Fujifilm Finepix E900 Review

Review Date: May 19th 2006

Leave a Comment about this Review

Introduction

The Fujifilm Finepix E900 compact digital camera has one of the highest megapixel counts currently available, 9.0 to be precise, via its 1/1.6 inch 5th Generation Super CCD HR. The E900 also features a 4x 32-128mm zoom lens, 2 inch LCD screen and an optical viewfinder. The Fujifilm E900 is principally aimed at the more experienced photographer, with a full range of exposure modes including fully manual, support for the RAW file format, manual focusing and ISO 80-800. The Fujifilm E900 aims to improve on the speed of its predecessor, the E550, by offering a start-up time of 1.3 seconds and near instantaneous shutter response. The Fujifilm Finepix E900 has a lot to offer on paper, but does it realise its true potential? Find out in our latest review.

Compare Prices

Features

The Fujifilm Finepix E900 has a 9.24 MP megapixel, 1/1.6 inch CCD that delivers 9.0 effective megapixels. There are a range of image sizes (3,488 x 2,616 (9.12 million) / 3,696 x 2,464 (3:2) / 2,592 x 1,944 / 2,048 x 1,536 / 1,600 x 1,200 / 640 x 480) which are recorded as JPEGs. There is also a RAW format option (3,488 x 2,616 pixels). The camera has a 4x zoom lens equivalent to 32-128mm on a 35mm format camera. There is also a 7.6x digital zoom should you feel the need to use it. The camera is supplied with a 16MB xD-Picture Card.

The Fujifilm Finepix E900 offers a full range of creative exposure modes (Programmed AE, Aperture Priority AE, Shutter Priority AE, Manual) plus 4 different scene modes (Natural Light, Portrait, Sports, Night Scene) and an Auto mode. The maximum aperture is f/2.8 (wide) - f/5.6 (tele), and the shutter speed range is 15 sec. to 1/2,000 sec. There are 5 ISO speeds ranging from 80 to 800 and an Auto option. There are 6 different White Balance presets to choose from (Fine, Shade, Fluorescent (Daylight), Fluorescent (Warm White), Fluorescent (Cool White), Incandescent), plus Automatic and Custom settings. The camera offers exposure compensation in ± 2 in 1/3 EV steps.

The Fujifilm Finepix E900 has a normal shooting mode, 2 second or 10 second Self-timer and 3 different Continuous modes (Top 4 (max 1.5 frames/sec, up to 4 frames), Final 4 (max 1.5 frames/sec, up to 4 frames), Long period (max 0.6 frames/sec, up to 40 frames at 9mp (N)). There are 3 different colour effects available (B&W, Chrome and Standard) and 3 sharpness adjustments (Hard, Standard and Soft). The Macro setting allows you to focus on subjects that are as close as 7.5cms at the 32mm wide-angle lens setting. The camera offers 3 auto-focus systems - Center AF, Multi AF, Area AF, Continuous AF and Manual AF. 3 exposure metering systems are available - multi, spot and average - based on a 64-zone TTL metering system. The built-in flash offers 6 different modes (Auto, Red-eye Reduction, Forced Flash, Suppressed Flash, Slow Synchro., Red-eye Reduction + Slow Synchro.) and the range is 30cm-3.7m for the wide-angle lens setting, and 60cm-1.9m for the telephoto lens setting.

To compose your images, you can use the LCD monitor or the optical viewfinder. The Fujifilm Finepix E900 has a 2 inch Amorphous silicon TFT screen which has 115,000 pixels and offers 100% scene coverage. There is also a real-image optical viewfinder which offers approximately 77% scene coverage. The Fujifilm Finepix E900 can record movies at 640 x 480 or 320 x 240 pixels at 30 fps with sound. Video is recorded in the AVI (Motion JPEG) format. You can also record up to a 30 second sound clip in the WAV format. A histogram is available in both shooting and playback modes by pressing the Exposure Compensation button. The Fujifilm Finepix E900 supports the DPOF and PictBridge printing standards, and it connects to a computer via USB 2.0.

The Fujifilm Finepix E900's dimensions are 102 (W) x 63 (H) x 34.4 (D) mm, and it weighs 200g without the battery and storage card fitted. The camera is powered by 2 x AA-size Alkaline batteries or 2 x AA-size NiMH batteries (included). There is a plastic tripod mount in the centre of the bottom of the camera.

Finally, the standard box kit contains a 16MB xD-Picture Card, 2 x AA-type Ni-MH rechargeable batteries, Battery charger, Hand strap, USB cable (mini-B), A/V cable, Owner's manual and a CD-ROM containing USB driver, FinePix Viewer, ImageMixer VCD2 LE for FinePix and RAW file converter LE. Note that you can only store 3 images at the highest quality JPEG setting on the 16MB xD-Picture Card. You will therefore need to invest in some memory cards to store your images on.

PhotographyBLOG is a member of the DIWA organisation. Our test results for the Fujifilm Finepix E900 have been submitted to DIWA for comparison with test results for different samples of the same camera model supplied by other DIWA member sites.

Compare Prices