Rating: 
Summary: My Favorite of All time
Review: Man, i bought this camera about 3 weeks ago, and I am so happy with it. This camera is Great. I love it. I think I am going to marry it. I have bought a lot of cheap digital camera's from 1 to 3 mp but this is one is by far the best. With 10x optical zoom you can hardly beat this for the price. My only problems with the whole package was the software it came with. I had a few conflicts with it. I am using an Hp a520n running xp and the problems came when transferring the pictures to the computer via the included software. The funny thing is, the computer was brand new too and I was about to go out and buy a card reader for when I noticed that the computer had a 9 in 1 card reader right on the front panel! duh! So I just removed everything but the drivers for the camera and i transferred the pictures via the xd card. I also recommend getting re-chargeale batteries for this and keeping a charged set with you if you're going on trips. It comes with batteries but it used them up in two days. This camera takes some awesome photos, it even makes me look like an experienced ametuer. GET IT NOW.
Rating: 
Summary: Not bad
Review: well i have had this camera for about 4-5months and it has taken prety good pictures, but recently it has been giving me some trouble....the button to view the pictures has been "acting up".....it has gotten jamed or some sort of loose connection.....bottem line is that it's not very durable!!....but the pictures are great.
Rating:
Summary: First Digital
Review: I just got the camera and had to say something about the service.I had been looking around at different vendors. Some kept raising their price and many wanted shipping. Other buyers indicated that clerks tried to sell more stuff. I had good history with Amazon and decided to buy from them. The camera arrived earlier than expected, no hassels from the computer to buy more, free shipping, no tax, I could track the shipping via UPS.I knew when they first tried to deliver! Everything worked out great.
I can not believe the weight of the camera!! It is so light, much more than my SLR. Once I get some shots and see the results, I will write back.
Rating:
Summary: SPECTACULAR!!! Features, Ease, Quality, and IT'S FUN!!
Review: I did ALOT of research before I bought anything, and when I saw this, it caught my eye. I love that it actually LOOKS like a real camera, and it performs better than any camera I've ever had. I've owned mine since the end of February and have taken hundreds of photos that have turned out outstanding. Everyone who sees them marvels at the quality, clarity, and color accuracy--not to mention the fact that I can get a GREAT picture of a goal shot from the OTHER END of a soccer field. By the way, all of those pictures I took that people loved--those are all with only 2MPMy FAVORITE features of the S5000:
*10x optical zoom allows for EXCELLENT composition (ignore digital zoom though. It diminishes photo quality)
*First-5 and Last-5 modes, when teamed with Aperture Priority at 1/1000 or so, allows me to get the PERFECT shots at sports matches and anything else that might otherwise be missed. THIS IS BY FAR THE BEST FEATURE OF THIS CAMERA! I RELY ON IT FOR *ANYTHING* THAT I KNOW I WANT TO CAPTURE, FROM WAVES CRASHING ON THE REEF TO A DROP KICK BY OUR TEAM'S GOALIE.
*It is VERY EASY to use! As soon as I got it, I was experimenting with the camera in less than 10 minutes.
*Battery consumption is quite respectable, especially for this type of camera. I use 4x2100 NiMH AA's (I love that it uses AA's) which last easily for hours of taking 5 or 10 shots in a row every couple minutes at sporting events. I use the flash ALOT, and it doesn't wear too much on the batteries either. (Just watch out for the batteries it comes with... they lasted about an hour after I first got the camera.)
*XD card is great! It's REALLY fast and easy to use.
*Oh yea... finally, THE PRICE !ROCKS! FOR WHAT YOU GET!!! Unfortunately, all cameras have their cons:
*With the GREAT zoom the S5000 has, keeping it steady without a tripod becomes a challenge. Steadying software would have been a great boon, but it had to be cut for cutting cost and size.
*I !DO NOT! like the electronic viewfinder. It's hard to use, lags more than the LCD, and is less sharp. The S5000 should have had a standard viewfinder. I'd use it alot more and even save batteries from not using the LCD.
*The so-called "manual focus" is a joke. I've found it impossible to operate. PLEASE!!! Don't let my gripes take away from this EXCELLENT camera! Things could always be a little easier or better, but with a camera at this price, of such high quality, and has SO MANY CAPABILITIES, you can't turn this one down!!! Last tips for use:
*You NEED a larger memory card. At a minimum, 64MB. I recommend 128MB, though I have a 256MB card. It works GREAT and holds over 400 shots at 2MP, or 325 shots at 3MP. With a camera this much fun to use, you NEED space to play with.
*GET RECHARGABLE NimH AA batteries!!! You can't go for even an afternoon without rechargables. I recommend at least 1800-2100 capacities. *FINALLY: HAVE FUN!!! THIS CAMERA HAS !ALOT! TO OFFER, SO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF ITS CAPABILITIES! READ THE INSTRUCTION MANUAL! IT HELPS!
Rating:
Summary: Way more camera than I was expecting!
Review: I have been looking for a digital camera for about a year, watching as technology improved and prices dropped. Finally won a gift certificate at work and treated myself to this camera. Am I glad I did!! I am just an average person, taking pictures of my family, of events, of friends, the usual stuff. This camera makes it so easy to get professional quality results, I cannot believe it! I will admit, there is a lot about it I have not figured out yet (note to Fuji, a CD-ROM interactive user guide would ROCK!) but it is relatively easy to use with minimal instruction. And the picture quality is incredible. Some day I will read the guide and find out all it can do, but even without, I am having a ball! I asked several casual photographer friends their recommendation before I bought and the S5000 was the overwhelming favorite. The 10X optical zoom is amazing, and the only time the 3.1 megapixels could be a drawback is if I was to blow a photo up to photo size (highly unlikely!). I was told to go for zoom over megapixels, and I am glad I did. My first series of photos was St. Patrick's Day parades, and I was able to get some GREAT shots of my daughter's bagpipe band and some shots of her piping in the parade. Up close & personal while standing on the curb! I was looking at the S7000, which costs about $200 more, but my friends all said don't spend the extra $$, and I am glad I did not! Even the movie mode is great! And the sound is good as well. Thanks, Amazon, for making such a high quality piece of equipment so affordable!
Rating:
Summary: I dont know from mega-pixels...
Review: Well,a bunch of techno garbage seems to get discussed in these reviews.Mega-pixels,what does that mean in the real world?Well,nothing to me.I wanted a mid-way camera.Not an insta-matic,but not a Hassleblad.I bought this to make Claymation videos.Also as a general use point and click camera.All I can say is that this camera takes rich,focused,pictures.Its simple to use,and yet allows just enough usefull additives to go beyond rank amateur photography.Is it a pro camera?I dont know.It reproduces what I see acurately and with some filters can do everything I need it too.My grandchildren look like my grandchildren,trees look like ytrees,all in all I think its the best camera for the money.Its both simple and complex,but I can see the use for the features,there isnt much that is useless or overtly goofy.The layout is a little tight,but you can reach all of the needed buttons with one hand.The one complaint I do have is the rather poor quality of the image in the view finder,but the LCD screen is true to sight.If you are a Nikon F2 user,you will probably want a little better quality,but if you had a Pentax Spotmatic,this camera will feel right at home.
Rating:
Summary: More than expected
Review: I did a lot of comparison shopping and product research when I decided to buy a digital camera, and this one came out on top. I am stationed in Iraq right now, and I needed something reliable and easy to use here. This camera has done this and more. The picture quality is good at the lower picture settings, but once you adjust the pixels to a higher quality the photos come out amazing. I was especially pleased with the zoom function. When fully zoomed at 10 times the pictures were still clear, even though I wasn't braced with a tripod or anything. The screen and menu are easy to use, and the camera interfaces easily with Windows. I have not even used the included software yet. The only thing I didn't like are the fact that you have to set your zoom before you start recording a movie, and it cannot be changed during filming. The movies come out amazing, though, and the little speaker on the camera is pretty loud when you playback. The 16MB memory card is way too small, but this is the base for most digital cameras anyway. The Xd cards are very small, but are comparable in price with other types. This is an excellent camera for deployed troops or just for everyday use, and you will not be let down with your purchase.
Rating:
Summary: Buy this one if you like to zoom in for close-ups!
Review: I bought this Fujifilm Coolpix S5000 as a Christmas present for my husband. He has little patience for using complicated cameras. This camera is great for him because he loves to travel the world to go fishing and he wants shots of the scenery, native animals and, of course, those close-ups of the fish he caught. It has multiple features which make it a great choice. We tried the camera out on a day trip to Williamsburg. First of all, the ability to zoom in without losing the quality of the shot is incredible. He took pictures of the flags at the top of buildings 1/4 mile away and details were visible that weren't by the naked eye at that distance. Macro mode worked great. I took extreme close-up pictures of small parts of the Christmas decorations that almost look 3-d. We tried the videomode on a moving horse-drawn carriage that was nice since the clip-clop sound of the hooves could also be heard. Is it the quality of a real video camera - no. But it will still be a nice memory of the trip without having to carry two different cameras. We tried the night-time mode for infantrymen lit only with gas lights. As long as we positioned ourselves properly so the gas lights illuminating the men, we got some decent shots.
Taking snaphots of our grandkids (who are active) is never easy with any camera, but at least you know whether you picture turned out so you can take some more. With film cameras, I always took multiple shots to make sure one turned out and then had to pay to develop all of them. My suggestion for shots that you can't live without is to use the option of taking 5 quick pictures in a row. We have used this for taking pictures of blowing out birthday candles. These sequenced shots can be cute for the photo scrapbookers out there!
This camera can be used as a point and shoot with ease! Directions are clear and you can take pictures immediately after you you've put the batteries in. However, if you want more from a camera, you've also got it with this one. We kept the instruction book with us as we toured Williamsburg and could easily figure out how to use all of the modes we wanted to try. Many instruction books are not as easily understandable.
Do go ahead and buy yourself at least a 128 mg. SD card as well as rechargeable batteries and charger, if you need one. You can even buy filters for this camera if you want to. We plan to invest in some filters before we head out to Alaska this summer.
Finally, remember the zoom ability you have with this one for the price! If you are a traveler and like us don't have or want to use the skill required to use a manual SLR, this should get you some shots your point and shoot 35 mm. camera can't get you!
Rating:
Summary: A Point and Shoot That Does So Much More...
Review: Before purchasing our first digital cameras, my wife and I did a heck of a lot of homework. We finally settled on the Fujifilm A205 for my wife to carry around in her purse, and the Fujifilm FinePix S5000 for me -- as I am a bit more serious about photography. I wanted something that gave me the feel and many of the features of an SLR, but I didn't actually want to deal with either the price or bother of an SLR. After doing about a month of research, I purchased the FinePix S5000 and it is the perfect solution. If you read the other reviews, you'll learn about many of the terrific features of this fine camera, but I'll mention a feature I didn't really realize until I brought it home and played with it for a few weeks. The adapter ring that forms the barrel around the lens allows me to use professional filters. It tells you that right there in the manual that you can use one filter with the adapter ring, but it's buried under all sorts of other technical information. I'm surprised that Fujifilm doesn't do more to promote this fact because this is a HUGE asset. The only reason I can think of as to why they don't is because there are so many incredible features of this terrific camera. As for filters, I've since purchased four different ones -- all size 55mm to fit the adapter. The general use UV filter (mostly for protection) and a Polarizer (to lessen glare on sunny days) were a great place to start. I also purchased two other filters to compensate for indoor light. The flash on the S5000 isn't particularly strong, so it doesn't work all that well from more than 15 or 20 feet away. This is important because if you're in a school auditorium (remember, I have 6 kids -- so I'm there often) with fluorescent lights overhead, the pictures can turn out slightly green if taken from a distance. This does not happen when up close because the flash overwhelms the ambient flourescent light. But when my kids are on stage, for instance, they turn slightly greenish. This is no fault of the S5000 -- it's simply a characteristic of any camera taking pictures under most household or office light. It happened on the time with our old camera. I bought an FL-D filter which dramatically lessens greenish effect from fluorescent light. I also have an 80A filter that compensates for the same problem that comes when taking pictures from a distance under traditional home-type incandescent light bulbs. I imagine you can use any brand you want, but each of my four filters is a Tiffen and can be bought online or from many camera stores for about $10 to $15 a piece. This makes the S5000 truly unique. I have not found another point and shoot (non-SLR) camera that has this capacity to use professional filters. You can't use more than one filter at a time, but I'm so tickled that we can use any at all that this is a small issue of concern. If you're really ambitious, there all all kinds of filters that do everything from soften a picture to create really neat special effects (like starbursts with every point of light). This brings an amazing flexibility to the S5000. I also bought a Fujifilm TL-FX9 1.5x telephoto lens which I can attach to the adapter ring, effectively raising my optical zoom from 10x to 15x. This is a nice feature, but the 10x standard optical zoom is such a monster zoom that I rarely use the additional 1.5x telephoto lens except when I'm watching my kids on stage from the audience or something like that. As noted in other reviews, ignore the 2.2x digital zoom, because you'll probably never use it. It is disabled when you're shooting at 6 megapixels (if you're confused about the 3.1 mp versus 6.1 mp, read the descriptions about the amazing Super CCD) so I never am able to use the 2.2x digital zoom anyway. But unless you've had a telephoto lens on your old camera, the 10x zoom will overwhelm you for most purposes anyway. And if you really need more, buy the TL-FX9 telephoto lens that turns your optical zoom to 15x. I purchased my TL-FX9 through an outside vendor at Amazon and it worked out great. One last thing, don't forget to invest in a good printer. All this camera technology means nothing if your printer doesn't do its job. I bought the Canon i960 at the same time as my camera and couldn't be happier with it when using the Canon Pro paper. The prints are amazing and truly duplicate the quality of processing you get in most neighborhood retail stores where most film is developed. If you're a serious amateur who doesn't want to break the bank, I highly recommend the Fujifilm S5000. I absolutely LOVE it.
Rating:
Summary: Great Camera for the 1 Camera Family
Review: This camera is a real money savor for a family that can only afford 1 camera! Along with the F5000 (a real bargain now) this camera allows a user to learn photography from full auto to full manual without the high expense of film and processing. You don't even need a Video Camera! The vast majority of video that I take of family and other cute stuff are very short in duration. This camera does 30 frame per second (that means it's like TV, without any jerky movement or lost frames) and the clips are already fully digital and ready to transfer to computer or display to tape. Put a lot of short clips together and you have the same thing you would get from a camcorder only it's all in one camera! Hot Shoe - Unfortunately, the S5000 does not include a hot shoe. That's the only real problem with this camera. The quality of the photos in the S7000 is tremendous. We stopped doing film photos a few years ago when a local processing company destroyed the only two rolls of a friends wedding back east. Naturally, after that the memories of the trip were gone! They only appologized and moved on! With digital, we have never been disappointed. A major plus of the S5000 is the 10x OPTICAL zoom! (Ignore the digital zoom, it just degrades the quality of the photo anyway!) The S7000 has a 6x Optical zoom but twice the photo size. The S5000 is also significantly smaller than the S7000, and may be easier to use for someone with a smaller hand. Both the S5000 and the S7000 are, in my mind, two excellent cameras for the typical family! And a real money saver! I especially like the little graphic in the viewfinder that reminds you that there might be some camera shake and to hold the camera steady! Very cool camera!
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