Fujifilm FinePix E900 Review

The E900 employs a Super EBC Fujinon 4x optical zoom lens, it's equivalent to 32-128mm on a 35mm camera. This is an all-glass lens constructed of 6 elements in 5 groups with 3 aspherical elements. The maximum aperture is F2.8 (W) - F5.6 (T) and is adjustable from F2.8 to F8 in 10 steps in 1/3EV increments. When the camera is powered down the lens retracts inside the camera and is covered by an automatic lens protector.

The AF area may be freely located in the frame as seen above. The normal auto focus range is from 2.0 ft. (60cm) to infinity and in Macro mode from 3 in. (7.5cm) - 2.6 ft. (80cm) at wide angle only. Focus may be adjusted manually. The E900 does not have a low light focus assist lamp.

The chrome dress ring can be removed to attach the optional AR-FXE02 lens adapter ring (accepts 43mm filters) for the optional Fujifilm 0.76x Wide-angle lens adapter WL- FXE01 and the 1.94x Telephoto lens adapter TL-FXE01.

The eyelevel optical real-image zoom viewfinder has a field of view of approx. 77% (this is below the average which is approx. 85% coverage) of the captured image but lacks any type of dioptric adjustment. There is a green LED lamp to the right that indicates camera status.

The manual popup flash has an effective range of 2.0 ft - 13.5 ft (W)/ 2.0 ft - 6.6 ft (T). Flash modes available are: Auto, Red-eye reduction, Forced flash, Suppressed flash, Slow Syncro and Red-eye reduction + Slow Synchro. The flash output power is variable ±1/3 or ±2/3EV in the menu.

On the back is a 2.0-inch color LCD monitor with 115,000 pixels for framing, review and accessing the menus. The coverage is approx. 100% which is much better than the eyelevel viewfinder at only 77%. The LCD gains up (brightens) momentarily during autofocus in dim lighting to aid in framing the subject. The display dims to extend battery life if no button is pressed after a delay interval expires (when the LCD Power Save function is enabled in Setup.)

Controls on the back: To the right of the optical finder is the Popup flash button. In the upper right is the W-T zoom lens control. In review mode the zoom control is used to activate the zoomed-in (magnified) replay mode. On the left side of the LCD is the Drive mode button (Single, Continuous, Bracketing). Below that is the Exposure Compensation button. On the right of the LCD is the Review mode button. The 4-way selector in Record mode toggles Macro focus when pushed "Left", Flash modes when pushed "Right" and deletes images in review when pushed "Up." In review it's used to navigate through the stored images. The Menu/OK button calls up the menu and accepts selections. The BACK button stops a procedure, when not in menu mode it's the DISPlay button and turns the LCD on/off. In review the DISPlay button toggles overlay (text) information on/off and Index display of 9 thumbnail images per page. The blue "F" (Photo Mode) button lets you change the image size, ISO sensitivity and color mode.

On top of the grip is the shutter release, power button and the Mode Dial with positions for: Auto (point-n-shoot), Program AE, Shutter-speed priority, Aperture priority, Manual, Movie, Night Scene, Sports, Portrait and Natural Light.

On the left side is the Audio Video Out port that allows for connection to a TV for playback, the video signal is selectable for NTSC or PAL standard.

3v DC INput jack for an optional AC power adapter.

The USB 2.0 high-speed connector. A PictBridge compatible printer can also be connected to the USB port for direct-printing.

Power is supplied by a pair of standard AA type batteries, alkaline, NiMH rechargeable or photo lithium. Fuji includes a pair of NiMH batteries and a wall charger.

The E900 is equipped with a xD-Picture Card slot and is supplied with a 16MB xD card. It's compatible with any xD card from 16MB to 1GB.