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Fujifilm FinePix S9000 Review
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Review
Date: Nov 14, 2005 |
Category:
Prosumer
- Advanced Amateur
IMAGE QUALITY
The Fujifilm FinePix S9000 is a digital
camera targeted to advanced amateur photographers.
It has 9.0 effective megapixels resolution on
a 1/1.6 in. 5th Gen. SuperCCD HR image sensor.
The Fujinon lens is a 28-300 mm (35mm format equivalent)
F2.8(W)-F4.9(T), 10.7x optical zoom.
We find the overall image quality of the Fujifilm
S9000 to be very good to excellent, though not
approaching the exceptional low noise capability
of the F10.
| 10.7x
Wide Optical Zoom |
 |
 |
Wide-angle
6.2mm
(28mm, 35mm equivalent) |
Telephoto
66.7mm
(300mm, 35mm equivalent) |
In the above pictures, we show the coverage for
a 28mm wide-angle and 300mm tele. The wide-angle
is the kind of coverage we like to see in a prosumer
level digital camera. Also, the 10.7x optical
zoom brings far subjects close with a 300mm tele
coverage. The lens is threaded and has a 58mm
diameter.
| Macro |
 |
6.2mm, Manual, Pattern, Custom
WB
13 sec., F11, ISO 80, Macro |
The Fujifilm S9000 can focus as close as 10 cm
(3.6 in.) in Macro mode and 1 cm in Super Macro
mode.
| Auto White Balance
Indoors |
 |
 |
| AWB |
Custom WB |
As the above two pictures show, the Auto White
Balance (AWB) is pretty good (slight pinkish cast)
under fluorescent artificial light. The S9000
allows you to set a Custom (manual) White Balance,
which gives excellent results. As expected, AWB
works very well in natural light.
| ISO
Comparisons |
 |
| ISO 80 |
| |
 |
 |
| ISO 100 |
ISO 200 |
| |
 |
 |
| ISO 400 |
ISO 800 |
| |
 |
|
| ISO 1600 |
|
The 100% crops
above (area delimited by the white rectangle)
demonstrate the low noise at ISO 80, 100, 200
and 400. Noise starts to be visible at ISO 800
but is usable, and quite visible at ISO 1600.
This is much better than what's available in competing
models (ISO 1600 on the S9000 is equivalent to
ISO 400 on competing models).
| Chromatic
Aberrations |
 |
CA (purple fringing) can be visible in very strong
highlights situations. In the shot above, CA is
slightly visible at the position delimited by
the red square at centre left (reproduced at 100%
crop at bottom right) but not enough to be a major
problem. We have not found CA to be much of a
problem in everyday shots.
| Long Shutter
Speed |
 |
19mm, Manual, Pattern, 30
sec., F6.4, ISO 80
Custom WB, Macro, Self-Timer (10 sec.), Tripod
Used |
The Fujifilm S9000 provides a maximum long shutter
speed of 30 sec. in Manual Mode, making it possible
to take some nice night shots. Here I'm checking
out the presence of noise at long exposure (noise
usually increases the longer the shutter is left
open). As usual, I place Bamm-Bamm under my office
desk, in the shadows, to obtain a long exposure
of 30 sec. at F6.4. I use the extremely useful
Exposure Indicator to get a good approximation
of when correct exposure is achieved. To eliminate
camera shake, I place the camera on a tripod and
use the self-timer (set to fire after 10 sec.).
Since the normal minimum focusing distance is
50cm (1.6ft), I switch Super Macro ON to allow
me to move in closer for a tighter shot. No noise
reduction is required to produce rich dark blacks,
and so no extra time is added to the 30 sec. exposure.
The pictures in the Fujifilm FinePix S9000
Photo Gallery page provide a good sample of
what the camera is capable of. I have provided
samples at 800x600 pixels (compressed to Quality
60/100 in Photoshop Elements) as well as the 3488
x 2616 pixels original size (click on the image
for the original version).
You can safely assume that most macro shots and
slow shutter speed shots required the use of a
tripod. Any image that is adjusted for levels
in Photoshop has "_adjusted" appended
to the file name.
I have defaulted the image size to 800x600 pixels.
For those who have their monitor resolution set
to 1024x728 pixels, everything should snugly fit
and you should not have to scroll to see the whole
image. If your monitor is set to 800x600 pixels
resolution, start the slide show and then scroll
to the right to position the image within your
screen width. Then, press F11 (if you are using
Internet Explorer) to switch to full screen mode,
and the image should fill your screen nicely.
Press F11 again at any time to switch your monitor
display back to normal mode.
To return to this page from the Photo Gallery,
click on the animated graphics of the camera.
Please open and download the original size version
only if you need to and only once
to your hard drive -- and save me some precious
bandwidth. Thanks!
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