Fujifilm S5100 Zoom Review

The S5100 employs a powerful Fujinon 10x optical zoom lens, it's equivalent to 37-370mm on a 35mm camera. When the camera is powered down the lens retracts inside the camera.

The S5100's digital zoom is essentially an in-camera crop without interpolation. To use it, you must shoot at less that full resolution; 1.4x digital zoom is possible at 1600x1200, 1.8x at 1280x960 , and 3.6x at 640x480. The focusing range in wide angle is from 3.0 ft. to infinity, in telephoto from 6.6 ft. to infinity. The Macro mode covers from 0.3 to 6.6 ft (W) and 3.0 to 6.6 ft (T). The aperture range is f/2.8-8.0 in wide angle and f/3.2-9.0 in telephoto, both in 10 steps.

The S5100 is equipped with a low-light focus assist illuminator. This blue-green lamp will illuminate your subject when the ambient lighting gets too low, the effective range is up to 2 m depending on subject. The AF assist is not effective when the zoom is set beyond the 6x telephoto position, it works best in wide angle focal lengths.

The focus mode is selected by a button on the top-left side of the camera. Press the button to select Single-AF, Continuous-AF or Manual focus. Flip the switch to the LOCK position to prevent accidentally changing focus modes.

Included with the S5100 is the AR-FX5A lens adapter, it screws on to the lens base and allows the lens to extend inside of it. This adapter lets you attach auxilliary wide angle and telephoto adapter lenses and 55mm filters to the camera, acts as a lens shade, and also serves to protect the lens.

The eye level finder is a tiny, high-resolution (115,000 pixels) 0.33-inch color LCD with a magnified eyepiece. It has dioptric adjustment and displays all the same information and menus as the large color LCD display. Below the EVF is the control button to toggle between the EVF and LCD displays.

The manual popup flash has an effective range in wide angle of 1.0 to 16.4 ft and in Telephoto from 2.6 to 14.8 ft. Flash modes available are: Auto, Red-eye reduction, Forced flash, Suppressed flash, Slow Syncro and Red-eye reduction + Slow Synchro.

On the back is a 1.5-inch color TFT LCD monitor for image preview, review and accessing the camera's menus. In the upper right corner is the zoom lens buttons. Above the EVF is the "F" (Photo Mode) button for changing image size/quality, ISO speed and color mode. The EVF/LCD button toggles the display screens. The 4-way controller lets you navigate menus and select images in playback mode. The "Left" button toggles the Macro focus on and off and the Flash modes are controlled with the "Right" button. In the center is the MENU/OK button which toggles the Menu on/off . While ON, the menu selections are navigated with the 4-way and the OK button makes selections. The DISP/BACK button is used to escape from menu operations, in Record selects the LCD monitor information ON/OFF or selects the four framing grid lines, and in Playback toggles between Text display ON/OFF and Index of last nine images in tiny thumbnails.

On top of the handgrip is the Power / Record / Play switch and shutter release.

Drive mode and Exposure compensation buttons

And the Mode Dial, allowing you to quickly select from: Scene Program (Portrait, Landscape, Sports, Night), Movie, Auto, Program AE, Shutter priority, Aperture priority and full Manual.

On the side is the speaker, USB 1.1 port, the DC INput jack for an optional AC power adapter and an Audio-Video Out port allows connection to a TV for playback, the signal format is selectable for NTSC or PAL standard.

The S5100 is equipped with a xD-Picture Card slot and is supplied with a 16MB xD card. It's compatible with any xD card from 16MB to 512MB.

Power is supplied by four standard AA type batteries, alkaline, NiMH or lithium. Using alkaline type Fuji claims you can capture 200 frames with LCD. Using 2300mAh NiMH type you can capture 400 frames with LCD on.

Needless to say, we highly recommend the use of NiMH rechargeable batteries - they're reusable, more powerful and will save you money and keep batteries out of your local landfill.

This isn't a Fujifilm accessory but if you need to trip your shutter with a cable release here's a custom made snapon bracket that will do the job. It works on the FinePix S5000, S5100 and S5500 models.

The bracket comes with a 20-inch cloth covered cable as well as a epoxy covered tip to protect the shutter button. The standard color is actually black and has about the same texture like the camera body but it's also available in blue, orange, red or yellow and brown. It cost $29 including shipping worldwide and can be purchased from Thomas Greiser directly.