Fujifilm FinePix S5700 review

Fujifilm's S5600 impressed us enough to give it a Budget Buy award when we reviewed it in February 2006.

Its successor is only subtly different. Once again, there's a 10x zoom lens, a top ISO speed of 1600 and manual control over exposure and focus. There are the usual increases to resolution (from 5 to 7 megapixels) and screen size (from 1.8in to 2.5in). However, the really remarkable difference is the price. The S5600 was a bargain at £230, but the S5700 costs just over half that.

It's small and light for an SLR-styled camera and. Although the four AA batteries add to the weight, they also explain the fantastic battery life. Considering its petite design, it's extremely comfortable to hold, with an unusually long rubberised handgrip.

This is the second Fujifilm camera we've seen with both xD and SD card slots. The former is useful only if you already own xD cards, as SD media is cheaper and faster. However, neither gave great performance, with SD capturing a shot every 2.3 seconds. This is adequate, but below average by today's standards. Continuous shooting was particularly poor at 0.53fps, although dropping the quality setting increased this to 0.76fps.

Manual focus doesn't invoke an enlarged centre portion to help make accurate adjustments, so isn't much use. Manual exposure is better, with an exposure value (EV) display to help choose settings, although the histogram display merely reflects the brightness of the onscreen preview and not the exposure settings. The f/3.5 to f/13.6 aperture range is more generous than on most compact cameras, though, and is available throughout the zoom range.

The S5700 and Kodak Z712 IS are closely matched in features and price, so we put them head to head for image quality. They were hard to separate for detail, with the S5700 performaing better in some tests and the Z712 IS in others. The Z712 IS gave the best colour reproduction overall, with the S5700's vivid colours looking a touch oversaturated at times. However, it wasn't enough to cause any serious concerns and, in isolation, colours looked excellent.

Automatic settings had a tendency to jump to unnecessarily fast shutter speeds and ISO speeds when shooting in dimmer conditions, resulting in more image noise. However, noise levels were still significantly less than in the Z712 IS's images, and shots at ISO 800 and even 1600 were often excellent. This goes some way towards compensating for the lack of image stabilisation, as it allows faster shutter speeds to be used without spoiling photos.

The S5700's image quality is typical at this price, but the 10x zoom and manual exposure controls are unprecedented extras. The slow performance, lack of image stabilisation and awkward manual focus mean it's worth spending more on Panasonic's DMC-FZ50 if you can afford it. However, for creative photographers on a tight budget, the S5700 is fantastic value.