![]() ![]() There’s a pop-up flash with a GN of 7.5, which is quite powerful for a compact, and the flash modes consist of forced flash and red eye+slow synch. ![]() The SD card goes in the same compartment which has the consequence that when opening the lid to change the card, the batteries come loose, unlike if a Li-ion battery had been used with a plastic clip. This is thanks to the X5 using 4xAAs, all of which fit in underneath and make the camera much heavier than it looks. Don’t worry about handling though, because the hand-grip dominates the camera. There’s just enough room to squeeze in a familiar set of joy-pad controls and some menu buttons with enough space left for your thumb. On the back of the camera the choice aspect is extended, with the availability of an EVF to compliment the 2.7” LCD. There’s optical image stabilisation – thank god, face and smile detection, a decent ISO range and control modes for the beginner and the enthusiast – Scene modes or Aperture and Shutter Priority, the choice is yours. As mentioned, there’s the aspheric ED 27mm (equiv) lens with the big 15x zoom and enough resolution so that if 4:3 aspect ratio images aren’t your thing, you can shoot at 3:2 and still bring home 12Mp resolution. There’s a nice list of features here, wrapped up in stylish package. The X5 represents GE’s first step out of the comfort zone of compact territory so let's see how well it does. On top of that there’s lots of firmware based features such as smile/blink/face detection, HDR-shadow boosting and scene detection. Yes, price is going to be the key issue here, because for around £130 you get the solid handling of a bridge camera, the long reach of a 15x telephoto lens and the packed detail of a 14Mp sensor. There are times when looking at cameras when you wonder how on earth so much technology can fit into one small space or, as is the case with General Electric's first bridge-style camera, how you can put in so many features at such a low price. The front of the camera is dominated by the lens and the large handgrip that holds four AA batteries. GE X5: Click on the thumbnail for the larger image. ![]()
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