I recently bought it for my trip to London and Paris. I was slightly hesitant because there was a lack of reviews, but I don't regret it now. I love all of the features. The lack of image stabilization doesn't bother me like I thought it would. I'm a huge Canon fan, but the Fuji S700 is impressive in terms of color clarity and low noise. Granted there is a large amount of it at ISO1600, but that isn't uncommon.

It was just the right size for me. I think the S6000 would have gotten too cumbersome with all of the walking around I did. I also like how the zoom is encased in a nonmobile shaft. Less areas to get dirt and dust into keeps the lenses nice and clear. Less parts to break.

Jhk..

Hi JHK.

Glad you're enjoying the S700/ S5700 - great little versatile camera for the price.

There are some reasonable pro reviews online now at;.

Dpexpert.com.au.

Cnet.com.au and cnet.com (both different).

And in particular,.

Dcresource.com with a full balanced techie review.

They all state the camera has it's flaws (like most) but come out overall in the positive, especially features and value for money.

I've found the pics so far to be excellent in most conditions, but it's still important to only use the high ISO settings when absolutely necessary. We still need to hold the camera real steady (helped by the excellent handgrip) and use a lower ISO setting to keep the IQ up and the noise reduction down. I mainly use the P mode instead of Auto.

Cheers.

Rob..

I had a FinePix 3800 that was a great camera and still works after almost 7 years of use, but approximately 18 months ago I upgraded to the S5200. I was able to take incredible pictures with this camera, but now it will not even turn on. I am extremely disappointed with the short life of the S5200...

Sorry to hear about your S5200, Ann. My old S3500 is still going strong and no probs so far with the new S5700/S700. There's now an excellent full coupon of the S700 at Steve's Digicams. Hope the Imaging Resource does one soon as their reviews are the best on the net!! (grovel, grovel) Cheers.

Rob..

I have purchased this camera after my S3800 died. This was an impromptu purchase without any research. I have finally used the camera yesterday to take some practice shots. All in all, I am very disappointed in them. With my S3800 all I had to do was point and shoot and end up with an excellent picture. With the S5700, my pictures are fuzzy, and not good quality.

Am I doing something wrong? I had very high expectations, as I loved my S3800, and the S5700 is double the megapixels and zoom. Thanks! Beth..

Hi Beth.

I was very happy with the S5700 on auto when just pointing and shooting outdoors in bright light. The auto mode keeps the ISO (sensitivity) down low around ISO 64 or 100. The problem arises when taking shots in more demanding conditions i.e. low light of fast action. Just using 'auto' causes the camera to raise the ISO to very high values like 800 or 1600. These should only be used as a last resort for getting that 'snap' without flash for small prints etc.

I noticed the flash shots were quite noisy and smeary - looking at the ISO info on play or the PC I found the camera nearly always pushes the sensitivity up to 800 even with flash!.

The secret is to use the 'P mode' where you can still shoot in a fairly auto manner but you can press the little 'F' button and set the ISO to Auto400 where the upper limit of 400 is set. This works well for most shooting bearing in mind the camera must be held still in low light or using long zoom. I, like you initially thought the 5700 was worse than my S3500 in some situations, but the old 3500 and 3800s had only ISO 100 with low noise and mainly suitable for snaps outdoors. The S5700 is designed to do lots more. If you lock the 5700 to ISO 100 it will perform as well or better than the older camera in normal light. The higher modes are there if you need them.

It can be fun after a while.

Having more megapixels doesn't neccesarily make a beter pic - just can be printed bigger or cropped more. The problem is that long zoom (eg 10x) cameras use pretty small CCD imagers to keep the lens affordable and not too big otherwise we'd all be lugging huge expensive lenses around. The S5700 is a great little ultra zoom for the $$$ with lots of great features to use and learn about. Hang in there and you'll start to get good shots. I'm learning all the time having only just updraded from a 'point and shoot' model.

Cheers.

Rob..