FUJIFILM FinePix S9100 Digital Camera

Don't be fooled! The S9100 (USA release) is EXACTLY the same as the S9600(Europe release). They replace the S9000(USA) and S9500(Europe). So go for the lower price item and get a bargain. The sellers don't mention this and lead you to believe that the S9600 is a better/later model. IT IS NOT.
This is a serious camera for people who want to take serious pictures. Always clear, good colouring, large optical zoom and big on megapixels. Best of all it has a wide angle lens, 28mm and bridges the gap nicely between the SLR's and digital compacts. However it also shoots in video mode which SLRs don't do. Great ISO range. What's that? Well if you want to shoot in poor light raise the ISO for better results. However it has a powerful flash and a Hot Shoe for an even better one. Telephoto and wide-angled zoom lens (available on eBay) come in sets and can be bought for approx £60 including postage. Shoot with the flip-out LCD or the viewfinder. Fuji say that the lens system is dust free for better and clearer pictures and I don't doubt that. Takes both a Compact Flash card and an XD card at the same time which gives you a huge memory capacity. I mix a 2g CF with a 1g XD and quite frankly that's plenty. It takes rechargeable AA batteries but with the speedy 1 hour chargers available that's no big problem. Not a lot of digital zoom available so if you're a zoom freak go for the extra lens... it's worth it. There are menu items to cover every shooting option but even if you don't like messing with settings the results are still great on the defaults. It's a big camera so you'll need a case to keep it in. If you must have one big camera in your collection and want to pay less than £250 than this is a good choice from a manufacturer of good cameras. I'm sure you won't be disappointed with the results. Some people say it's noisy but I haven't been troubled by this. You do need to hear some beeps when you're focusing!!! The LCD is small in proportion to the camera but again it's big enough to see the results. If the makers place lots of setting buttons on the outside of the camera (instead of searching for them in the menu) you have to make compromises. Hence the smallish LCD. I give it full marks simply because it's a great improvement on my previous zoom camera. On the Fuji the zoom lens are manually operated so that cuts out the zoom noise you get in some cameras. zooming is quicker and more accurate. If you want serious wide angled cameras you'll have to look at the SLR's but this is as close as you can get to the SLR's without burning a hole in your pocket!