Fujifilm FinePix S9600 > Reviews > At the top of Mount Fuji

Author's product rating:   

Picture Quality	Excellent
Range & Quality of Features	Diverse
Ease of Use	Easy
Overall Look & Design	Good
Value for Money	Excellent

Advantages:	near DSLR quality, high resolution
Disadvantages:	hungry on batteries, no dedicated external flash unit available

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

This is a gorgeous camera. When I worked as a professional photographer, I always used Fuji film for my work. It was always colourful and reliable and so when I decided to get back into photography seriously after a break of almost 20 years, I looked at the specifications and (deciding I didn't at that time want the hassle of different lenses) decided on the Fuji S7000. Six months later and I upgraded to the S9600 as it had a better lens and better image processing.

A great feature of this camera is the way you can move the viewing screen. This allows you to get really low or hold the camera above your head (great for concerts) and still see the image you are shooting.

The lens control is great and the Fuji lenses perform quickly and quietly. You have the choice of motorised zoom or manual and there si a comprehensive range of modes available. The viewfinder display seems small as it is a viewer rather than mirror (as in traditional SLR's) while the back display has shrunk from the S7000 to allow for the moveable screen. The camera handles well a variety of shots and exposure challenges and will easily bracket (take three shots, underexposing, normal and over exposing) to allow you to get the best lighting. For an all in one, the camera has good speed although the writing speed can be slow depending on the compression rate and the quality you are taking.

It has two memory card slots taking flash memory and XD cards. This means big storage and low price media.

The flash is perhaps its weakest point and is a primary reason I moved to Olympus DSLR. It's built in flash is adequate for portraits and close up's but can't handle much more. This though is normal with this type of camera. I just wanted more.

It also has a voracious appetite for batteries. You need to ensure you have a good stock of rechargeables or normal batteries if you are going away for a weekend with this camera. If you need the flash, it will run through batteries at a frightening rate.

The lens quality is above what you would expect from a such a camera. It's 10.7 optical zoom gives you the equivalent of a 300mm lens at your disposal. Images are sharp at all levels with only slight distortion at the furthest edges. Exposure and colour were absolutely superb. The camera constantly turned out great photographs. There is a good set of tools in the camera to deal with simple image manipulation and the house software does its job more than adequately.

You can get this camera for a great price these days and it is well worth considering if you want to take your photography to the next level. It's not a snapshot camera its a camera for someone who enjoys photography and wants to get as much as possible out of it without spending thousands of pounds.