FujiFilm FinePix S5700 Zoom (Finepix S700)

Opinion: Very nice intro to SLR type camera. loaded with every poss extra needed for a good quality photo.
Easy to use, light, good zoom, mad macro (will focus on lines of a star filter..when fitted ...)
Picked mine up for £50
Good zoom range (10x)
Good shutter range (Down to 4sec) make for nice S-FX shots..

Opinion: This is not point&shoot camera. This one is good for
brginner to study the art of photography. PASM modes
are very good. In AUTO the camera is busting ISO
settings - as a result the pictures are awful. But if you
are using manual control - you can recieve excellent
results, especialy in outdoor shooting.
This camera is an example of long-zoomed one without
wide angle, so it's a little bit lousy use it for landscape
picture.
The lenses are the weak point of the camera.
Distorsions and purple fringing.
From the other hand, the camera is robust, user
friendly and very cheap.
The absence of IS is one of the cons too, because in
long zoom you hardly can recieve sharp photo

Opinion: It's a good camera for people who wants more flexibility than a pocket camera.
It's the perfect choice for someone who wants to really learn something about photography but doesn't want to spend the money.

I bought this camera more than a year ago and I find that this Fuji has a lot of features found in SLRs. Myself I use a lot the shutter & the aperture priority. The bracketing is very useful too. Sometimes the pictures get overexposed and with the bracketing function you have a second chance on the same shot. This camera allowed me to shoot lightning flashes for example (with the continuous shooting feature), that I think it's impossible with a regular point-and-shoot.
But the picture quality is in the point-and-shoot league due to the small sensor. In good light conditions I can't tell the difference compared with a point-and-shoot camera.

At high zooms, even on an tripod at low ISO the picture is somewhat blury. It hasn't any image stabilization, it only rise the ISO in low light conditions. In fact, I even don't use this feature that makes very grainy pictures.

I find the movie quality very good. And you can use the optical zoom during the recording, too.

It's a shame that it only has a maximum of 4 seconds for the shutter speed.

It uses regular AA batteries and you can take more than 100 shots with a single charge of good quality NiMh cells.

Overall I like to use this camera but now I think seriously to move in the real SLR world.

Opinion: Outstanding. Great camera even in 2009. I purchased this for $90 at Wal Mart this past week after doing research on a decent mini dSLR type camera. I have always used Fuji products. My criteria were : #1 Camera using AA batteries efficiently. #2 Camera with all ISO , good aperture / shutter functions #3 Camera with over 10x optical zoom #4 Camera with also a viewfinder (to save on power).

Camera exceeds my expectations for that price!
Yes. A Canon Powershot has all this and probably has better image quality. But with a higher $$$ price tag. But you can't go wrong for non-professional images at this price.

Unless you are buying a Rebel SLR camera in the thousands of dollars with a great repair warranty. I do not believe in paying over $150 for any camera. Results are the same.. Cameras purchased under $500 typically don't have great warranties. And dropping a $90 camera or a $499 camera are the same. Probably both put in the dumpster.

Love this camera!!

Opinion: I had a sony DSC-V3 (7 Mpixels/5x zoom) and the fact that this Fuji has twice as much zoom tempted me and I purchased it. And it seemed good value for money. But after a couple of weeks of using it I realized that the pictures quality is much worse than my Sony. There is a lot of noise in pictures even at ISO 64. The auto mode takes very poor pictures. The good thing about this camera is that the control for the manual is straightforward and user friendly in my view.

Opinion: 2852 pictures later I still like this camera, and although I have recently upgraded to a panasonic fz18, the fuji s5700 has served exactly the purpose I wanted it to.
It was a replacement for a kodak point and shoot, and I wanted a camera I could learn more about photography with, and a high zoom. This fuji is perfect for that purpose without breaking the bank.
I would recommend this camera to anyone wanting more than a simple point and shoot (although it is still fine for that purpose) and on a budget that can not justify a more expensive camera. It has many of the features of much more expensive cameras (except image stabilization) and is actually on a par or even better in some areas.
It is very nice to hold with a fantastic hand grip and externally has been well designed.

Best features:
*Nice handgrip (beter than my new fz18)
*Exellent macro mode
*Excellent video mode with zoom (way better than most competitors)
*Battery life is well above average, I have had more than 500 shots per charge
*SD card compatable, no XD card required!!!!
*Good picture quality, iso settings useable more than some competitors.
* lots of settings to play with for learning about digital photography.
*Price - very good price for what you get.

Overall a great wee camera not the best camera on image quality but certainly not the worst, and remember small sensor cameras will always srugle to match a DSLR on image quality, but thats for the professionals!!! with the price tag to match.

Opinion: Overall I am very impressed, especially for what I paid for the camera. Does everything a budding photographer could want. Full manual controls, good zoom, comfortable to use, great image quality. Not sure what else I could ask for without paying double or triple.

Pros:

- Can be found for under US$160
- 10x zoom
- manual controls
- Zoom control on front of camera near shutter button makes for easy one handed use.
- Nice EVF
- Outstanding battery life using NIMH rechargeables. I went 4 days with 250 photos taken and about 45 minutes of pic playback on the LCD without getting a low battery warning. Quality alkalines are OK, but not great.
-Excellent grip, especially for larger hands.
-Image quality is outstanding in most conditions. I have taken some shots that look like they came out of a high-end DSLR.
-Takes good DOF shots where the subject is in focus and the background blurry. Haven't seen many non SLRs that can pull this off as well as this camera has.
- Lens is sealed and does not extend from camera. Seems like a more robust and durable design than the extending lenses.

Cons:

-In auto mode, it seems to want to pump up the ISO in low light. 400+ can be noisy and 1600 is probably not going to useable for over a 4" print. This is likely true of any non SLR, though. You can control the ISO through the "P" mode if this becomes an issue.
- No Lens Image Stabililzation. Images can be blurry towards full zoom if you aren't careful.
-USB cable to computer is kinda slow USB 1.1. use a USB 2.0 card reader if you can.
-Kinda big if you are used to a compact.
-Some of the menus hard to find due to several menu buttons with different functions
-Manual focus pretty much worthless and near impossible to use.

Opinion: Bought this camera new for £100, (Amazon) which is almost free...bearing in mind what it can do. It plays second fiddle to my Olympus E410. Eight times out of ten, if I want to take a camera out, I'll grab the Fuji. It's cute, well built & packs a real punch. Sure it's not perfect, but the resolution is more than adequate for A4/A3 prints (don't get fooled by the pixel race) & a little tweaking with photo-shop gets rid of any distortion issues at 38mm. Stick to 64/100 ISO & it will give you bright, sharp, punchy, noise free images. If you want to shoot in low light, take a tripod/minipod, it's worth the effort.

Opinion: on second thought, fujis cheap beginner camera with better zoom lens was allot better then I originally thought
I was disappointed allot at first then I realized the custom controls were just complex to use but its like a small dslr without the better chip. You can get some fantastic shots you can't get with small camera.. . Lack of easy custom controls killed this
image quality was very variable too light or dark but at least its possible to get a great shot. pretty accurate white balance and great battery life at 10x zoom at what some people are selling at its a definite buy