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Details at a glance
Megapixels: 5.1
Optical Zoom: 10x
Digital Zoom: 5.7x
LCD screen: 1.8inch
Storage: 370g
Size: 113(w) x 85(h) x 112(d)
Weight: 370g
We clicked with
The large, easy to use mode dial
Shots in the dark
The lack of rechargeable batteries
Links
More Fujifilm information
www.fujifilm.co.uk
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This 5 megapixel EVF camera might seem lightweight or flimsy, depending on your expectations. Despite the hefty 10x lens on the front (38-380mm equivalent with a 10cm macro) it's well balanced and the textured and contoured grip puts the shutter release and zoom controls under your fingers without putting any other controls at risk of being knocked accidentally. That's just as well because the mode dial turns almost too easily. There's a lock on the manual/auto-focus button to avoid similar problems, but make sure you keep your fingers away from the green auto focus lamp in front of it as this improves the focus in low light.
Buttons and dials
The mode dial is also quite large because of the number of options but it does put all the choices in the same place: aperture priority, shutter priority, full manual control, semi-programmable, preset portrait and landscape mode plus the same anti-blur, night and natural light modes as the FinePix S9500. That leaves resolution, ISO and colour mode on one button, bracketing and burst mode on another and flash and macro controls on the four-way arrow buttons. As with so many cameras, RAW mode is buried in the menus; here it's in the second level of setup options.
Adjusting EV compensation and shutter speed takes some getting used to because you use the same button for both, depending on whether you press and then adjust with the arrows or press and hold. Don't mistake the grooved lens body for a manual focus ring; you have to use the buttons to focus, but the grooves do give you extra grip.
Many newer cameras give you separate controls for taking photos and viewing them; the S5600 combines them on the power switch which wraps around the shutter release. That puts them in a convenient place but if you want to keep an eye on recent shots you can switch the LCD to show your last three images in a strip down the side. When you do switch to viewing images there's a handy calendar view as well as the usual thumbnails and you can crop and rotate images; but you don't get any information about the picture itself except date and time. The diopter-adjustable EVF has all the same views as the LCD including grid view and the option to increase the brightness.
Flash away!
The flash hood opens automatically (instead of the button found on previous models in this range) and there's no hotshoe or PC socket. The natural light setting gives good results when the flash might otherwise burn out the detail in a shot. There's no choice of colour temperature but you get the same strong but realistic trademark Fuji colours as the S9500. Image quality is generally good, there isn't significant noise even at ISO 400 and you get usable images up to ISO 1600.
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Ease of use 
Functions
Value for Money
Overall 
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This isn't the smallest camera or the highest resolution you can find at this price, but it's a reasonable all rounder at a good price; budget for some AA rechargeable batteries and a bigger card than the 16MB xD that's included though. |
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