Fujifilm Finepix S9100 9MP Digital Camera with 10.7x Wide-Angle Optical Zoom

I have used this camera now, for over a year (bought in March of 07) and I am completely satisfied with it. It performs well, in automatic mode, in my wife's hands and yet it has the complete range of controls that I require. In fact, the S9100 gives you everything you can ask for, from full auto to full manual (that includes manual focus, with the option of magnified center).

Shots taken in fully automatic mode seldom need any adjustments, in Photoshop and even then, usually only a slight exposure or brightness adjustment may be required.

It's easy to get to the controls that I use most. One button press and a turn of the wheel stops down/up. Two button presses and you can select 2 (or 10) seconds delay, for shooting time exposures on a tri-pod, without requiring a remote shutter cable. Also, a variety of scene modes makes setting up for certain common scene types a snap. A couple of presses of the Display button and you can overlay a cross hatch, to help you keep your image level. One button switches between viewfinder and the rear LCD display. In short, although there are many possible options, you should find the S9100 very easy to use and fast to adjust to specific situations. If you have any problems in this area, it might be that there are so many possibilities that learning all of the shortcuts might take a week or two.

Speaking of the rear LCD display above, made me think of the fact that the rear display tilts down about 45 degrees, to allow for shooting overhead and up 90 degrees, to allow for shooting, while holding the camera low, as with certain large format cameras.

The image quality is great at ISOs up to 400. Even above that, it's better than all but the most expensive dSLRs. There is no noticeable barrel distortion or other lens issues, common with extreme wide angle or telephoto lenses.

Although I seldom use video recording with the S9100, I must admit that its video recording capability is more than acceptable. The only thing that it doesn't do in video, is HD. The main thing that it does that most other non-dSLR cameras won't do, is zoom, while filming. That's thanks to the manual zoom feature. Oh, yes. Speaking of video, the S9100 doesn't require an expensive fast memory card, in order to shoot unlimited video. Just use the cheapest (name brand) Flash memory card that you can find. It will work just fine.

Speaking of memory, there are two memory card slots - one for Compact Flash and one for xD-Picture Card. The Compact Flash slot is Microdrive compatible. With 4 rechargeable NiMh AA batteries, you can shoot what seems like forever. That means that you can shoot all day, without having to carry additional batteries or memory.

This camera functions very much like the more expensive dSLR cameras, but without the interchangeable lenses. But, with a 10.7X optical zoom and 9 megapixels, there is very little that you can't do with the S9100 that you can do with a dSLR. I would call it a great compromise camera, except for the fact that you have to make no real compromises.

Guess what? You can have it all.

Amazing digital camera for the price. It takes wonderful photos if you take time to read the manual throughly. Do not buy this camera if you simply want a point and shoot. This is meant to give you all the nice features of a DSLR with a reasonable price tag attached. The only con with this camera is picture noise when using a higher ISO. If you primarily want to take indoor photos then I suggest buying an external flash such as the Sunpak 383 to go with it.

Hope this helps!

The Fuji 9000 family is a great camera for individuals looking for "near" entry level SLR performance with a great fixed lens along with decent movie capability. The SuperCCD offers excellent well balanced images and the manual focus ring is extremely responsive.

Just pray that nothing goes wrong with camera, Fuji doesn't stand behind their product or warranty. I had a knob break off from the camera during normal use (switching from between modes). I had used the camera almost daily for 4 months and the unit was still under warranty.

After shipping the unit back to Fuji I recieved a bill several weeks later stating the fault was caused by impact damage (load of c%*p) and I had to pay $120 to get my camera back.

This is in stark contrast to my experience with Panasonic customer service, where I've recieved a replacement camera in as little as 5 days from them under their warranty policy.

very nice camera
pictures are amazing
has everything I need
easy to use

The camera is fine as long as nothing goes wrong. Fuji has the worst customer service I have ever delt with. They pass you from one person to another and do everything they can not to help you. Be prepared to deal with the worst customer service in the business. I really hope this helps you.