Fuji Finepix S5700 Review

The Fuji Finepix S5700 is a seven megapixel digital camera with a ten times zoom lens. The length of the lens makes the camera a good choice for subjects where you need plenty of zoom. These include sports and wildlife photography. The Finepix S5700 also has a number of more advanced features including manual exposure. If you are interested in the longer lens, but do not wish to use the more advanced features you can use the camera's automatic mode.

Outdoor 1 (Medium Zoom)
The Finepix S5700 gets off to a fairly good start. Compared to some of the cameras I have tested recently sharpness is not quite as good as many of the other cameras have managed. Although in fairness these other models have been more expensive. I would describe picture quality in this shot as average.

Outdoor 2 (No Zoom)
The quality of this shot dips below average here. Focusing is not so hot. A small amount of purple fringing appears where the sun strikes lighter coloured objects. I also would like to see stronger colour in this shot.

Outdoor 3 (Maximum Zoom)
With the lens zoomed into to its maximum capacity purple fringing becomes a much more serious problem. It can be cleaned up if you use software such as Photoshop, but not everyone will want to spend time doing so. The sun also causes another problem with detail lost in some areas of the photo.

Outdoor Portrait
I have no complaints with this photo. Sharpness levels are better with the camera being used at closer quarters. I like the colours the camera produces in this shot.

Indoor Portrait
This is another successful portrait shot. With the flash unit popping up out of the way the possibility of photos being blighted by red eye is much reduced.

Lowlight
I am disappointed with this result. This is a fairly new test and as all the cameras I have tested have struggled with it I used lighter conditions to test the Finepix S5700. Therefore I would have expected a sharper focus, especially having read Fuji's claims about the camera's ability to cope when the light is less than perfect.

Colours
How strong you like to see colour in a photograph is something of a personal opinion. The Finepix S5700 has produced softer colours in more of my tests when compared to other models. Personally I would like to see a bit more strength in the outdoor scenic shots.

Macro
I have no complaints with the macro shot and feel the Finepix S5700 has made a good attempt with the photo.

ISO 400
At ISO 400 the Finepix S5700 produces a credible photo. It is better than most other brands manage, although purple fringing did start to appear again in my tests.

ISO 1600
At this setting the camera is able to produce photos that are better than almost all its rivals. Even so I would advise you to only use this setting if you really need to.

Overall
The photos are a little way from being perfect, but the Finepix S5700 is one of the cheapest super zoom cameras on the market.

I was able to take a single photo in 0.28 seconds and five in 10.25 seconds. These are decent times. With flash a single photo took 0.38 seconds and five photos took 11.90. These are fast times with flash.

You can compare this camera to other models by taking a look at the Shutter Lag Comparison Table.

The Finepix S5700 is smaller than some of the earlier models in this range. It comes on black and looks a little like a cut down SLR camera.

106.1 x 75.7 x 80.7mm

306g

Four AA batteries are required.

27mb of storage have been built into the camera. I took 17 shots before this was full. The camera is compatible with both xD cards and SD cards.

Click here to save money on memory cards.

Good. If you are looking for your first camera with manual controls then you are likely to find the Finepix S5700 easier to use than most.

Design and style - ease of use for a camera with these features

Purple fringing - wide angle test photo

The Fuji Finepix S5700 has two big plus points for anyone looking for a digital camera with a longer lens. The first is its low price tag and the second is ease of use. Picture quality is not perfect, but taking the price of the camera into account I cannot be too critical.

Front View

Back View

Top View

Sample Menus

Although every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of the information on this site, please make sure you double check the feature set and specification at the point of purchase.

Fuji Finepix S5700