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Fuji FinePix
S5500 Zoom
Review
of the Fuji FinePix S5500 Zoom
The Fuji FinePix S5500 Zoom digital camera is the successor to the Fuji FinePix S5000 Zoom. It is the newest arrival in Fuji's range of SLR-styled cameras and offers an ample 4 million effective pixel CCD and a powerful 10x optical zoom lens.
Compared to its predecessor, the S5500 Zoom features include full VGA movie recording at 30 frames per second, custom white balance control, histogram playback and 100% frame coverage.The average shutter lag time is approximately 0.05 seconds, making it one of the quickest available in this style of camera.
The FinePix S5500 Zoom is powered by four AA size batteries or an AC power adapter. There is a Video Out socket for viewing images and movies on a compatible TV screen. The S5500 Zoom also adds PictBridge functionality, enabling direct printing without the need for a PC or Mac.
Key Features of the Fuji FinePix S5500 Zoom include:
Box Contents:
Fuji FinePix S5500 reviews
Average
rating from 4 reviews: 
Reviewed by Adrian from Wales on 24th
Jun 2005
This camera does everything I wanted - and much more, with one small exception
(see below). I bought it from Jessops, who price matched (with an allowance
for postage) the cheapest on-line price I could find - including a 512
MB xD card (you need a big card!). The only significant things I haven't
investigated are the multiple shots thing and the bracketing. I suppose
they could be useful but I'm just not used to it, having been a traditional
SLR owner in the past. This camera was an upgrade from a Fuji Finepix
A204 (simple 2M point-and-shoot). That was an excellent camera for what
it was, and at that time the more advanced digitals were out of my price
range. But I wanted to stick to Fuji because that camera so impressed
me. I've tried taking photos with the maximum 10x zoom, and they appear
crystal clear; I can't see any of the fringing I've seen mentioned elsewhere
(but maybe that was just my choice of subject). Why won't Fuji tell you
it's Linux compatible? I don't run Windows, and searched the web to make
sure this would work. In the end I sort of chanced it, having only found
one reference to it with Linux. It's fine; 100% compatible as far as I
can tell. Just mount it in the same way that you would any removable USB
memory device (my Mandrake 9.1 system detected it anyway), and copy the
files over in the usual way (hint: use "cp -p" to preserve photo creation
timestamp). The screen on the back is fine; any larger, and it would make
the positioning of the (very practical and well-laid out) buttons on the
back more awkward. It's a necessary compromise between ease of use and
size of display, and one I'm happy to accept. Negatives (apart from the
above about Linux): the longest shutter speed is only 15 seconds. But
I can't count that against this camera; most other cameras I looked at
in this range only go to 8 seconds. This goes to 15 (in manual mode only,
but that's fine). This, with an ISO setting of 400 and widest aperture,
took a reasonable photo around 11:10 pm (sunset 9:40ish) the other night,
in conditions that were probably around the brightness of a full moon,
maybe slightly less. But it was only just satisfactory. I used to get
some spectacular nighttime photos with my old SLR with shutter timings
anything up to 15 minutes, in conditions which to our eyes are essentially
completely dark. I don't understand why they can't offer longer shutter
times; it's surely just a simple software tweak. I miss not being able
to attach a wide-angle lens. I used to have an 18-28 for my old SLR, and
it got a fair bit of use. The Fuji starts at 37mm, and even with their
0.79x adapter (extra cost) wouldn't get down to 28mm. I do appreciate
the microphone though; I didn't get that with my old SLR! It records sound
with your movies, and you can also record voice memos (up to 30 secs)
associated with pictures - useful to remind yourself later of what it
was you were photographing. This is implemented smiply by creating a .wav
file with the same name as the picture file (apart from the ending, of
course). The negatives I've mentioned aren't enough to knock it down from
5 stars; I couldn't find any other camera in this range which offered
better.
Rating: 
Reviewed
by Paul from Australia on 2005/01/10
Great camera with good features for price. Manual focus is useless though
and LCD screen should be at least 1.8 inch rather than 1.5 inch. Lens
cover is great as I can use my 55mm UV and polarising filters. Powerful
flash and continuous shooting modes are nice features and battery life
is very very good. Forget the supplied software! Oh, and there is no way
to rotate an image on the LCD show if you shoot in vertical format you
cannot rotate the image on camera or it is not rotated for you automatically,
like on other cameras of similar price. Overall a great camera and I am
very happy with my purchase for $550 AUS.
Rating:
Reviewed
by Peter Ruxton from Australia on 2004/12/30
Looks and feels like a tradional camera, the weight feels right when using
the supplied batteries, as in a previous review, the supplied software
leaves a lot to be desired. Not a bad unit, the 10 times optical zoom
is good. I'd rather use the viewfinder than the LCD screen so size of
the screen is not a problem to me. Good picture quality, easy to use,
and big enough so you won't lose it.
Rating:
Reviewed
by Lee Boon Kim from Singapore on 2004/12/20
Hi, just bought this camera and still fiddling with it. What I like about
it is the ease of use, use of readily available AA size batteries, solid
and ergonomic construction, good set of manual controls and relatively
good picture quality. What I don't like is the small LCD screen and use
of relatively expensive xD Picture card for storage. The included software
is also so-so only. Anyway, this is my first real digital camera and I'm
just enjoying it at the moment.
Rating:
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