Fujifilm Finepix E900 Review
Review Date: May 19th 2006
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Image Quality
All of the sample images in this Review were taken using
the 9M Fine quality mode, which gives an average image size
of around 4Mb - 5Mb.
Noise
There are 5 ISO settings available on the Fujifilm Finepix
E900 which you can select at any time if the camera is in
any shooting mode. Here are some 100% crops which show the
noise levels for each ISO setting:
The slowest settings of ISO 80 and 100 don't have any discernible
noise. ISO 200 shows a little noise and a very slight softening
of detail. At ISO 400 there's more noise and blurred detail,
but it's still a very usable speed. ISO 800 has pretty obvious
noise and loss of detail, but the overall effect is actually
quite pleasant and I wouldn't hesitate to use it if there
wasn't any other alternative. Overall an excellent performance
by the E900.
Sharpening
Here are two 100% crops which have been Saved as Web - Quality
50 in Photoshop. The right-hand image has had some sharpening
applied in Photoshop. The out-of-the camera images are soft
at the default sharpening setting of Standard and benefit
from some further sharpening in a program like Adobe Photoshop.
Alternatively you can change the in-camera sharpening level
to Hard, Standard or Soft to suit your taste.
File Quality
The Fujifilm Finepix E900 has 2 different file quality settings
available, with Fine being the highest quality option. Here
are some 100% crops which show the quality of the various
options, with the file size shown in brackets.
RAW Format
The Fujifilm Finepix E900 has offers RAW format as well as
JPEG files. Unfortunately the software supplied with the camera
only allows you to do a straight conversion from RAW to TIFF,
without being able to adjust the white balance, exposure or
other parameters, which is the main benefit of shooting in
RAW. The E900's .RAF files are recognised by the latest version
of Adobe Camera RAW, though, so if you have Adobe Photoshop
CS2 you will be able to alter the RAW file and save it as
a JPEG or other file format. Here are some 100% crops which
show the quality of the RAW file after conversion to a JPEG
in Adobe Camera RAW.
Chromatic Aberrations
The Fujifilm Finepix E900 handled chromatic aberrations very
well during the review, with only limited purple fringing
present around the edges of objects in certain high-contrast
situations, as shown in the examples below.
Macro
The Fujifilm Finepix E900 offers a Macro setting that allows
you to focus on a subject that is 7.5cms away from the camera
when the lens is set to 38mm wide-angle. The first image shows
how close you can get to the subject (in this case a compact
flash card). The second image is a 100% crop.
Flash
The flash settings on the Fujifilm Finepix E900 are Auto,
Red-eye Reduction, Forced Flash, Suppressed Flash, Slow Synchro.,
Red-eye Reduction + Slow Synchro.. These shots of a magnolia
coloured wall were taken at a distance of 1.5m.
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Auto Flash - Telephoto (128mm) |
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And here are some shots of yours truly. Both the Auto or
the Digital Red-Eye Reduction option caused a small amount
of red-eye, and the overall exposure is perhaps slightly over-exposed.
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Flash On (100% Crop) |
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Flash - Red-Eye Reduction (100%
Crop) |
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Night Shot
The Fujifilm Finepix E900 maximum shutter speed is 15 seconds
in the Manual exposure mode, which is fine for night photography.
The shot below was taken using a shutter speed of 15 seconds
at f5.6 at ISO 80. I've included a 100% crop of the image
to show what the quality is like.
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100% Crop |
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Overall Image Quality
The Fujifilm Finepix E900 produced images of excellent quality
during the review period. The 9 megapixel images were quite
soft straight out of the camera at the default sharpening
setting and ideally require some further sharpening in an
application like Adobe Photoshop, or you should change the
in-camera setting to Hard. The Fujifilm Finepix E900 dealt
very well with chromatic aberrations, with limited purple
fringing effects appearing only in high contrast situations.
Macro performance is slightly below average, allowing you
to focus as close as 7.5 cms away from the subject. The RAW
format is only worth using if you own Adobe Photoshop CS2,
as the supplied software only allows you to save as a TIFF
with no image adjustments. The built-in flash worked fairly
well indoors, with a small amount of red-eye and slight over-exposure.
The night photograph was very good, with the maximum shutter
speed of 15 seconds long enough for most situations. The 1/1.6
inch, 9 megapixel sensor used in the Fujifilm Finepix E900
was fine at ISO 80-200, good at ISO 400 and still usable at
the fastest speed of ISO 800, a very good performance for
a compact digicam.
 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.
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