Fujifilm's FinePix S9000 and FinePix E900 break the nine megapixel barrier

We figured there were some perfectly good reasons why no one had introduced a nine megapixel consumer digital camera, namely that cramming that many pixels into a consumer grade sensor doesn't exactly work wonders for image quality (most people would probably better off investing in a lower resolution digital SLR), but Fujifilm broke through the nine megapixel barrier earlier today with the FinePix S9000 (pictured above) and the FinePix E900 (pictured below).
Fujifilm claims they've worked through the pixel noise problems that can accompany massive megapixel sensors (we'll have to see about that), but at the very least the S9000 has a 10.7x optical zoom lens, a 1.8-inch tilting LCD screen,
a 0.01 second shutter lag time, dual xD and CompactFlash memory card slots, and can capture RAW images. The E900 is a little more budget and has a 4x optical zoom lens, a 2-inch LCD screen, and can also shoot in the RAW format. The S9000 should be out in September with a retail price of $699.95, with the E900 to follow in October at $499.95.