Mention the phrase 'digital camera' and too often the immediate image that comes to mind is of a lightweight, flat, rectangular piece of hardware that carries an uncanny resemblance to those throwaway instant cameras picked up at airport terminals.
Yet if you're serious about your photography and want all the advantages of the digital revolution allied to the kind of control and creativity associated with traditional film SLRs, then the S5500 Zoom will come as a welcome breath of fresh air.
Following on from the success of its predecessor, the S5000 Zoom, Fujifilm has retained the black SLR design, complete with a firm grip and adapter ring. The 10x optical zoom is also retained and you can use either the electronic viewfinder or the 1.5-inch LCD screen to compose your shots.
An extra megapixel has been added (now making a total of 4) for much greater definition and the resulting quality of both indoor and exterior photos is impressive. A macro mode will allow you to achieve good close-up results from a range of 10cm and a built-in self-timer allows you up to ten seconds to position yourself in the frame.
If you feel confident enough you can manually set up both aperture (f2.8 - f9) and shutter speed (three seconds to 1/1000 of a second) to your liking, or opt for fully automatic. Similarly, there are five scene modes (Portrait, Landscape, Sports and Night Scene as well as the inevitable Auto) and five flash settings, including red-eye reduction, forced flash and slow synchro.
Additional refinements mean the white balance (seven modes), ISO settings (four modes) and metering can be varied for optimum conditions and photos can be saved both as JPEGs and as RAW files. The S5500 Zoom is also DPOF friendly for printing just the frames that you want to keep, in the order you want them.
If you're worried during action events about capturing the right moment, you can now rest easy thanks to the continuous shooting mode that comes as standard. Even better, there's a new movie capture facility (at 640 x 480 resolution) at 30 frames per second, complete with sound through the attached microphone. How much you can record depends on the size of the xD-Picture Card you want to splash out on - it comes with a paltry 16MB card but you can go up to 512MB.
Power is supplied by four AA batteries, so it's in your interest to invest in some rechargeable batteries if you're intending to be out filming regularly. PictBridge software comes on the enclosed CD. You can print out your pictures either bypassing or via a PC (a USB cable is supplied) and an A/V OUT socket even lets you display your photos on a TV. You can further crop your images using the zoom editing on the display menu.
