Overall Product Rating:

Pros: Great features, incredible video mode, feels pretty solid.
Cons: Macro mode could be a little bit better.

Recommended: Yes
Has Owned Product: 3 Month(s)

Comments:
The difference between my old Fuji cameras (this is my third) and the S5100 is night and day. If you are like myself, moving from point-and-click to wanting more control over your photography then this is a great mid-range camera for you.

When you want to point-and-click it's still right there and the auto-focus and exposure work great. Switching to manual settings are fairly simple and are placed very conveniently on the camera body. The instruction booklet does a pretty good job explaing what everything does. I can't stress how great the 10X zoom is and it zooms pretty quickly. The camera also comes with a threaded adaptor so you can play around a bit with filters. Oh yeah, battery life. This camera uses 4 good old fashioned AA batteries and I am thoroughly impressed by the amount of run time I get from a set of freshly charged batteries.

About the video mode, fantastic! Two minor cautions: (1)It has a bit of trouble in dim light but in most lighting situations does just fine. (2)It will fill your memory card very quickly! Buy a 1GB card if you plan on using the video.

I have only two small gripes with the camera. When trying to photograph a small object (like a bee or a flower bud) using macro-mode, the camera has a little trouble focusing on it instead of past it. They're may be something I've overlooked that allows you to narrow the focus target of the camera. The other gripe is with the manual focus option. Manual focus is very, very slow and a bit cumbersome.

Overall for the $250 pricetag, I am absolutely thrilled with my S5100.