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S5200 |
Fujifilm FinePix S5200 Review
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Review
Date: Nov 8, 2005 |
Category:
Beginner
to Serious Amateur
IMAGE QUALITY
The Fujifilm FinePix S5200 is a digital
camera targeted to Beginner and Serious Amateur
photographers. It has 5.1 effective megapixels
resolution on a 1/2.5 in. 5th Gen. SuperCCD HR
image sensor. The Fujinon lens is a 38-380 mm
(35mm format equivalent) F3.2(W)-F3.5(T), 10x
optical zoom.
We find the overall image quality of the Fujifilm
S5200 to be excellent.
| 10x
Optical Zoom |
 |
 |
Wide-angle
6.3mm
(38mm, 35mm equivalent) |
Telephoto
63.0mm
(380mm, 35mm equivalent) |
In the above pictures, we show the coverage for
38mm and 380mm. The lens is threaded and has a
55mm diameter.
| Macro |
 |
6.3mm, Manual, Pattern, Custom
WB
1.3 sec., F3.2, ISO 64, Macro |
The Fujifilm S5200 can focus in Macro mode to
as close as 10 cm (3.6 in.).
| Auto White Balance
Indoors |
 |
 |
| AWB |
Custom WB |
As the above two pictures show, the Auto White
Balance (AWB) is pretty good (slight pinkish cast)
under fluorescent artificial light. The S5200
allows you to set a Custom (manual) White Balance,
which gives excellent results. As expected, AWB
works very well in natural light.
| ISO
Comparisons |
 |
| ISO 64 |
| |
 |
 |
| ISO 100 |
ISO 200 |
| |
 |
 |
| ISO 400 |
ISO 800 |
| |
 |
|
| ISO 1600 |
|
The 100% crops
above (area delimited by the white rectangle)
demonstrate the low noise at ISO 64, 100, 200
and 400. Noise starts to be visible at ISO 800
(and quite visible at ISO 1600) but should not
be an issue in 4x6 in. prints.
| Chromatic
Aberrations |
 |
CA (purple fringing) is barely visible in very
strong highlights situations. In the shot above,
CA is slightly visible at the position delimited
by the red square at centre left (reproduced at
100% crop at bottom right) but not enough to be
a major problem. CA is generally not a problem
in everyday shots.
| Long Shutter
Speed |
 |
6.3mm, Manual, Pattern, 15
sec., F4.5 ISO 64
Custom WB, Macro, Self-Timer (10 sec.), Tripod
Used |
The Fujifilm S5200 provides a maximum long shutter
speed of 15 sec. in Manual Mode, making it possible
to take some nice night shots. Here I'm checking
out the presence of noise at long exposure (noise
usually increases the longer the shutter is left
open). As usual, I place Bamm-Bamm under my office
desk, in the shadows, to obtain a long exposure
of 15 sec. at F4.5. I use the extremely useful
Exposure Indicator to get a good approximation
when correct exposure is achieved. It's an approximation but I find it good enough. To eliminate
camera shake, I place the camera on a tripod and
use the self-timer (set to fire after 10 sec.).
Since the normal minimum focusing distance is
90cm (3ft), I switch Macro ON to allow me to move
in closer for a tighter shot. No noise reduction
is required to produce rich dark blacks, and so
no extra time is added to the 15 sec. exposure.
The pictures in the Fujifilm FinePix S5200
Photo Gallery page provide a good sample of
what the camera is capable of. I have provided
samples at 800x600 pixels (compressed to Quality
60/100 in Photoshop Elements) as well as the 2592
x 1944 pixels original size (click on the image
for the original version).
You can safely assume that most macro shots and
slow shutter speed shots required the use of a
tripod. Any image that is adjusted for levels
in Photoshop has "_adjusted" appended
to the file name.
I have defaulted the image size to 800x600 pixels.
For those who have their monitor resolution set
to 1024x728 pixels, everything should snugly fit
and you should not have to scroll to see the whole
image. If your monitor is set to 800x600 pixels
resolution, start the slide show and then scroll
to the right to position the image within your
screen width. Then, press F11 (if you are using
Internet Explorer) to switch to full screen mode,
and the image should fill your screen nicely.
Press F11 again at any time to switch your monitor
display back to normal mode.
To return to this page from the Photo Gallery,
click on the animated graphics of the camera.
Please open and download the original size version
only if you need to and only once
to your hard drive -- and save me some precious
bandwidth. Thanks!
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