Fuji S5700 my review

Just received this today and so took pictures with my old Nikon Coolpix 5200 and the Fuji S5700 to compare. I had them both set on automatic.

It looks a little bulky but sits in the hand nicely and wasn't as heavy as I expected it to be with 4 AA batteries in it. It zooms in nicely, but taking pictures in anything other than bright outside light seemed to make it difficult to get a pinpoint sharp photo. The screen is very large but the image looks soft so it's hard to tell how sharp it is till you've put it on your pc.

In very bright light outside today I took identical photos of the garden. With the Nikon the colour is slightly darker and with the Fuji there was noticeable blurry purple where the leaves meet the sky.

It seems to take the best close up photos compared to the Nikon and colours were good.

It's very easy to use and you can work your way round it without reading the instructions. Not keen on the on switch which you just slide to put on..looks like it could be switched on accidentally. There is a shutter cover but it's separate from the camera although there is a hole in it to attach it..I didn't get that far as I've boxed it all back up again.

For the money I don't think it's worth me keeping it over the Nikon (sending it back to QVC!). I didn't like the purple leaves in the photo below, it's a bit slow on taking a picture and the preview of the photo in the screen is too soft.



Whether the outside pictures could be improved with adjusting the shutter speed or apature manually I don't know, but for the automatic setting it wasn't enough.

Bye bye S5700, you don't cut it for me.

Piecan said:

(sending it back to QVC!). I didn't like the purple leaves in the
photo below, it's a bit slow on taking a picture and the preview of
the photo in the screen is too soft.

Click to expand...

I'm amazed about the speed as the S5500 (4Mp and two generations older) can blast away like an SLR under the conditions in the photo you showed, I'd have not thought that the 5700 would be slower, also the old 5500 was excellent for Purple fringing, the lens was superb full stop being both fast aperture and tack sharp end to end....

I know they're cramming more and more pixels in and the 5600 wasn't as good as the 5500 for image quality however..

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Please ignore the Typos, I'm the world's worst Typist

It is a shame you had to send it back. And could not spend a little more time with it. Unfortunately the fuji cams continue to be less than perfect in the Auto mode. I was hoping they had address the "Auto" issue in the 5700. My niece wanted a camera with zoom but she probably will not venture past the auto either.

The pic you posted is very small so it is hard to tell much except the metering looks way off. It was in Pattern metering so who knows why the sky is so blown out. Was the sky blue? Where was the sun?

Maybe someone else can try some of the other modes and see if they can get better results. I know it has a bunch of SCENE modes available.

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gus
Get what makes you happy...
Anything less makes you less happy!

Can we have a full sized version of that photo, please, preferably with EXIF intact?

Thanks.

Actually the Exif is intact on the small one... But I would love to see a full size myself, I hope the OP checks back in.
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gus
Get what makes you happy...
Anything less makes you less happy!

I also would have liked to seen some other photos. This may have just been a bad example to show why he sent it back.

But if it does not work in auto mode and that is how he shoots, then sending it back was his only option.

Few of the fuji's do their best work in auto, that is one of the knocks from the canon/sony cross posters.

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gus
Get what makes you happy...
Anything less makes you less happy!

Hi there

sorry for delay, went to bed with a bad cold. The photo I uploaded was rubbish compared to others I've seen on here so I've uploaded some more to an album. I haven't sent the camera back yet so maybe I'll give it a bit longer before I decide...at least with QVC I get 30 days to try it.

http://www.picturetrail.com/gallery/view?p=999&gid=16139764&uid=7403602

album password fujiphotos

If you could tell me which photos you prefer between the Nikon and the Fuji or have any suggestions that would be great.

Thanks

Hey piecan,

I looked at the photos... Like you, I prefer the detail of the indoor pics with the 5700.

The outdoor shots look like a whitebalance/metering issue to me. I am unfamiliar with the 5700 wb and metering and what it does in auto mode.

But if you keep it for a few more days... try adjusting wb to shade and/or some other options to see if it helps. Also check photometry or metering, and on outdoor shots with bright sun, see it the average metering helps.

I do not know what they are called in the 5700 so I am using the S6000 terms.

You should have a lot of scene modes so try some of those.

It would be nice to see some pics, but I understand sometimes you just want to shoot in auto mode and still get good shots.

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gus
Get what makes you happy...
Anything less makes you less happy!

igilligantoo said:

Actually the Exif is intact on the small one...

Click to expand...

Yes, and at 6.3mm zoom and f3.5 the S5700/700 is wide open and at the best camera settings to reveal purple fringing problems.

Thanks very much for looking Gus

Will try again with the white balance altered. Had a look around and couldn't find different scene modes which I thought unusual.

Just taken some flash photos and they so over exposed. It's supposed to adjust for distance, one I took of my husband was just much too light. Will have to read up on some of the other models.

Agreed, that is what I do not understand about "Auto" here.
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gus
Get what makes you happy...
Anything less makes you less happy!

It says in the preview that the 5700 has 12 scene modes. So they are there somewhere... Maybe the dial, check in the manual if you get the chance.--
gus
Get what makes you happy...
Anything less makes you less happy!

Looking at the images at the link provided, it looks likes the S5700 overexposes each scene when compared to the Nikon. This fact combined with the wide open settings in the back yard scene will lead to bad purple fringing if the camera is susceptible to it (which the S5700 obviously is). The fringing could probably be reduced significantly by using a smaller aperture and exposure compensation.

Another example of S5700/S700 purple fringing that I've found:

http://dc.yesky.com/340/3135340_4.shtml

There are a number of good S5700/S700images here which can be viewed in original size by clicking on the smaller version:

http://www.rovago.com/fujs700.html

And here are crops from the 2nd (car lot) and 6th (trains) images on that page:





And the fringing effectively removed using Paint Shop Pro 9.1:

Speaking of s5500, I own this camera for quite a long time and, although it suffers from some image quality issues (like purple fringing at the end of zoom or blowing highligths), you can get really satisfying results once you learn how to handle the camera properly. I have to admit that initially I was quite disappointed with many shots taken with it.

While it still remains a very capable device I consider upgrading to s6500 fd with its manual focus ring , its the closest a compact can get to a DSLR which I can't afford atm. And it shoots RAWs, just like my s5500.

Some samples below (though I realize that they were taken in excellent light conditions).

Icheb_82,

Nice shots! I, too, have owned a S5500 (S5100 in the US) for years and am looking for an upgrade. That's why I've been researching the S5700/S700 very seriously. It might work perfectly as a direct replacement of my S5500 for taking integrated circuit die photos:

http://diephotos.blogspot.com/

Oh, and the camera's downside - purple fringing - although in this example it goes to extremes. I wonder how s6500 fd's lenses deal with it.

f 3 at 57mm (eq. to 360mm) ISO 100

IMO the 5500 was the best in the range - the 5000 was just a mess image wise, the 5600 looked cheap and tacky and produced very "Panasonicy" images (all noise and noise reduction) - dunno about the 5700..

Anyway, here's a sunrise with the old S5500



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Please ignore the Typos, I'm the world's worst Typist

I found the S9500 far worse for PF than I ever did with the 5500 and it shares the same lens as the 6500 .

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Please ignore the Typos, I'm the world's worst Typist

Ah I guess I should have read the manual first! Doh! I can now see that there are different scenes going via the menu when the dial is on SP1 and SP2. Will have to take some more photos on the the different settings.

The intelligent flash still doesn't seem that intelligent, in portrait and automatic flash it's still too strong.

Wow great photos, looks like the S5500 is a very good camera.