Re: digital camera advise needed.

I have an S5200. 10x optical zoom, uses 4x NiMh AA batteries (can use alkaline if you have to). I've taken over 500 picture with fully charged NiMh. In spite of the styling, the lens is autofocus.

Though there supposedly is a method to manually focus the camera, it involves finding the right picture mode, then holding one button while using one of two other buttons to focus. If you have something closer than the object to be taken, the autofocus butts it's head in. I'm sure other makers have the same issue with autofocus, but for a camera approacing "prosumer", the controls suck IMHO.

No hot shoe or external shutter. Lighting in a basement with shiny metal really exposes (freudian slip) the low light level constraints. PITA to set the timer for EACH shot.

It does have autowhite balance and a selection of lights, from tungsten, fluorescent, cold white and warm incandescent. The CCD is good. It uses xD memory cards, which isn't a bother if you use the USB port to access the card. Tip - USB 1.0 ports and a 1GB xD card make for LONG downloads, over 25min. The Fuji software for image viewing sucks.

You can get external filters, but the fixed lens lenscap hates certain kinds or combinations.

You can set the camera delay between pictures to compensate for slow memory cards. Get the -H speed rated cards. Almost no shutter delays.

You can take bracket shots, 3 shots taken exposure-wise, above, at, and below the camera's guess. That's a quite usable feature.

Pop up flash is limited and annoying. When it opens, it shakes the camera. The camera doesn't pop it up when you enable flash, but when you hold the button down for focusing on the object.

It does do movies, but not very well.

Good learner's camera, good outside, but the controls are a soup sandwich.

Epictitus wrote:
1. Fuji Finepix E550 - fast shutter = takes just under a second from pressing button to take a picture snap. High resolution, crappy lenses - distorted and fuzzy images. Playback of images slow. Made good 640x480 movies of unlimited length. Out of box memory card useless and had to buy 1GB card. Slow data transfer (USB1) of images to computer (ie.>20 minutes for 1GB transfer). First one I bought was defective out of the box. Excellent battery life 2xAA rechargheables give 300-600 shots. Better lower light pictures, less shaky images due to fast shutter. Crappy LCD display hard to see in daylight. LCD is fixed so if you are taking weird angle shots (I get a lot of those in shop environments) you can't see the picture untill its too late. Plastic dust cap on USB ports falls off and gets lost. If you tap the power button it turns ON or OFF - bad when the thing tries opening up in your pocket or case. Overall feel - a light duty, cheap plastic.
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