Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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105 of 107 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
I love it!, May 4, 2006
For really serious photography, I use a Nikon D200 with the SB800 flash. But there are some times when I just want a small, lightweight camera in my pocket, and the Fuji E900 is perfect for that. Unlike most point and shoots, the camera comes on almost instantly, and the shutter lag is close to (but not quite equal) an SLR. My biggest complaint is the lack of a hotshoe for a hardwired external flash, so I wouldn't use the E900 indoors where a heavy flash is needed. I actually would only rate the E900 at a 4.5 because of this.
The optics are as crisp as any point and shoot that I've seen. There is a bit of chromatic abberation, particularly at wide angle, but it's not too noticeable in most situations.
A huge plus is that you have full manual control of your exposures if you want to or need to do that. In my opinion, a camera has to have that feature if it's to be used for serious photography. But if you just want to point and shoot and have the camera do everything, you can do that too.
Another minor objection is that the camera uses an xD card, so I could use any of the CF or SD cards that I already have. When you buy an xD card, be sure to get an Olympus Type H card, not the slower Type M.
Overall, a really nice little camera, especially for a little over $300.
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80 of 83 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fantastic Point and Shoot Digital Camera, March 12, 2006
After buying and trying several cameras over the last year, I can finally say that I've found the right camera for me. Beautiful pictures, fast action -- super-fast start up and minimal shutter lag, solid feel, and excellent zoom picture quality.
Additionally, it uses AA batteries (recommend rechargables), gets plenty of pix out of them and of course, there's 9 megapixels of info to play with.
I've only been playing for a week or so, but I've used in low-light restaurant situations, on the streets of New York at night, in the car and sitting on the couch at home all with no flash and the pictures look great. It's not a miracle-worker, but these are the best low-light pix I've seen.
Daylight and flash pix look amazing. Bright broad daylight pix in the park on 'Auto' mode turned out perfectly balanced. (love the Histogram feature in manual mode for balancing more complex shots - basically a small waveform monitor on the lcd screen. Awesome!)
Manual controls are a bit tough to memorize - focus requires touching two buttons - but what else to do with a point-and-shoot of this size?
But, it HAS all the manual controls - unlike most digital cameras of this size.
I've tried Olympus, Canon, Nikon, Pentax and even another Fuji. To say I am pleased is an understatement.
Is it perfect? Nope. Eats power. But, better to have more rechargeable AAs than to have to carry around a charger for a dang proprietary battery.
And, Consumer Reports is right, this camera has amazing image quality.
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76 of 80 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fuji E900 Best all-around ProAm Point&Shoot under $800usd, September 12, 2006
Strengths:
FAST.
OUTSTANDING in low light.
Good semi-wide angle/semi-fast lens.
Great battery type! (especially now that 2700Mah versions are available).
Great ccd and resolution.
Great ergonomics (tall enough to hold yet small enough for your pocket).
Weaknesses:
Menu needs to be straightened out (RAW should be grouped with the jpegs within the F button) and a manual focus button combo would have been great...I hope Fuji is listening! How about a USEFUL RAW utility (or at LEAST the ability to download one from the site!!)??
SLOW flash recycle time
No Autofocus assist light
No Image stabilization
No Programmable settings button.
Lens is only Semi Wide (32mm@f2.8 equivalent to a 35mm camera lens).
Wide angle macro & movie modes only (no telephoto in macro or movie mode)
Max XD Memory card is only just moving to 2GB.
(Should use the Olympus high-speed H-series XD for best movie perf).
No performance/quality probs.
Summary: This is a strong candidate for the serious amateur in need of a point and shoot for backups or vacation...It is also VERY easy to use, for the significant other of that serious amateur.
I studied medium to high-end point&shoots and prosumers for 6 months prior to buying the Fuji E900 in April of '06. While the E900 didn't have everything I wanted, in the end, it was the clear choice. the CCD (and sample image output), a real viewfinder, and the ergonomics were keys to my choice.
High resolution, moderately high level of amateur photographer type functions (read: manual settings, auto bracketing, and RAW), fast focusing, decent flash, macro mode, good low light ability, a mem-card (only) restricted movie mode, compact size, ergonomic shape, quality build, easy to use modes and ultimately, a real viewfinder.
The three finalists in my decision group were the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX1, the Canon S80, and the Fuji E900.
I have to say, the Lumix, with that beautiful Leica lens took some fantastic shots..but my God! does it have a noisy, and I mean NOISY ccd!!!! if you are only shooting indoors with the flash, and you can look the iso to 80, then it will reward you with incredible images! but this is not my reality. I originally had settled on the Lumix but that noisy ccd and a LACK OF A REAL VIEWFINDER (Panasonic are you listening??) were deal killers in the end. The Lumix is just about useless when you are outside in bright light, and with the sun at your back...a viewfinder is really key hear.
Moving to the Canon S80, it has a great lens as well, and does MUCH better with slightly higher iso numbers, but man, that soap bar is bulky! Its dimensions are not at all conducive to actually holding the camera stolidly. I did like the 1024x768 movie mode, but at 15fps the output looks inferior to the regular old 640x480@30fps of the Fuji. The S80 does 640x480 as to, but the ergonomics and weight/mass of the S80 sunk it..but at least it has a REAL VIEWFINDER (Panasonic, are you listening??). The S80 just felt dated. I think its time for Canon to step up with something new in the Point&Shoot department.
The Fuji E900, with the Fujinon lens had the poorest lens quality (IMHO) relative to the extremely high quality of the Canon L series lens on the S80 and that magical Leica lens on the Pani. That said, it is a fine lens that can hold its head high, especially in combination with that great ccd, excellent ergonomics, and a very complete set of features...the Fuji was a better choice for me. It is important to note that I chose this camera over those with image stabilization, and a focus assist ...I found the E900 to be superior to them even though it is not so equipped.
I really like the "Natural" program mode. With the 5th generation SuperHADD the colors are good and the low light capability is REALLY impressive. That mode (Natural) lets you get a lot of battery life out of the camera as it lets you preclude the flash A LOT. Note: the Natural Mode is really noisy so if you want to print anything bigger than 4x6 you should take a look at some sample output first (but keep in mind that getting the shot is better than missing it, even if it means a little more noise).
The 800 iso actually WORKS..sure it is a little noisy at that level...but we ARE talking about a $300 dollar point&shoot! Just amazing...It really is an amazing little camera. Kudos to Fuji for having the stones to stick the SuperHADD from the S9000 into a compact point & shoot! I really hope they evolve this little model more.
I was worried about the majority-plastic construction, but it is solid yet light weight, and so far, no complaints...in fact if it had been made completely of metal it would have probably made it substantially heavier.
The use of double-A (AA) batteries are great for the traveler.
It is important to point out that the gripes really are minor and amazingly fixable...if Fuji wanted to support this "fringe" camera a little more ( it IS so much more than the herd of 38mm-160mm equiv. cams out there). I think they could do a software and firmware update and fix 90% of my gripes. And I should also point out that my gripes are only there because the capabilities and performance of this camera just taunt you to want the whole amateur-shooting match. I mean to say, this cam has all the right parts and it does a damned good job of providing a DSLR user with most of the goodies he or she is accustomed to...while allowing your wife or husband to use it as the point and shoot that most people will use it for.
GRIPES:
I agree with some other reviewers, digging thru the menu to get to the RAW mode is just plain stupid...It belongs above the 9M JPEG setting on the F button!!!
Why couldn't they make the RAW format a lIItle bIt friendlier?? I suspect they hid the RAW mode from ready use because at 18M per pic, you cannot take even a SINGLE shot with only the onboard memory (16M)...which also seems silly.
Also, while the screen power-up button on the back is really handy for reviewing images (the lens stays parked to conserve the batteries), and other housekeeping, but when you try to power the camera back down (in this mode) via the same button...it actually causes a full power up and lens deployment to occur...what were they thinking?
This camera really NEEDS a 4G memory card...1G was fine when you were shooting with 2M to 4M sensor sizes, but this baby has a fantastic 9M sensor! It is impressive that Fuji was able to create a very small format sensor with such great performance: low noise; high dynamic range; excellent color; etc...it just begs to be shot in RAW..if if if... :-)
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