FujiFilm FinePix S9000/9500 reviewed
By Thomas Ricker 
posted November 1st 2005 12:25PM
posted November 1st 2005 12:25PM
TrustedReviews just posted a glowing review of the
Fujifilm FinePix S9000, aka S9500 in Europe and
Asia. They give the 9 megapixel digicam with 10.7x optical zoom fixed-lens and RAW image support 10/10 for
features, image quality, and value. They conclude that the S9000 is "unquestionably the best fixed-lens camera
currently available," has "amazing" picture quality and "fantastic" versatility and is a real "bargain" at
£400/$708. All this just makes the decision to go
prosumer or entry-level DSLR just a bit more difficult now doesn't it… ok not really, DSLR is still the way to
go for most ya'll.
DPreview also have a review of the S9000, and they are a little less positive (more realistic perhaps...)
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/FujifilmS9000/
Delta737 mentioned above that dpreview reviewed it as well.
The Independent reviewed it too and so did letsgodigital. The review links are:
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/science_technology/article323304.ece
and
http://www.letsgodigital.org/en/news/articles/story_4826.html
They both seem to agree that while it's a good camera you can just get your self a much better DSLR camera for a few more dollars.
the time has come when all non DSLRs should have a sub $500 price. it just doesn't make sense to not buy a DSLR unless you just want a point and shoot camera.
either you want to take great photos or you just want to take photos and care way more about the price vs the quality.
It's no competition for an SLR when it's stuck with a slow f/2.8 lens.
"it just doesn't make sense to not buy a DSLR unless you just want a point and shoot camera."
Mostly, this is true. But the reason why people have DSLR's is so they can change lenses - that's really the whole point. If a manufacturer truly could make an all-in-one lens that did everything, there'd be no reason to change lenses on a DSLR, and hence no reason for SLR's to exist.
Of course, such a lens is an physical impossibility - you can't make a lens that's as good at all focal lengths as you can separate lenses made specifically for a given focal length (just like you can't make a car that's as fast as a formula 1 racer and with the towing capacity of a Ford F150). But for a lot of people, lenses do exist that are good enough for any situation they're ever likely to encounter. And that's the point of a camera like this.
What doesn't make any sense to me is why no manufacturer of this kind of camera can seem to get things like speed, picture noise and image sharpness right. For those things, you still need to buy an SLR - but there's nothing *inherent* about the SLR form that would require that. It's just that nobody has yet made an integrated camera that does these things as well as an SLR, and who knows, maybe nobody ever will.
Stick a really high quality 10X non-removeable zoom lens on a camera that is otherwise the same as an SLR, though, and I'll bet 9 out of 10 people would be totally satisfied. And they'd have good reason to be. But this is still not that camera.