Fujifilm FinePix S9000 9 Megapixel Bridge Camera - Compare Digital Camera and Accessory Prices

The closest you'll get to an SLR without the SLR price.

Strengths: Awesome picture quality and color tones. Solidly built to withstand some abuse. Almost instantanious start up time. Long battery life, easy to operate, tons and tons of features!

Weakness: Menu's can be kinda confusing if you don't read the manual first.

I absolutely love this camera! I got this camera because I had a lot of gift cards saved up, and because a friend of mine has a S7000. I've used her S7000 before and loved the picture quality so I figured that the S9000 could only be better and I was right! -- I took my time researching it (it does cost a nice chunk of cash, but is worth every cent!) I read all the reviews, looked at all the...
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I absolutely love this camera! I got this camera because I had a lot of gift cards saved up, and because a friend of mine has a S7000. I've used her S7000 before and loved the picture quality so I figured that the S9000 could only be better and I was right! -- I took my time researching it (it does cost a nice chunk of cash, but is worth every cent!) I read all the reviews, looked at all the sample pictures, and finally settled on it over the Panasonic Lumix and the Nikon's. Everything about this camera is amazing!

First off let me start with the body. It is definitely well made, is quite heavy, and I'm sure will last me many years even under the abuse that I put it through. Another great feature is the fold-out LCD screen. It may not seem like all that big a deal, but trust me, it allows you to get some very cool angles that otherwise would be nearly impossible to make. It does have a hotshoe mount for attaching external flashes, however the built-in flash is very nice and will probably be more than enough for most non-pro photographers. The one physical feature that I love about this camera above all others is the manual zoom lens! All the other digital cameras that I've used have all had the motorized zooms and so I thought I wouldn't like this manual one. However, it has become the nicest feature on the camera to me. Since there are no motors, you can zoom in/out at whatever speed you desire. No waiting to zoom in order to get the perfect shot. Also, since the lens is already fully extended, the time from turning the camera on, to when it's ready to take a picture is under a second! You're never gonna miss another awesome picture because your camera didn't turn on fast enough!

Alright, onto the actual picture quality. The pictures that this camera takes are sipmly amazing! 9MP on its highest setting and boy does it show! You take a picture and you can zoom in on it without losing any detail. It has a varity of different picture modes for the camera. Two of my favorite are the natrual light mode and the anti-blurr mode. When you shoot with nautral light mode, the picture comes out exactly the way that your eyes saw the physical scene. You do loose a little image quality when you do this, but the natrual color tones more than make up for it. Anti-blur mode simply speeds up the shutter so that you can take pictures without them appearing blurry. I have taken pictures, zoomed in, out of a car window going 35mph and they are still clear, even fairly sharp. Finally, the video mode on the camera is also amazing. It records video at 640X480 at 30fps along with Mono Audio. The video quality is unmatched by any other digital camera...and since the lens is manual zoom, you can zoom in and out while video taping.

This camera has so many features that are all so nice. I could write another 5 pages about them and still not be done. Fujifilm has made me a dedicated customer and I think that if you try out this camera you'll love it as well. If you can afford it, I would definitely highly recommend this camera!

By musickid22 - Jan 3, 2006

Fuji s9500 in Denmark

Strengths: Very sharp images in Good light conditions, highly impressive colordynamics

Weakness: A little disapointing macro performance - no AS

I bought this camera only because of the specifications witch on paper is very impressive. The lack of AS wich i have on my old Olympus superZoom is a little problem to me as i would like to make some bird fotography Its not present on the Fuji and that is in some ways a shame, as you will find out that high iso's not will stop you from you from shaking. Dont use higher than 400 iso - use longer...
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By sordahl - Sep 19, 2005

The convenience and power of an SLR without the technical bother.

Strengths: Strengths: Manual and easy-to-reach electronic control. The manual zoom and the "F" key make for quick use of major features.

Weakness: Weaknesses: The AF sometimes takes a long time to work, particularly in low light, even though it has its own light beam to illuminate the (dark) subject.

This is my second digital camera, bought when my Fuji Finepix S602Z Zoom suffered some strokes and died over a three-day period (after only about 70,000 photos). The manual zoom of this camera is much better than the older camera; and there is a quick electronic doubler for electronic amplification. Further, manual zoom allows for independent focus lock and exposure lock without having to let go...
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This is my second digital camera, bought when my Fuji Finepix S602Z Zoom suffered some strokes and died over a three-day period (after only about 70,000 photos).
The manual zoom of this camera is much better than the older camera; and there is a quick electronic doubler for electronic amplification. Further, manual zoom allows for independent focus lock and exposure lock without having to let go of either setting to adjust the zoom control.
There is one feature missing with the S9000, however, and that is the "preview" choice given to save or delete a photo just taken; this allowed getting rid of patently poor shots without ever putting them in memory, such as where someone has his eyes closed, or has escaped from the picture, etc. With the new camera my "preview" choice is only whether to save the photo in the image finder 3 seconds, 1-1/2 seconds, or not at all. My editing must come later. Also, I must wait either 3 or 1-1/2 seconds for the next shot if I want a preview at all. I do want the preview, so I have settled on the 1-1/2-second image display.
Oh, and the LCD viewer, hinged as it is, turns out to be a quite useful feature. One can hold the camera in difficuult circumstances to get unusual angles and not have to compromise to see the shot in the LCD. (I use the eye-level viewer most of the time, however.) Both viewers are virtual TTL, giving another major advantage of an SLR. The image-finder seems to give grainier views than the final product turns out; when shooting at low light with telephoto (as I was the other night at an auto auction), I thought I was getting very grainy stuff, but the appearance on my computer screen is sharp.
The new flash is better than the old; it is farther from the lens and seems to be less severe about making shadows. And I can use the flash at my option with a button -- no menu necessary. Yet when I want the flash the controls are literally right under my thumb.
What with new memory technology, I have put in a 6GB microdrive and 1GB Picture Card which lets me shoot at higher densities than I did with the S602Z. Also, this camera processes higher densities much faster than did the S602Z. And, I'll have much-expanded movie capacity.
My experience with this camera has been about one month and something over 1,000 photos, so I am adapting to the control systems.
Like the macro control on the S602Z, this camera has an easy-to-use button for close and super-close shooting. It seems to work fine, but it also seems I must use it to get focus at distances where the old camera got good focus without use of the macro. Again, a matter of adapting.
The 9 MP are real, and I get high-density pix at low light without compromise.
In sum, I like this camera. I used SLRs for many years, finally setting aside the inconvenience of multiple lenses and putting on a mega-zoom lens which did it all but meant hauling the weight and bulk around. This new camera gives me the power of an SLR without the weight, and the versatility of an SLR without the machinations of multiple lenses; yet it has a solid feel and weight to it which I like. It is a real camera; and since I learned to shoot on a 1952 Zeiss Ikon before the days of automatic anything, I really like the ergonomically-excellent control I get with the S9000. I can access menus easily, and use them readily and intuitively. I can point and shoot if I like, but I can do much, much more, which I like better!

By heres2howe - Jan 25, 2006

LOOKS AND FEELS LIKE AND SLR, BUT...

Strengths: UNTIL CLOSE INSPECTION, THE CAMERA LOOKS AND FEELS LIKE AN SLR. IT HAS A MUCH HIGHER ISO (UP TO 1600) AND 9MP...MORE THAN ANY OTHER IN ITS CLASS.

Weakness: WHILE FUJI HAS ITS OWN VERSION OF COMPENSATION, IT STILL DOES NOT HAVE A TRUE OPTICAL STABILIZED LENS. ALSO THE SUCCESSIVE SHOTS ARE NOT AS FAST AS SOME COMPETITION.

MY KODAK DX 7590 JUST WAS NOT DOING IT FOR ME. SURE IT WAS AN EASY ENOUGH CAMERA TO USE WITH SOME ADVANCE FEATURES...BUT IT HAD ITS SHORTCOMINGS...NO MANUAL FOCUS OR ZOOM, POOR NIGHT PHOTOGRAPHY, ETC. SO, I WENT HUNTING...TO GET AN SLR OR NOT, THAT WAS THE QUESTION. WHEN LOOKING AT SLR QUALITY OF PHOTOS, NOTHING BEATS THEM, WHATEVER BRAND. HOWEVER, THEY ARE EXPENSIVE AND CANNOT DO MANY OF THE...
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By sokoloff - Jan 23, 2006

My rating is based on what you get...

Strengths: Image Quality, Handling, Extremely low noise at iso 80 & 100. Start up & shot to shot speed is fast. No shutter lag. Great manual zoom ring. Quick focusing most of the time.

Weakness: Useless at iso 1600 (for me), "F" button under utilized

My rating is based on what you get for the price. A DSLR may be a little better but equipped with a comparable lens even the cheapest would cost hundreds more. For all but the most demanding applications the S9000 will do just as well. I have 40+ years as a serious amateur photographer. I have owned 4 SLR Film cameras and an Olympus C4000 Digital. The C4000 takes fine photos but I became...
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By tbcass - Dec 24, 2005