FujiFilm has earned its reputation for producing SLR-styled looking cameras. This S5600 is the latest edition to the S series which is distinguished by the long focal zoom lens. A great all rounder with a large number of exposure modes allowing for a great optical performance. And all for under £300 its great!
Also consider: Sony DSC-H1

FEATURES
PERFORMANCE
BUILD QUALITY
EASE OF USE
VALUE FOR MONEY
FINAL SCORE

Very good Camera

Reviewer: Admin, Billingham, England

This is a very good camera well worth the money. One problem, not the best for macro shots.

S5200/5600...Solid

Reviewer: Jeff80s, Vancouver, Canada

Over the past months of using this camera, I've come to realize that it carries more than its weight in photograph quality; I've seen SLRs with much worse quality and the Kodak Z-series of 'superzooms,' of which I used to own a Z740, is a complete let down. This camera keeps getting me the comment 'nice SLR' even though it's a 'hybrid' and I still enjoy nearly every minute of using it (if I'm already having a bad time, then it takes awhile to get me back up to OK). Quality is really good, especially on the 5 MP fine mode.

S5600, Perfect for the Glovebox

Reviewer: Alexsqueak1, Perth, Scotland

A great wee Camera to have with you anytime of the day, i never go to work without it in my bag. easy to use and light.
Get some rechargable batteries, Makes your day even better.
Try different modes and be amazed at the results. I feel this is a better Camera than some folk give it credit for the price.
I am not going to part with this wee beauty.

S5600 - excellent value

Reviewer: leigh557, Huntingdon, UK

The S5600 is a excellent intermediate camera between the pocket compacts and full D-SLRs, and at £135 (Feb 07) is hard to beat from a value-for-money viewpoint (although a 2Gb card is around half a much again).

S5600 - great value

Reviewer: noccer, Dublin, Ireland

This camera is a good little bargain. It is light, compact, and not too taxing on the 4 AA batteries.

The automatic pop-up flash can be annoying, i preferred the manual button on the S5000. Also the manual focus is really too slow to be of much use. Once light levels are fairly sufficient, the camera is quite capable of focusing itself though.

These would be the only 2 cons i can think of. I recently bought a 0.45x wideangle conversion lens and it offers very good results in conjunction with this easy to use camera.

this is a good camera that may provide a good grounding for those thinking of investing in a digital SLR at some stage further down the line.

S560, cracking little camera

Reviewer: Fujifan, Peterborough, UK

Ok, the S5600 is not a D-SLR, doesn’t pretend to be and never will be. That out of the way, perhaps we can look at what it actually is. The S5600 is a great SLR styled compact that give a hell of a lot of control over some parts of the photographic process. Sadly, it does lack some features that a ‘serious’ photographer may feel vital. The most obvious is manual focus. It does have manual focus but forget it, the method of holding down one button while using the zoom keys to set the focus is near useless especially while using an electronic viewfinder. The replacement, I believe, addresses this by having the focus/zoom ring similar to the S9500.

That’s it….. That’s all I have to moan about. The image quality is superb for a camera costing less than £200. The size and weight are nicely balanced and it feels right in the hand. The price means that most of the settings are found via menus rather than buttons, a bit slower I admit but more reliable.

S5600 - Great

Reviewer: boater rich, Gloucester, UK

A great camera for those that want SLR style features but aren't ready for an SLR price. The smaller body is also great where space and weight are issues, e.g. adventure sports where you may be carrying a lot of other kit.

I use it mainly whilst kayaking and it copes very well with the often poor lighting encountered on a winter river bank in the UK!

One final point, the ISO range is 64-1600 not 64-200 as quoted in the specs above.