Fuji FinePix S9000 Great Camera!

Author's Rating:

Pros: Nice feel, fast shooting, great pics!

Cons: Battery life on alkaline sucks, LCD does not show true picture color

The Bottom Line: 
Anyone who wants a professional feeling camera without the high price tag!

Author's Review
I took my time online and looked at different models. I also went around to few different stores and actually got to lazy store sails people to take the cameras out of their display cases so I could hold them and try them all! Out of the few "big" cameras I tried I liked the Fujifilm the best. I did not have the money for a Nikon (it has been my standard). I wouldn’t settle for anything less; a camera is an investment not like a DVD player that is out of date and dies after 12 months of use.

The camera has a fast start up and fells well balanced in your hands... you can easily hold it with one hand and shoot. The lens feels smooth and either in AF or MF it is easy to use. I don't have a lot of experience with MF but this camera gave me a good idea of how to use it. The LCD display is large enough to see your photos clearly. The tilt function that they put as a selling point is a neat idea but I say meh I haven’t used it yet and I don't have much use for it. The shutter speed is fairly quick and it feels like my Cannon (good old fashioned film camera). All you do is point and shoot and it takes the shot with very little lag.

This camera has two card holding spots XD and CF cards. You can choose what card to use inside the camera's menu. This means no "point, click, Card full" probably one of the most annoying things about a digital camera. Instead of having to dig in your camera bag all you do is select the next card. CF do tend to be a little faster then XD so if you CF cards keep them. If you go to the source for it they will probably hand you some BS about "this camera does not come with a card and you NEED an XD 1G". This is crap! It comes with a 16Mb XD. Of course the larger your pics are 9MegP as compared to 4MegP the fewer pics you can hold but for normal size photos you only need the camera set to 3MP anyway and 9MP can do a huge poster so most of the time (unless you doing posters) you don't need a 1G card a 256 will give you 200 or so photos at 3 to 5MP. Don't get suckered in to buying half the store.

The next thing the store tries to do is sell you an extended 3 year warrantee DONT DO IT!!! This camera comes with a factory three year warrantee and you don’t have to pay more for it! Don't get suckered in for paying more money for something that Fuji gives you for free.

The battery life sucks on regular AAs you only get about 150 pics or so before they will be drained. You will need to buy recharables at about 2300ah or more. It takes 4 batteries so be prepared to pay for it.

The lens is good for what you pay for it and the camera has a lot of nice features that will keep you on a learning curve. The camera is easy to use (basic point and click) although if you want to access more function and really learn how to use all the camera's features you'll probably have to look at the instructions. The instruction book is easy to navigate though and is very easy to understand so you can learn what you need quickly and easily.