Fujifilm FinePix S5500 4.0 MP Digital Camera - Black (Kit w/ 37-370mm Lens)

I have bought this camera as a replacement for my much used & loved FinePix S5500, which no longer attaches to my tripod & is beginning to show it's use, but I've had such sucess with it I'm buying another exactly the same.
This really is a super camera, It can take high quality images in poorer or artificial light without the need of the flash, so you can snap away without disturbing others. The flash is there of course for times when it is needed.
This camera has 10x Optical Zoom, and you can also fit to it a telephoto lens allowing you to at least double the zoom. Enough say to take good images of football players during a match.
The digital delay can cause problems here, the camera does have the settings for the more advanced photographer to take fast moving images without problem, but an easy way is to take images using the Continuous Shooting Button & the auto setting, I usually use the setting that quickly records three images, giving me a fair chance of getting at least one good image out of the three.
If you use the powerful zoom, camera shake does become a problem so use a tripod to avoid this .
I am very much a novice photographer, but the images my camera has taken have often been superior to those taken by colleagues with more expensive cameras.

I'm not that good a photographer but I find I take better pictures with a camera with a viewfinder than one with just an L.C.D. I read a few reviews on different cameras and decided that the Fuji Finepix s5500 was the one for me and it was one of my better decisions!
This camera does everything you could want and more. The menu is easy to navigate and the camera is extremely user friendly. It doesn't have huge megapixels ( 4.0 ) but the other features more than make up for this.
It is simple to switch between the viewfinder and the LCD so reviewing your photos is easy. It is easy for a beginner to use or, for the more experienced ,some of the features make it mmore like a 35mm SLR.
I love this camera and for the price I paid I would recommend it to anyone upgrading from a basic point and shoot model.

I've had this camera for about two years now and it's never let me down. The controls are very easy to master and it takes very good pictures on fully auto. With rechargable battries it low on power consumption even while using zoom to the max. If you find your using lots of batteries just turn the screen off for taking your photos and just use it for viewing what you've taken. The only down side I've found is when taking video you can't use the zoom. You have to set it before taking the video and stop and restart to zoom in. Highly recommended!

It's really a very nice little camera indeed. It's halfway between a basic digital camera and the complexity of a full-blown SLR.

Unless you like gadgets for their own sake, it has everything an amateur user will ever need. It is a very capable little camera. It takes a very good picture. It handles a wide variety of light conditions. It has a very useful zoom, and is packed with other useful features. For instance, it will take single shots, groups of three shots in quick succession, or shoot continuously; very useful when photographing a moving subject. The macro facility for closeups is useful too.

Best of all, it will adjust all its settings automatically if you like, making it a very useable "point and shoot" device, while you come to terms with the instructions manual, which is comprehensive, and the wide variety of settings which you can adjust manually.

It is quite light, small and neat, and comes easily and comfortably to the hand. It is easy to pack and to carry. Maybe it's not quite pocket sized, but it's not far off. (It makes my old Fuji film SLR seem very big and clunky!) I'm extremely pleased with it; and at eBay prices, it is a real bargain. You really do get a lot for not very much money.

But while the camera is very nice indeed, do watch out for the software. I ended up having to re-install my operating system after my one and only attempt to install the Fuji CD. The install procedure is not intuitive, there is an infuriating "information" window which persistently comes up and blocks vital items you really need to see (no obvious way of removing it, either), and after I'd finished the install, my computer would not reboot at all. So first I ended up in the BIOS, telling my computer to reboot from the CD (lucky I'd got a legit copy of the OS with code numbers and all!), then trying to use the "repair OS" option (it wouldn't), then finally having to do a full re-install, which of course then meant a lovely evening setting up all the drivers again, and re-installing all my other software; everything from word-processor to browser to design tools to security and cleanup software. GRRRRR!

Fuji tell you not to attempt to download photos from the camera before you've installed their software. Actually you can. The computer treats the camera as a USB Mass device, and you can copy pictures over using Windows Explorer, which is what I am doing now. The best use for the Fuji CD would seem to be as a frisbee, or maybe as a target for an airgun, clay pigeon style.

The S5500 is about as close to a digital SLR as you can get while still retaining the ease of use that you get with a point & shoot camera. I read loads of reviews before making my purchase and was not dissappointed. It feels very well built, the controls are very very easy to use and the 10x zoom is awesome. I captured loads of motorsport pics and airshow pics both using auto modes and playing around with shutter/aperture priority modes, you gan get stunning photos with ease and reviewing them with the large display means you can pick your best ones to print. This is small enough to carry everywhere all the time, seems very robust and fits well in the hand, buy one you will like it.