Nice discreet look. Natural Light setting that sets color balance for quick flash-free pix, with very accurate metering. AA batteries and optical viewfinder, both of which I think are essential in a compact. Handy and inexpensive SD memory.

No video editing at all -- so you either keep the whole thing, and use up masses of memory or throw the whole video out. Very limited cropping program!!! You must go to a lower resolution, which the camera sets. Trimming not allowed at all in VGA.
I returned this camera after a week because of this, despite geting a good buy.

Missing essential programs. A bust.

Customer Service

Unknown

Similar Products Used:

Sony DSC-S600
Casio EX-P600
Olympus SP350

I liked the "Natural Light" setting, which presets best values for no-flash photography without fuss. Uses AA batteries which are a must for compacts as far as Im concerned. Optical viewfinder -- also a must for me.

FATAL! No video editing program AT ALL! You either keep the whole thing, and eat up your memory, or delete the whole thing. Very limited cropping for photos, too, where VGAs can't be cropped at all, and larger images must be copied in much smaller resolution than the original.

Nice presentation, but missing essential programs!

Similar Products Used:

Sony DSC-S600
Olympus SP-350
Casio EX-P600

Exceptional overall quality. Very durrable and dependable.

Without a tri-pod excessive camera shake can occour.

Best 9 megapixle I`ve used to date. There`s not too much that you cant do with it. Getting the teltphoto soon,and cant wait to see what it will pull in. Without a tri-pod,it`s a little shakey when zooming in on a subject,but overall the product has,so far,given me some exceptional shots. Quite satisfied with it. On a personal scale of 1-10, I give it a 9. Great for the "first-timer"who wants great quality,for a very good price.

Customer Service

Available at a moments notice. Just one phone-call away,and all your questions will be answered.

Similar Products Used:

Cannon.

High resolution.
Low noise (for a p&s).
Handles well.
RAW file storage.
Good low light/no flash results.
Durable enough (so far) to be carried around in your pocket every day.
Sharp pictures and good color.
Good all around every day snapshot camera to have when you don't want to carry a larger camera but don't want to miss shots of opportunity either.

Large RAW files.
Slow write speed.
When carried in the pocket the mode switch is easily changed. It could be a little tighter.
Some menu items are not where you would expect them to be.
Some kind of image stabilization would be nice to have.

I promised that I would post a review of this camera a few months ago. I'm glad I didn't. I wouldn't have given it a very fair shake. I bought it to use at parties and for a carrying around camera to try to catch every day shots that I don't have my 20D for. I had read a review in a photography magazine that said it would do what I needed very well. Reasonable noise at high iso, raw and so on. I took my first shots and to say I was disappointed is an understatement. The noise was way worse then I thought it should be. It wasn't as sharp as I expected either. I was comparing it to shots taken with the 20D. If I had written a review at that time I would have unfairly ripped it to shreds. I didn't yet understand the effect that sensor SIZE has on noise. The E900 has higher resolution (9 vs. 8 mp) but the photosites are so much smaller due to the smaller sensor size that noise will have to be higher. Now that I have learned that and have learned the camera's capabilities a little better I think I can write a better review. Enough background on to the review..

The camera is small enough to be carried in a pocket and has after 5 months of this stood up to it very well. A few scratches from other things in my pockets but no damage to the lens or lcd. The picture quality is very good. Sharp for a p&s. High resolution, good color and produces usable shots in a wide range of lighting. The noise at high iso settings (400 to 800) is very good (again for a p&s). At iso 800 in low light and without flash you can make excellent 4x6 and maybe even a few 5x7 prints. About what you should expect from a p&s and better then you get from most. It will save in raw which is great (helps me hide some of my lack of experience with post processing) but the raw files are huge 19.5 megs and it can take qutie a while to write to the card. The zoom could be a little longer but 4x optical but with the resolution this camera has the digital zoom doesn't yield bad results. Very usable. Battery life is good. I get about 300 or more shots per charge. The flash works well within it's range and has suprisingly little red eye. The menus and controls are easy enough to use and navigate with one exception that I can't figure out. turning raw on is in a different menu then the rest of the resolution settings. Very confusing. The lcd is clear and bright enough in all but direct sunlight.

All in all a very good little camera as long as you don't expect slr type results. If you are in the market for a point and shoot I would highly recommend it.

Customer Service

No need so far.

Similar Products Used:

None.

Pros: (Or why I am a happy camper...) Full manual settings 9.0 Mega Pixels - not something I needed but wow! I do find I'm using that for panoramas and I really appreciate the extra resolution then. Otherwise I am tending to shoot in the 3MP mode. The 9MP does give an effective additional 3x zoom via cropping / digital zoom. Small size and light weight. Standard rechargeable AA batteries. Excellent battery life ~300 shots per charge. RAW when you want it. Good video for a still camera. Fast startup, shutter release and data transfer. Excellent user interface, button position, feel. Aperature goes wide to f2.8 - f8.0. Shutter speed is 15s-1/2000s. ISO 80-800 gives excellent detail in bright or dim light. EXIM data in files, not separately and no locked files. Excellent color in natural light and flash. Very good image quality with minimum noise at lower ISOs. Automatic lens cover. Good price approaching $400.

Cons: (minor glitches, gripes and wishes) The lens lacks a filter thread. This is a major bummer because I like using UV, polarizing and neutral grey filters, especially on bright sunny snow days when the lighting is just too intense. I realize screw on lens filters do not work with the way the way they shutter the camera but I still miss the threading. There is an extension barrel but that rather defeats the pocketability. The optional 1.94x tele-converter is awkward and ridiculous. Give me a break, this is a camera with a built in 4x optical zoom. The tele-converter should be a minimum of 3x and ideally it should be 4x. Less than 2x is absurd. I do wish it had more zoom built in. 6x would have been nice. 10x would have been a dream. Image stabilization would be required at that zoom which would have jacked up the price. Given the small size of the camera the long zoom isn't likely with the current technology. Perhaps the new electronically reshaping lenses that are in the labs will make this a possibility. The dynamic range is still not as good as I would like to see. It is better than any of my previous digital cameras but it is not yet as good as low ASA film in my A-1. Someday maybe they'll have sensors as good as our eyes. The lens quality was obviously skrimped on. It is good. Maybe even very good, but it is not excellent. There is some chromatic arberation (CA) - the infamous purple fringe (PF) - in thin lines backlit with extreme contrast like power wires or branches in a white sky. Panoramic stitching would have been a nice bonus - this is a small detail. My Nikon did not have it. My son's Casio does have it and it works very well. I do a lot of pans which I hand stitch with Photoshop. The simpler ones I can do in Will's little Casio camera. Fun stuff. I wish the E900 had that. Time lapsed photography is something I really wanted and saw on some of the other cameras I looked at. It lets you capture one frame every minute, ten minutes, hour, day, etc. That is a cool feature and I've always wanted it. Not this time though. Too bad. Focus is probably the weakest point of the camera. It works but I've had a lot of other cameras that do better. RAW, manual focus and White Balance are not in the F menu. No EXIM data in movies. Macro is only down to 7cm - Major bummer.

This fall my Nikon 990 digital camera died its final death and I have been hunting for a replacement since. Last Friday I got a FujiFilm FinePix E900 digital camera. I've shot about 1,000 pictures with it and written up a review with some sample photos. In a nutshell I like the camera. It is not perfect, what is, but it is an excellent small pocket camera with full manual and automatic settings - I'm glad I got it. Very fast shutter response - great for capturing children and animals. While it isn't a Canon Rebel DSLR but the The FujiFilm FinePix E900 is a heck of a lot less expensive, smaller and lighter which means I'll keep it with me rather than wishing I had it when I see that great shot out in the field or woods. It is not a replacement for a professional camera but the FujiFilm FinePiex E900 is one even a pro should consider for a pocket camera to have with them all the time. You can see my full review with sample photos on my blog at: http://sugarmtnfarm.com/blog/2005/12/fuji-finepix-e900-review-part-ii.html

Customer Service

Unknown - haven't needed it yet. Never needed it for any of my previous cameras either. I hope I don't need it for this one.

Similar Products Used:

Canon A-1 Ricoh RDC-2 Nikon CoolPix 800 Nikon CoolPix 900 Nikon CoolPix 990 Casio QV-2300UX