Fujifilm Finepix S Plus Or Minus

With raw files, the pause between your first two shots is only 1.2 seconds, which is uncommon in a midrange consumer digicam and immensely welcome.

The new model offers the same 10X zoom lens and a handful of feature and performance improvements, although some design drawbacks remain.

The biggest change is the sensor; the previous models 3-megapixel SuperCCD HR has been replaced with a conventional 4-megapixel CCD, and image quality is much improved.

The Fujifilm FinePix S5100s design is almost identical to that of its predecessor, the S5000--which is both good and bad.

The camera is fairly compact for a megazoom model, and its mini-SLR styling looks reasonably good and gives it a comfortable, stable feel in your hands.

The black-plastic body is solidly built and weighs a moderate 16.9 ounces with batteries and media installed.

In the now familiar Fujifilm system, the cameras menus are split between two activation buttons, and you change settings with a four-way controller on the cameras back.

The controller is slightly smaller than wed prefer, but the menus are easy to understand and quick to navigate.

Lamentably, one of the FinePix S5000s control flaws survives in the S5100: in manual mode, you use the four-way pad in conjunction with a top-mounted button to set the aperture in manual mode and to adjust exposure compensation, but the two controls are so far apart, they force even long-fingered photographers into awkward contortions.

The maximum aperture is a respectable f2.8 at wide-angle and f3.1 at full telephoto.

A lens-adapter ring that ships with the camera lets you mount accessory wide-angle and telephoto converters as well as 55mm filters.

There is also a very functional manual-exposure mode with 13-step control of aperture and shutter speed and a useful metering display.

Fujifilm Finepix S Plus Or Minus

There are three light-metering modes--multi, average, and spot--and you can compensate your automatic exposures plus or minus 2EV or use the three-shot exposure-bracketing function.

Wisely, Fujifilm has also outfitted the FinePix S5100 with a custom white-balance function, which the S5000 lacked.

The CCDs sensitivity can be set to ISO 64, ISO 100, ISO 200, or ISO 400.

One useful exposure aid that is available on many competing cameras but missing on the S5100 is a live-image histogram.

The camera can also capture raw-format images, which you convert to TIFF files on your computer using an extremely rudimentary program called Raw File Converter LE (for both Windows and Mac), which Fujifilm ships with the camera.

This application offers no raw-conversion adjustments, meaning youll gain little or no advantage from shooting in this format unless you find a third-party converter that supports the FinePix S5100s raw files.

As with the S5000 before it, you have to drill deep into the S5100s setup menu to select the raw-capture mode.

This option should be available on the cameras standard-resolution menu.

Note also that ISO 400 is not available in raw mode.).

The Fujifilm FinePix S5100 improves on the performance of the S5000, which was already fairly responsive.

Start-up takes a slightly sluggish 4.7 seconds, but shutter delay, including autofocus time, is about 0.7 second in good light.

Thats a respectable figure, and it drops to about 0.2 second if you prefocus or use the continuous-autofocus mode, which constantly adjusts the focus even when youre not pressing the shutter release.

The autofocus system overall is fairly quick and decisive, and an assist lamp helps it work very well in dim conditions.

As a result, shutter delay with autofocus is only 0.8 second in low light.

Fujifilm Finepix S Manual