Having previously owned a couple of other Fujifilm cameras and needing something to replace my aging compact, I took a punt on this and so far its proven its worth.
To start with it fits well in your hand, is nicely balanced, not too heavy, your fingers fall naturally on most of the controls, and it has a nice solid feel. A couple of the buttons are a bit small and fiddly, but they're likely to be the least-used features so it's not a huge problem. The menus are responsive and simple to navigate, and the range of shooting modes from fully automatic through to fully manual make this a good camera for someone who wants to learn the ropes before investing in a more expensive model.
Before discussing picture quality and other aspects of the camera, I have to point out something rather special about
this camera: the battery life. Using a set of regular Duracells, and with typical usage (a few flash shots, hefty use of the zoom, and under a wide range of conditions), you can easily expect to take a good 2,000 or more pictures before needing to replace the batteries. With a set of higher-performance batteries (Energizer Lithium or similar) I have no idea how long they last -- my current set has given me nearly 6,000 shots, and they're still going strong!
Now, down to the nitty gritty. As a result of the enclosed lens the startup time is quick, and within a second or so of switching it on it's ready to shoot. The shutter lag is also respectable for a camera in this price range, and while it's not as responsive as a high-end camera it's fast enough to cope with all but the most demanding situations; there's nothing more irritating than framing the perfect shot only to miss it because of the interminable delay between pressing the button and the camera doing its thing! There's also a high-speed shooting mode which allows you to just hold the shutter release and fire off shots in rapid succession, which is useful for action work.
General picture quality is excellent; Fuji cameras are notorious for "purple fringing" in some high-contrast situations, and while the S5800 suffers from this to some extent it's kept to a minimum, and usually only noticeable when shooting directly into the light. Colour reproduction in most conditions is excellent -- not too saturated, not too dull -- and sharpness and small-detail resolution are well preserved thanks to the decent optics: although it's "only" an 8MP camera, pictures can be cropped to around 25% and still be more than adequate for printing.
Low light shooting is also handled well; with the f-stop at 3.5 and the sensitivity at ISO100 equivalent, the shutter speed is fast enough that you can get good results without using the flash even in very dark conditions. Some examples can be found here: http://tr.im/lhH0
The S5800 also sports a superb macro mode, coping well with objects as close as one or two cm, and combined with the 10x optical zoom the lack of interchangeable lenses is only a drawback if you have some fairly specialised requirements.
Autofocus is reasonably fast, and is unlikely to get in your way; there is a manual focus mode but it's fiddly to use and probably of no real use. Shutter speed and aperture can also be adjusted manually -- either together, or individually with the camera adjusting other settings -- and the focussing and metering modes are adjustable to suit the conditions and subject matter.
On the negative side, there's no image stabilisation, and on more than one occasion I've had my hand over the pop-up flash when it's tried to fire (especially when shooting in portrait mode). For some reason it's also lost the RAW mode of earlier models, although as it was painfully slow it's not really a great loss.
All in all this is a good all-rounder; it's small enough that you can carry it around without looking too conspicuous, big enough to grip comfortably for long periods, and has a wide enough range of features to satisfy anyone who wants a bit of control over their shots whilst still providing a point-and-shoot experience.
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Advantages: Small, simple to use, great zoom and creat quality pics. Disadvantages: Hmmm... the only one would be the viewfinder. A cover for it would be nice.
strikey 22.08.2008 (22.08.2008)
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Review of Fujifilm FinePix S5800
May 16th, 2009
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