Fujifilm FinePix S9600

Review summary: It's very nice to handle, well conceived and easy to manipulate. Just don't be too demanding for photo quality, because its very sharp and contrasted images are more « general public » than professional. If you want finesse, try something other than ...

Pros: Zoom and focus barrel dials, Nice to handle, feels like a "real" camera, Better noise control than with Canon and Panasonic (even if for us this does not make up for the lack of stabilization), 28 mm wide angle, Face Detection with automatic focus

Cons: Based on xD cards which are slow and expensive, Accentuated noise on some zones starting at 100 ISO, Indoor portraits without flash have a lot of noise, Bright zones are washed out, No mechanical stabilization

Pros: Indoor lowlight photos - overall picture quality

Cons: Some purple fringing when the zoom is fully or nearly fully extended.

Verdict: The Fuji Finepix S9600 bears a very close resemblance to a digital SLR camera. It is aimed at the serious photographer and has a wide range of features. I was impressed by my test results and the Finepix S9600 is well worth considering. It offers good ...

Review summary: We reviewed this product's sibling back in March and while we are still wondering why you would want a camera that looks like an SLR but isn't and the answer to that question still eludes us, we decided to judge the S9600 on its merits.

Verdict: While this is a cheaper alternative to a digital SLR, we can't help but think that saving the extra money to buy a proper SLR will have more benefits. This is not to say it is a bad camera, the pictures are very good and it does a workmanlike job of ...

Review summary: Fujifilm's SLR-like superzoom gives you excellent manual control but...

Pros: Manual focus and zoom, Dual-jointed screen, Good image quality, Fast performance

Cons: Very bad autofocus, No optical image stabilization, High battery consumption