Fuji FinePix S9100

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FinePix S9100 Prices

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A full manual mode is provided from the M position of the mode dial, which allows for full control over shutter speed and aperture. In this mode, all of the other features (such as ISO setting, white balance, etc) are also fully under the users control. Remember to use this power for good, not evil.

 

This full manual mode is a bit of a pain to use. Because there is only one control dial (the command dial), you have to set the shutter speed, then hold down the exposure compensation button to set the aperture. This is more cumbersome than it should be on a camera tailored to enthusiasts. The on-screen display provides some level of feedback on the correct exposure, but real photographers will ignore this; they know better than some poxy computer.

 

Manual focus is possible, but far from ideal: the focus ring is very light to the touch, and it’s very easy to go too far and miss the focus point. The focus check button is a big plus for this: it enlarges the center of the image in the viewfinder or display, helping you make sure that you have focused properly.

 

The aperture priority, shutter priority and program modes work pretty much as advertised, with a good level of control. Exposure compensation is also available in 1/3 stop steps.

 

Three metering modes are available, which use 256 metering spots on the image sensor to measure the lighting. The camera has three modes: a multi mode (where the camera analyzes all of the meter spots and picks the appropriate settings), a spot mode (which uses just the center of the image) and an average mode (which takes an average of the entire field of view). We weren’t able to fully test these features, but they seemed to pick appropriate settings in our limited tests.

 

A wide ISO range from 80 to 1600 is available, with 4 settings in between. We were not able to test the images for noise at the Photokina show – that will have to wait until we have this camcorder on our test bench.

 

White balance can be set to fully automatic, or one of 6 presets (fine, shade, florescent lights 1 & 2, and incandescent light). There are also two custom spots that can be set using a white card. You can’t, however, enter a specific color temperature directly.

 

The shutter speed range is from 4 seconds to 1/4000 of a second. A bulb mode (which keeps the shutter open for as long as the shutter button is pressed) is also available, but noise would no doubt quickly become an issue for this. 

 

The aperture range is from f2.8 to f11 in 13 steps of 1/3 step each. That’s a reasonable range, but a smaller aperture would have been nice for those situations where you have plenty of light and need more depth of field, although with sensors of this size, it's not much of an option.