Fujifilm FinePix F900EXR Review
Introduction
The Fujifilm Finepix F900EXR is a new 16 megapixel travel-zoom compact camera with a 20x, 25-500mm zoom lens. Capable of auto-focusing in as little as 0.05 seconds, key highlights of the successor to the F800EXR include a 1/2 inch EXR CMOS II sensor, 8fps burst mode at full resolution, sensitivity up to ISO 12800, RAW image capture, wi-fi connectivity and full 1080p HD movies at 60fps. Other standout features include GPS functionality, a high-contrast 3 inch LCD screen, an intelligent digital zoom mode which doubles the telephoto range up to 40x, fast start-up and shot-to-shot times, a range of artistic filter effects, a customisable Function button and a built-in flash. The Fujifilm Finepix F900EXR is available now in black, red or blue for $399.95 / £249.95.
Ease of Use
The Fujifilm FinePix F900EXR is a larger-than-normal compact camera. It looks good on the outside with its slightly bulging lens eager to pop out and bring stuff closer for you to see. The slight grip on the right side curves to the grip of a curled forefinger while taking a photograph.
The top plate plays host to a discreet pop-up flash, silver shutter release button with a slim style zoom ring around it. The power button is located next to it and is flush with the body so you don't think that it's the shutter release by mistake. The same goes for the tiny Fn button. This button can be assigned a mode that you use more than anything else. If you're a slave to digital noise, then you might want to have it bringing up the ISO settings. You can also choose between the image size, quality, dynamic range, film simulation, metering (referred to as photometry), focusing modes, face detection and location information search. Whichever one you choose – and for whatever reason – it simply saves you having to enter into the menu systems.
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| Front | Rear |
In the past, Fujifilm were known for their very easy to use menus with simple language and intuitive UI. Throughout the years as more features and technology have become available, the menus have become bigger and with more complex language. For the beginner, this can be quite intimidating and could put them off using it. It's unlikely that a beginner would buy a camera like this anyway, but if it's the family camera that is being bought, making sure everyone can use it is a must. Now, before you look elsewhere, we're talking about certain features such as Photometry. This option is known to everyone else as metering. No-one else uses that term on a camera and this is because the word “metering” is a lot easier to understand. Photometry even sounds complicated and could put some people off without looking at what it means.
The Fujifilm Finepix F900EXR is a weighty number. It is small enough to go in your pocket, but you'd better believe that you'll know it's there. It seems very well made with any moving parts given some reinforcement. The flash pop-up system is mechanical with a release button on the side of the camera for it to spring up. The top right shoulder is host to a command dial. It's positioned in a way that's easy to see and operable by your thumb and index finger.
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| Top | Side |
One of the most interesting features of the Fujifilm Finepix F900EXR is the new sensor. There's a number of interesting areas of note. For example, the autofocus is a dual mode focusing system with Phase Detection and Contrast Detection AF. Fujifilm have put this on so that the camera can switch from one to the other depending on what the available light is like. You see, Phase Detection is faster at focusing, but Contrast Detection is more accurate in darker areas. The Hybrid AF system will automatically choose the optimal focusing system for the scene you're shooting.
Start up time from cold is incredibly fast. We managed to get the Fujifilm Finepix F900EXR powered on, focused and taking a picture in 1.6 seconds. That's great for those candid moments when out and about or when kids are around. There are a number of continuous shooting modes on the F900. Interestingly, Fujifilm say that the F900 EXR can shoot 8fps (frames per second) at full resolution, but there's no 8fps setting. Instead, you get 16fps which is shot at Medium setting and 11fps, 6fps and 3fps which are all shot at full resolution.
The Fujifilm Finepix F900EXR sports a 3 inch TFT LCD screen on the back which sits flush with the rest of the body. It utilises 920,000 dots (306,000 pixel) which is the highest specification currently. The menus are bright and clear which is good considering our previous concerns. There's only one menu available and it's accessed by pressing the Menu button on the back of the camera. The menu is split into two sections with three pages in each. You can scroll through the pages by pressing down or rotating the wheel around the navigation pad in a clockwise direction. Alternatively, you can press left on the pad which goes directly to the tabs of each page. You can then skip whole pages of options to get to where you want to be a lot faster. It's worth noting that if you do scroll through the pages, you can't access the set-up (blue spanner) menu. You have to go left into the tabs and scroll down that way. While only a niggle, it's little things like that which can frustrate you. Arguably it's not enough to put you off the camera, though.
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| Memory Card Slot | Battery Compartment |
Playback can be accessed whether the Fujifilm Finepix F900EXR is switched on or off. With the camera on, you can simply half press the shutter button (as though focusing) to go back to shooting. Images will appear full screen with no image data at all. Pressing the Disp button at the bottom of the camera will allow you to add various information to the screen. You can even get a histogram if you select the Detailed Information option. On top of that, it will show the ISO setting, aperture, shutter speed, film simulation, flash status, exposure compensation setting, date & time as well as dynamic range setting and the resolution.
In the box, you'll get a small plastic pack of paperwork which will include a basic manual to get you started. The full manual is found on the CD that's also located in the pack. It's available in various languages and so cuts down on printing, saving the trees. There's also FinePix Studio version 4.2 and a raw file converter for both Windows and Mac.
Below this pack, you'll discover the camera safely wrapped up with a lithium ion battery, charger, USB cable and a wrist strap. Companies don't offer memory cards these days, sadly, but the Fujifilm Finepix F900EXR does have an internal memory for storing a few photographs if you run out of external memory. It's worth noting that if you shoot at the highest quality, the camera will only store two photographs, so don't rely on it for anything important. It should only be used as a back-up plan.
Image Quality
All of the sample images in this review were taken using the 16 megapixel JPEG setting, which gives an average image size of around 5Mb.
Noise
The Fujifilm FinePix F900EXR has a sensitivity range from ISO 100 to 12800. At low ISO, photo quality is very good. Images are smooth, noise free and show realistic colours and edge definition. This continues through the lower settings. Now if we were to be ultra picky, looking at the pictures at full magnification shows a little noise showing through in the darker areas. At normal viewing, you won't notice anything though, so we're loathe to mark it down at this stage. Still, it doesn't bode well for the higher settings.
Viewing the pictures at normal distance is all right up until around ISO 800 where you'll really notice it. Noise actually starts to come through noticeably at ISO 400. with a slight smoothing of the darker areas to eliminate too much salt and pepper noise. ISO 800 shows a jump in noise presence as detail in the darker areas are becoming overwhelmed and starting to fail. The same can be said for the mid-range tones as they meld into one. Colour noise starts to interfere at this point too and edge definition is getting blurred.
ISO 1600 exacerbates the previous issues mentioned with a softening of edge detail as it starts to get taken over by salt and pepper noise. ISO 3200 is the top most setting that records images at full resolution. Colour noise is invading the picture at this stage and by reducing the number of pixels being used on the sensor, you can remove at least one type of digital noise that's created by pixels that are heated up from the exposure affecting neighbouring pixels.
While that type of noise may be dampened, it doesn't stop the other types of noise coming through even more. Primary colours are starting to be muted to try and reduce the effect of the colour noise on the picture and avoid a cast. ISO 12800 should only be used as a last resort. The image quality is quite terrible with salt and pepper noise, bright green blobs of colour and blue patches showing all over the picture. Edge and fine detail struggle to be seen with darker areas simply showing as black blocks.
Be careful when shooting in raw as we discovered noise showing through badly at ISO 100.
Here are some 100% crops which show the noise levels for each ISO setting:
| JPEG | RAW |
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ISO 100 (100% Crop) |
ISO 100 (100% Crop) |
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ISO 200 (100% Crop) |
ISO 200 (100% Crop) |
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ISO 400 (100% Crop) |
ISO 400 (100% Crop) |
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ISO 800 (100% Crop) |
ISO 800 (100% Crop) |
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ISO 1600 (100% Crop) |
ISO 1600 (100% Crop) |
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ISO 3200 (100% Crop) |
ISO 3200 (100% Crop) |
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ISO 6400 (100% Crop) |
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ISO 12800 (100% Crop) |
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Focal Range
The Fujifilm FinePix F900EXR has a 20x optical zoom which starts at a 35mm equivalent focal length of 25mm. That means it stretches out to an incredible 500mm.
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25mm |
500mm |
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Sharpening
Adding some sharpening after the picture has been taken does help, but really only benefits the picture when it's completely sharp and taken at low ISO. We also recommend shooting in raw to see the best benefit as you can then add sharpening using the raw converter. It's powered by Silkypix technology and works well.
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Original (100% Crop) |
Sharpened (100% Crop) |
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File Quality
There are three settings for the resolution to choose from. You can choose between Fine and Normal in JPEG format or raw. Fine JPEGs record a file size of around 5Mb while the Normal size is nearer 3Mb. This does save space and we couldn't see the loss of information even though it's there.
| 16M Fine (4.59Mb) (100% Crop) | 16M Normal (3.02Mb) (100% Crop) |
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Chromatic Aberrations
The Fujifilm FinePix F900EXR handled chromatic aberrations very well during the review. Just a little purple fringing was present around the edges of objects in high-contrast situations, as shown in the examples below.
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Chromatic Aberrations 1 (100% Crop) |
Chromatic Aberrations 2 (100% Crop) |
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Chromatic Aberrations 3 (100% Crop) |
Chromatic Aberrations 4 (100% Crop) |
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Macro
The Fujifilm FinePix F900EXR has a close focus capability of 5cm. We found this sufficient for the lens as it was starting to lose edge definition as it was. Getting any closer would have blurred out the edges of the frame.
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Macro |
Macro (100% Crop) |
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Flash
The flash on the Fujifilm FinePix F900EXR is a pop up type with a mechanical button on the left side of the camera. There's a sign of vignetting at wide-angle without flash activated and it's still noticeable at full zoom. Use the flash and it concentrates the light to the centre of the frame which only serves to retain the vignette. This lessens at full zoom, but it's still present.
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Flash Off - Wide Angle (25mm) |
Flash On - Wide Angle (25mm) |
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Flash Off - Wide Angle (500mm) |
Flash On - Wide Angle (500mm) |
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And here are some portrait shots. Neither the Auto or Red-eye reduction mode caused any amount of red-eye.
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Flash On |
Flash On (100% Crop) |
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Red Eye Reduction |
Red Eye Reduction (100% Crop) |
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Night
Now here's the funny thing with the Fujifilm FinePix F900EXR. When we took our night test, it was fully dark. It's not difficult at this time of year. We took one shot in the Night scene and another using the shutter priority setting on the command dial. In shutter priority, the longest shutter speed you're allowed is two seconds. That's not brilliant when you have similar Canon cameras offering up to 15 or 30 seconds. The Night scene shot the night test at 3 sec, though. For some reason, the preset has been given more scope than the manual setting.
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Night Scene |
Night Scene (100% Crop) |
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Night Shutter Priority |
Night Shutter Priority (100% Crop) |
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Sample Images
As of February 2025, we are no longer providing full size sample images or videos for download.
Please contact us if you have any feedback on our new policy.
Product Images
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Front of the Fujifilm FinePix F900EXR |
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Front of the Fujifilm FinePix F900EXR / Turned On |
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Side of the Fujifilm FinePix F900EXR |
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Side of the Fujifilm FinePix F900EXR |
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Rear of the Fujifilm FinePix F900EXR |
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Rear of the Fujifilm FinePix F900EXR / Image Displayed |
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Rear of the Fujifilm FinePix F900EXR / Advanced Menu |
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Rear of the Fujifilm FinePix F900EXR / E-Fn Menu |
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Rear of the Fujifilm FinePix F900EXR / EXR Menu |
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Rear of the Fujifilm FinePix F900EXR / Scene Menu |
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Rear of the Fujifilm FinePix F900EXR / Shooting Menu |
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Rear of the Fujifilm FinePix F900EXR / Set-up Menu |
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Rear of the Fujifilm FinePix F900EXR / Playback Menu |
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Top of the Fujifilm FinePix F900EXR |
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Bottom of the Fujifilm FinePix F900EXR |
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Side of the Fujifilm FinePix F900EXR |
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Side of the Fujifilm FinePix F900EXR |
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Front of the Fujifilm FinePix F900EXR |
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Memory Card Slot |
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Battery Compartment |
Conclusion
The Fujifilm FinePix F900 EXR is a lovely camera to use. It's easy to understand, the menus – while large and thorough – are simple to navigate, although are prone to a little jargon. The build quality of the camera is excellent. It's solid in the hands, but light enough for one hand shooting. We like the design aesthetic of certain areas, such as the tilted command dial and the inclined video record button. The pop-up flash contributes nicely to the design and also means that a larger unit can be used as it's not limited to the amount of space available on the front of the Fujifilm FinePix F900 EXR. We also like the inclusion of the metal tripod bush, the wheel on the back and our only gripe is a small thing; it's the flimsy covers for the battery door and USB port. They don't become a camera of this build quality. The lens is also a good one as it doesn't have too much problem with chroma and the images we got were always sharp.
The Fujifilm FinePix F900 EXR is ultra fast with a start up time of 1.6sec but it can get annoying when it starts to try and focus as it takes a while to move through the entire range. It's entirely plausible that it's faster than other cameras, but because of the speed it works at normally, we're being spoiled and going through the focus range seems longer.
Image quality is a mixed bag. We got very sharp images at low ISO on the test shots. However, get out in the real world and it's a different story. The Fujifilm FinePix F900 EXR does try to select the lowest ISO it can to improve image quality, but you're only going to get ISO 100 when there's a lot of sky in the shot or it's being helped with the flash or a bright light.
The Fujifilm FinePix F900 EXR costs around £250 and it's tough to think about whether it's worth it or not. The features and build quality are all what you'd expect for the money and the speed and lens quality are a big bonus. But the image quality is still lacking. It's not bad picture quality, it's more what we'd expect from a cheaper camera. Colours are nice, metering works well with complex light and focusing is sharp. But we get too much noise at too low a setting.
The best thing to do is to get into an independent camera shop, take a look at the Fujifilm FinePix F900 EXR and try it out. If you're not going to pixel peep at the pictures, you will probably be happy with the results. We like the camera and would recommend it to anyone looking for something with straight forward auto modes and manual modes to learn photography with.
| Ratings (out of 5) | |
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| Design | 4.5 |
| Features | 4 |
| Ease-of-use | 4 |
| Image quality | 3.5 |
| Value for money | 3.5 |
Review Roundup
Reviews of the Fujifilm FinePix F900EXR from around the web.
ephotozine.com »
The Fujifilm FinePix F900EXR is an update to the Fujifilm FinePix F800EXR and features the same 20x optical zoom lens, 3inch screen, built in Wi-Fi, but adds a new 16.1 megapixel backlit EXR II CMOS sensor with built in phase detection focus.
Read the full review »
whatdigitalcamera.com »
The Fujifilm F900 EXR is the latest in a long line of triple-digit 'F' series compacts, and looks to continue the manufacturer's proud tradition in the travel compact market. The model features a new high-speed 16.1MP backlit EXR CMOS II sensor, along with Wi-fi connectivity and what Fujifilm claims is the world's fastest AF system in a compact camera.
Read the full review »
techradar.com »
The Fujifilm FinePix F900 EXR marks the brand's latest and greatest entry in its Advanced Compact lineup of feature-laden compact travel zoom cameras. You'll have a hard time telling it apart from the former range-topping Fuji FinePix F800EXR - and a couple of other models for that matter - because externally they're virtually identical, sharing a very similar case design.
Read the full review »
Specifications
| Model | FinePix F900EXR |
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| Effective Pixels | 16.0 million pixels |
| Sensor type | 1/2-inch EXR CMOS II with primary colour filter |
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| Number of recorded pixels |
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| Lens |
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| Digital zoom | EXR Auto mode : Intelligent digital zoom approx. 2x (up to approx. 40x, with 20x optical zoom) Other than EXR Auto mode: Intelligent digital zoom approx. 3.4x (up to approx. 68x, with 20x optical zoom) |
| Aperture | F3.5 / F7.1 / F10(Wide) F5.3 / F11 / F16(Telephoto) with ND filter |
| Focus distance (from lens surface) |
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| Sensitivity | Auto, Equivalent to ISO 100 / 200 / 400 / 800 / 1600 / 3200 / 6400* / 12800* (Standard Output Sensitivity)
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| Exposure control | TTL 256-zone metering, Multi / Spot / Average |
| Exposure mode | Programmed AE, Aperture Priority AE, Shutter Priority AE, Manual exposure |
| Shooting modes |
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| Image stabilisation | CMOS shift type |
| Exposure compensation | -2.0EV - +2.0EV 1/3EV step |
| Shutter speed | (Auto mode) 1/4 sec. to 1/2000 sec., (All other modes) 8 sec. to 1/2000 sec. |
| Continuous shooting |
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| Auto bracketing | AE Bracketing : ±1/3EV, ±2/3EV, ±1EV Film Simulation Bracketing : PROVIA / STANDARD, Velvia / VIVID, ASTIA / SOFT Dynamic Range Bracketing : 100% / 200% / 400% |
| Focus |
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| White balance | Automatic scene recognition
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| Self timer | Approx. 10 sec. / 2 sec. Delay / Auto release |
| Flash | Auto flash (super i-flash) Effective range : (ISO AUTO)
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| Flash modes |
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| Hot shoe | - |
| LCD monitor | 3.0-inch, approx. 920K-dot, TFT colour LCD monitor, approx. 100% coverage |
| Movie recording | 1920 x 1080 pixels / 1280 x 720 pixels (60 fps) / 640 x 480 pixels (30 fps) with stereo sound. Optical zoom function can be used. |
| Photography functions | EXR mode (EXR Auto / Resolution priority / High ISO & Low noise priority / Dynamic range priority), Face Detection, Auto red-eye removal, Film simulation, Auto release, Framing guideline, Power management, Frame No. memory, Adv. mode (Advanced Filter : Toy Camera / Miniature / Pop Colour / High-Key / Low-Key / Dynamic Tone / Soft Focus / Partial Colour, Motion panorama 360, Pro focus, Pro low light, Multiple exposure), High Speed Movie (120 / 240 / 480 fps), Advanced Anti Blur, Date stamp, Monitor Sunlight mode, Connect to Smartphone and Tablet Devices. (Geotagging setup), Recording movie in the EXR Auto mode : Automatic Scene recognition on movie recording |
| Playback functions | Face Detection, Auto red-eye removal, Multi-frame playback (with micro thumbnail), Crop, Resize, Slide show, Image rotate, Exposure warning, Auto rotate playback, Photobook assist, Image search, Favourites, Mark for upload, Panorama, Erase selected frames, Histogram display, Connect to Smartphone and Tablet Devices (Uploading Pictures : Individual images, Selected multiple images, View & Obtain Images), PC auto save |
| Other functions | PictBridge, Exif Print, Print Image Matching II, 35 Languages, Time difference, Silent mode |
| Wireless transmitter |
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| Terminal |
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| Power supply | NP-50A Li-ion battery (included) / CP-50 with AC power adapter AC-5VX (sold separately) |
| Dimensions | 105.1(W) x 61.0(H) x 36.0(D)mm / 4.1(W) x 2.4(H) x 1.4(D)in. (Minimum depth : 24.9mm / 0.9in.) |
| Weight | Approx. 232g / 8.1oz. (including battery and memory card) Approx. 212g / 7.4oz. (excluding battery and memory card) |
| Operating temperature | 0°C - 40°C |
| Operating humidity | 10% - 80% (no condensation) |
| Battery life | Approx. 260 frames (AUTO mode)
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| Accessories included | Li-ion battery NP-50A Battery charger BC-50B Plug Adapter Hand strap USB cable A/V cable CD-ROM*3 Owner's manual |
| Optional accessories | Li-ion battery NP-50 Battery charger BC-45W DC coupler CP-50 AC power adapter AC-5VX |
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