Fujifilm Finepix S9500 Zoom

The Finepix S9500 Zoom looks and feels like a digital SLR, but has many features of a high-end digital compact camera.

With sales of digital SLRs increasing, it might seem odd for Fujifilm to release a camera such as the S9500. It has no through-the-lens viewfinder and doesn’t support interchangeable lenses, yet it’s only very slightly smaller than Nikon’s popular D50 digital SLR.

The images it produces, however, are far from tiny. With an effective 9megapixel sensor the S9500 Zoom has one of the highest pixel resolutions available in this price bracket.

We were very impressed with the image quality, which under good lighting conditions was comparable to budget SLR performance.

While SLR purists will take some convincing, the use of an LCD viewfinder and tilting screen allows shooting from trickier angles and makes features such as video recording and a live histogram possible.

Although the lens is fixed to the camera, it offers a 10x optical zoom. You also get a manual zoom control and focus rings. Video can be recorded at 30fps (frames per second) in VGA (640 x 480) resolution and is streamed to either XD Picture Card or Compact Flash.

As a hybrid product, the S9500 Zoom has to appeal not only to potential purchasers of digital SLRs, but also to those who are looking at high-end compact models.

The software is more suited to the latter. Features such as automatic downloading of images from the camera and basic image enhancement are undoubtedly useful, but any manipulation of raw images is omitted. Even basic adjustment features are not available in raw mode.

Excellent image quality and SLR-like handling means the S9500 Zoom will be attractive to those who want advanced features, but don’t want to spend money on a full SLR kit.

See also:

Canon Powershot S80

Expensive yet feature-packed 8megapixel compact camera  21 Nov 2005

Sony Ericsson D750i

2megapixel photos, but no substitute for a digital camera  07 Nov 2005

Konica Minolta Dimage X1

This 8megapixel compact impresses in some, but not all, areas  04 Nov 2005

Pentax Optio S5z

A pocket-sized snapper for those fun shots  26 Oct 2005

Canon Powershot A520

The successor to the A85 has arrived  11 Jul 2005

Sony Cybershot DSC-T33

A go-anywhere, pocket-sized camera  05 Jul 2005

Fujifilm Finepix F455 Zoom

A stylish, easy-to-use 5.2megapixel snapper  22 Jun 2005

Buyers Guide: Digital Cameras

Deciding which digital camera best suits your needs can be a nightmare. How many megapixels and what zoom should you go for? Fear not, PCW is here to help  15 Feb 2006

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