Fujifilm Finepix S9100

Steve’s Digicams - 5/1/2007 - reviews the 9 megapixel Fujifilm Finepix S9100 / 9600 and writes, “High-end digicams and low-end dSLR’s have a great deal of overlap both in terms of price and functions. You’ll find many similarities, including standard zoom range, mechanical zoom ring, sensitivity range and extensive exposure and processing controls. But the dSLR’s tend to offer better image quality (especially at high sensitivity settings), the flexibility of interchangeable lenses, more robust continuous shooting, superior support for RAW images, faster AF, and the benefit of an eye-level optical viewfinder. The S9100 has its advantages, including high-quality VGA-sized movies, overhead and waist-level shooting courtesy of its tilting LCD, intensified viewfinder image in dim lighting, menu operation and image playback on its eye-level EVF, built-in macro/super macro modes and freedom from dust on the image sensor.”

ImagingResource - 4/16/2007 - reviews the 9 megapixel Fujifilm Finepix S9100 / 9600 and writes, “I had a lot of fun shooting with the S9100. All it lacks is optical image stabilization. That may seem like a big omission these days, but the S9100 does surprisingly well without it, capturing usable images with a handheld shutter speed as low as 1/5 second. The lack of optical image stabilization does make the S9100 a very affordable long zoom, and it won’t disappoint anyone who wants to learn how to take great pictures. All the controls are there, most of them just a button away.”

LetsGoDigital - 4/16/2007 - reviews the 9 megapixel Fujifilm Finepix S9100 / 9600 and really likes the metering system. They continue to write, “The Fujifilm FinePix S9600 leaves me with mixed feelings. The camera itself is fine and feels exceptionally solid. It really seems like a camera for the serious user. This is mainly because of the lens with the real zoom ring and the fine zoom range. The FinePix S9600 will surely please both wide-angle as well as tele-lovers. Also the large amount of buttons indicates a camera for the advanced photographer. This group benefits more from buttons than a button-friendly classification. Those who know more about photography will change a setting quicker to take the right picture. Even though some buttons can be on a strange spot, you will get used to this quickly after some hours of working with the camera.”

PCAuthority - 3/27/2007 - reviews the 9 megapixel Fujifilm Finepix S9100 / 9600 and writes, “The trouble for Fujifilm is that, at $749, the S9600 is less than $200 cheaper than true D-SLRs such as Nikon’s D40. The Nikon can’t match the 9-megapixel rating of the S9600, with a mere 6-megapixel sensor, but it offers much faster performance and better image quality.”

Unbeatable - 3/6/2007 - reviews the 9 megapixel Fujifilm Finepix S9100 / 9600 and writes, “We were very impressed by the improvements on the Fuji Finepix S9600, although quite minor and minimal. The S9500 digital is a great model and with the improvements we would certainly recommend this camera. If you already have the S9500 it is probably not worth trading in, but if you are after a cheaper alternative to a digital SLR, then the Fuji Finepix S9600 has got to be the one.”

Photoxels - 2/27/2007 - reviews the 9 megapixel Fujifilm Finepix S9100 / 9600 and writes, “The Fujifilm FinePix S9100 is a well-designed long zoom digital camera with excellent handling and fast operations. It has excellent proportions and successfully captures the DSLR-like handling. A couple of often-used features are still menu-bound and would gain much in practical usability if they were more directly accessible. All in all, a very well designed and thought-out digital camera which feels and handles as you would expect a professional digital camera to.”

XyzComputing - 2/7/2007 - reviews the 9 megapixel Fujifilm Finepix S9100 / 9600 digital camera and writes, “The S9100 does have its problems though. The design features almost no changes from the last generation and it would have been nice if some things could be addressed. Some of these include a non-locking battery latch, Fujifilm’s insistence upon XD cards when SD is the clear winner, toggling RAW is buried in the menus and cannot be quickly accessed, and slow focus in low light. The camera needs to keep changing if Fujifilm wants to keep it competitive and while it is a good deal at the current price, it would be nice to see a slight decrease just so we can avoid the tempation of going with a true DSLR.”