Fuji FinePix S5000Fuji's latest electronic SLR offers a full 10x optical zoom lens.<<Optics :(Previous) | (Next): Shutter Lag & Cycle Time Tests>> Page 6:Exposure & FlashReview First Posted: 10/01/2003 |
Exposure
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Exposure control on the S5000 is fairly straightforward, with a range of exposure modes to suit any experience level. A Power/Mode dial on top of the camera puts the S5000 into either Record or Playback modes, with an Off setting that powers down the camera. Once in Record mode, the main exposure modes are all accessed via the Exposure Mode dial, with options of Manual, Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority, Program AE, Auto, Movie, and Scene Program. In full Auto exposure mode, the camera controls all aspects of the exposure, leaving you in charge of zoom, flash mode, and any special drive settings. Scene Program mode offers a handful of preset shooting modes, set up for specific situations. Once in Scene Program mode, the up and down arrow keys cycle through Portrait, Landscape, Sports, and Night Scene modes. Portrait mode biases the exposure system to prefer larger lens apertures, to reduce depth of field and help your subject stand out against cluttered backgrounds. Landscape mode does the opposite, giving greater depth of field to keep foreground and background in focus. Sports mode biases exposure towards higher shutter speeds, while Night Scene mode enables exposure times as long as two seconds. (Program mode shutter times are limited to 1/4 second and higher.)
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The remaining exposure modes on the dial offer a range of manual control options. Program AE lets the camera control shutter speed and aperture, but gives you control over all other exposure variables. You can also bias the exposure toward a faster shutter speed or greater depth of field. Simply pressing the up and down arrow keys cycles through a range of equivalent exposure settings. Aperture and Shutter Priority modes both offer limited control, letting you adjust either the lens aperture or shutter speed while the camera picks the best value of the other variable. In both modes, the up and down arrow keys adjust the setting you're controlling. An exposure readout on the LCD reports whether the resulting shot will be under- or overexposed, showing one or both of the exposure variables in red. Thus, you have a chance to adjust the setting. Finally, Manual exposure mode offers total exposure control, letting you select both aperture and shutter speed together. In Program, Shutter Priority, and Aperture Priority exposure modes, the Exposure Compensation adjustment lightens or darkens the overall image from -2 to +2 exposure equivalents (EV) in one-third-step increments. Exposure times range from 1/2,000 to 1/4 seconds in Program and Aperture Priority modes, and to 2 seconds in Shutter Priority and Manual modes.
By default, the S5000 uses a multisegment metering system, which bases the exposure on readings taken from 64 zones throughout the frame, taking both brightness and contrast into account. The camera also offers Average and Spot metering modes, accessible through the settings menu. Average metering reads the entire scene and bases the overall exposure on the average value. Alternatively, Spot metering bases the exposure on a reading from the very center of the frame (good for off-center or high-contrast subjects). If you're not sure of the exact exposure to use, an Auto Exposure Bracketing option can snap a series of three images at different exposure settings, making it easier to get a good exposure in critical shooting conditions. You can set the exposure step size for these series through the Record menu, with options of 1/3, 1/2, or 1 EV units between steps. The camera captures one image at the normal exposure, one slightly underexposed, and one slightly overexposed.
In any of the nonautomatic exposure modes, the camera's ISO sensitivity setting can be adjusted to 200, or 400, regardless of the resolution setting. Selecting the 800 ISO equivalent forces the camera's resolution to one megapixel because the camera uses Fuji's Pixel Data Coupling to achieve the high ISO value with minimum noise. (This feature combines data from groups of four pixels at a time, trading off resolution in order to achieve lower image noise.) The Auto ISO setting automatically adjusts sensitivity from 160 to 400 equivalents, though the maximum setting depends on whether the flash is in use or not. (The camera will limit the ISO to lower values when the flash is being used, to reduce image noise.)
The S5000 has a full range of color balance settings, selected through the White Balance option of the Record menu. Choices include Auto, Daylight, Shade, Daylight Fluorescent, Warm White Fluorescent, Cool White Fluorescent, and Incandescent settings. In addition to white balance, a Sharpness adjustment lets you control the in-camera sharpening, with options of Hard, Normal, and Soft. A FinePix Color option offers Standard, Chrome, and Black and White color settings. (The Chrome adjustment increases contrast and saturation.) For delayed exposures, the S5000's Self-Timer mode offers a 10-second countdown between the time the Shutter button is fully pressed and when the shutter actually fires.
Flash
The built-in, pop-up flash on the S5000 operates in one of six modes, all accessed by pressing the Flash button (left arrow key). Modes include Auto (lightning bolt icon with an "A"), Red-Eye Reduction (eyeball icon), Forced On (lightning bolt), Forced Off (lightning bolt with a slash), Slow-Synchro (lightning bolt with an "S"), and Slow-synchro with Red-Eye Reduction (eyeball with "Slow" beneath it). Auto, Forced On, and Forced Off are pretty self-explanatory. Red-Eye Reduction means that the camera fires a small pre-flash before the full flash, to reduce the occurrence of the Red-Eye Effect. The Slow-Synchro modes combine the flash with a slow shutter speed and are good for night subjects because they allow more ambient light into the image. (This helps avoid the common syndrome of a ghastly white subject in front of a pitch-black background so common in flash shots from low-end cameras.) A small release button on the left side of the flash (as viewed from the rear) releases the flash from its compartment. Note that the flash must be popped up in order to change its operating mode. A brightness adjustment accessed through the settings menu increases or decreases the overall flash power from -0.6 to +0.6 EV in one-third-step increments.
Movie and Sound Recording
The S5000's Movie mode captures moving images with sound at 320 x 240 pixels, at 30 frames per second. (Only one resolution/quality option is offered for movie recording.) Movie recording stops and starts with a full press of the Shutter button, and a timer appears in the LCD monitor to report the available recording time. Movie exposures are fully automatic, with no adjustments available for exposure compensation, white balance, or color effects.
Accessed via the Playback menu, a Voice Memo mode lets you record short sound clips to accompany still images. Voice captions can last as long as 30 seconds.
Continuous Shooting
The S5000 really shines in the continuous-shooting department, offering a range of high-speed shooting modes, all selected by pressing the Drive Mode button on top of the camera and cycling through the modes with the left and right arrow keys. The available modes are Top-5 Frame, Auto Bracketing (discussed above), Final-5 Frame, and Long-Period Continuous Shooting.
Perhaps the most interesting of the continuous modes are the ones called Top-5 Frame and Final-5 Frame. Top-5 Frame captures five consecutive frames at intervals as brief as 0.25 seconds. After the series is captured, all images are displayed at the bottom of the LCD screen as thumbnails while they are being recorded to the memory card. Final-5 Frame mode captures as many as 40 frames at the same five-fps frame rate while the Shutter button is held down. The camera then records the last five frames of the series, recording what happened just before you released the Shutter button. Final-5 Frame mode is thus especially handy for capturing fleeting moments. If you're like me, you always recognize the perfect expression on your child's face or the perfect pose by your pet a fraction of a second after it's gone. With the Final-5 Frame feature, I can finally capture all those previously-missed moments, since the camera effectively reaches back in time to grab what I was looking at up to a second before I released the Shutter button.
For more extended rapid-fire shooting, Long-Period Continuous Shooting mode works only in Auto exposure mode, and automatically sets the image resolution to one megapixel. What you gain though, is the ability to capture up to 24 seconds of continuous action, albeit with a longer interval between frames of about 0.6 seconds. (That's about 40 frames, at a rate of about 1.7 frames/second.)
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