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S9100 |
Fujifilm FinePix S9100 Review
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Review
Date: Feb 27, 2007 |
Category:
Prosumer
- Advanced Amateur
IMAGE QUALITY
The Fujifilm FinePix S9100 is a digital
camera targeted to advanced amateur photographers.
It has 9.0 effective megapixels resolution on
a 1/1.6 in. 6th 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 love the 28mm wide-angle coverage and find
the overall image quality of the Fujifilm S9100
to be very good.
| 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. Though some
long zoom digital cameras have a higher zoom capability,
it is the 28mm wide-angle on the S9100 that 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 more-than-enough
300mm tele coverage. The lens is threaded and
has a 58mm diameter. It accepts an optional WL-FXS6
Wide Angle Lens (for a 35mm equivalent of 22mm).
| Macro |
 |
6.2mm, Manual, Pattern, Custom
WB
2.5 sec., F5.6, ISO 80, Macro |
The Fujifilm S9100 can focus as close as 10 cm
(3.9 in.) in Macro mode and 1 cm (0.4 in.) in
Super Macro mode.
| Auto White Balance
Indoors |
 |
 |
| AWB |
Custom WB |
As the above two pictures show, the Auto White
Balance (AWB) has a slight yellow cast under artificial
tungsten light. The S9100 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 |
| |
 |
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| ISO 400 |
ISO 800 |
| |
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| 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.
Despite advertised stated improvements, there
does not seem to be any observable differences
between the 5th and 6th Gen. Super CCD HR in the
S9100. The low-light performance also does not
unfortunately approach the exceptional low noise
capability of the Fujifilm F30 (probably due to
the higher pixel count).
| Chromatic
Aberrations |
 |
CA (purple fringing) can be visible in everyday
shots. In the shot above, CA is visible at the
position delimited by the red square at top left
(reproduced at 100% crop at bottom right).
| Long Shutter
Speed |
 |
6.2mm, Manual, Pattern, 25
sec., F5.6, ISO 80
Custom WB, Macro, Self-Timer (2 sec.), Tripod
Used |
The Fujifilm S9100 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 25 sec. at F5.6.
Since the longest shutter speed in PASM goes
only up to 4 sec., I have to switch to Manual
mode. I use the Exposure Indicator to help me
get an approximation of when correct exposure
is achieved. Note that the Exposure Indicator
gives only an approximation and some bracketing
is necessary to obtain correct exposure.
To eliminate camera shake, I place the camera
on a tripod and use the self-timer (set to fire
after 2 sec.). Since the normal minimum focusing
distance is 40cm (1.3 ft.), I switch 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 25 sec. exposure.
The pictures in the Fujifilm FinePix S9100
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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