through and selecting, cropping, and deleting pictures is easy with the onboard editing software--you can do all of that before even uploading the pictures into your computer. The software suite you use to edit the pictures on your computer is also easy to use--another must for people like me, who haven't ever even used Photoshop. Someday I'll pull my head out and enjoy technology. But not today.
The last general point about this camera is--it's just plain fun! Where our old digital camera was a source of frustration at every turn, this camera has made photography fun again for us. We take a lot of pictures, with two young boys and a Rubber Duckie in tow most of the time, and this camera has been great for our family. From the happy chirp that it makes when you turn it on to the high-quality photos you get when you're finished, both my wife and I love using it to take pictures. In fact, sometimes I think we get jealous of each other's "camera time."
The only problems we've had with it usually stem from our own misuse: because you need to activate the pop-up flash yourself, we've missed some indoor shots that were too dark. Our own error. Sometimes there are issues with lag time--you take a picture of your toddler streaking past (well, not literally streaki--well, actually yeah, sometimes literally) and instead of your boy, you get a picture of an empty room. That's usually tied to the lighting conditions as well, but the FinePix does have a slower shutter than some other digital cameras. I also wish it had more onboard memory--additional memory comes in the form of XD cards, which aren't cheap, but fifty bucks will add enough memory for most people.
Here's some technical stuff from http://www.fujifilm.com that probably means more to you than it does to me:
Brand: Fuji
Built-in Microphone: With Built-in Microphone
Camera Type: Standard Point and Shoot
Estimated Price: $200 to $300
Focus Type: Autofocus & Manual Focus
Image Sensor Type: CCD
Interchangeable Lens: Without Interchangeable Lens
Continental Breakfast: Without Continental Breakfast
LCD Panel: With LCD Panel
LCD Protected Position: Without LCD Protected Position
Manufacturer Part Number: 2004WFUJFPS5100;2004SFUJFPS5100; finepixs5100;2004EFUJFPS5100;2004NFUJFPS5100;43861100
Optical Zoom: At Least 2x Zoom At Least 4x Zoom At Least 6x Zoom At Least 8x Zoom
Resolution: 4.0 - 4.9 Megapixels
Tripod Mount: With Tripod Mount
UPC: 074101411003
Video Speed: 30 fps
Viewfinder: Digital
Dimensions: Depth 3.1 in, Height 3.2 in, Weight.74 lb, Width 4.4 in.
Aperture Range: f8/f9(w/t)-f2.8/f3.1(w/t)
Frames Per Second: 1.6 Frames
ISO Speeds: Auto, 100, 200, 400, 64
Shutter Speed: 15 - 1/2000 sec
White Balance: Auto, Manual, Daylight/Sunny(Preset), Fluorescent(Preset),Incandescent(Preset),Shade(Preset)
Flash Functions: Flash Off, Auto Flash, Fill-in Flash, Red-eye Reduction Flash, Slow Sync
Resolution: 4.23 Megapixel
Resolutions: 640 x 480, 2272 x 1704, 1600 x 1200, 1280 x 960
Self Timer: 2 Sec.,10 Sec.
Interface: USB
Video Interface:Video Out
LCD Size: 1.5 in.
Optical Zoom: 10x
Resolution: 4.23 Megapixel
lENS: 35mm Zoom Lens, 37 - 370 mm
Digital Zoom: 3.6x
Focal Length: 5.7 - 57 mm
Focus Range: 36 in. to Infinity (w)/79.2 in. to Infinity (t)
Macro Focus Range: 3.6 - 79.2 in. (w)/36 - 79.2 in. (t)
Optical Zoom: 10x
Included Accessories: 4xAA Batteries, Software, USB Cable, Video Cable, Shoulder Strap, 16 MB Memory Card, Lens Cap
Product ID: 22521981
Release Date: October, 2004
Battery Type: 4 x AA Batteries
Compression Modes: Fine, Normal, Uncompressed
Compression Type: JPEG, Raw Image
File Size (High Res.): 8.26 MB (15 images on 128MB card)
File Size (Low Res.): .13 MB (about 984 images on 128MB card)
Memory Type: xD Picture Card
Operating System: Apple Mac OS 9, Apple Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows 2000, Microsoft Windows 98, Microsoft Windows 98SE, Microsoft Windows ME, Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition, Microsoft Windows XP Professional
Fluffy Towels: Does not come with fluffy towels
Video Max Movie Length: Without Limit (Depends on the camera free memory size)
Video Format: AVI
Video Quality: 640 x 480 (VGA), 320 x 240 (QVGA)
Viewfinder / Display: LCD Panel Size 1.5 in.
LCD Screen Resolution: 115,000 pixels
Again, I wish I were able to give it a better technical review, but this review is from the gut. I love this camera, it's been great for my family. I'd buy it for a family or college student in a heartbeat; if you're looking to get into something more professional--buy something more professional. For most amateurs, this is gonna be a great little camera.
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
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