Fujifilm FinePix S9500

As we inch near the end of the single-digit barrier, the 9-megapixel FinePix S9500 comes from Fujifilm's Super CCD HR family of sensors. Noise reduction and speed enhancements with the Real Photo technology allow usable photos even at high sensitivity levels. However, you will need to purchase third-party software if you intend to shoot a lot in RAW because the FinePix Viewer does as much as converting your images to TIFF.

Design
Shaped like a dSLR, the Fujifilm FinePix S9500 isn't very much bigger than Canon's EOS 350D. It measures 128 x 93 x 129mm and weighs 755g, giving you the look and feel of a dSLR--but at a comparatively lower cost. The lens has been positioned slightly more to the left (from the back) compared to the lens which is centered on the EOS 350D's body, giving your fingers more room to curl around the handgrip on the right. However, our last digit tends to slide off the lower body of the S9500, so if you have burly hands, your pinky might just settle on the lower edge of the camera.

	Users with big fingers may find it harder to reach the dedicated keys for exposure compensation, flash and continuous shooting.

Due to its size, there isn't much room for anything else except the external autofocus sensor, green AF-assist illuminator with self-timer lamp and the synchronising terminal on the front of the body. Over at the top, there are enough buttons to explore around for a good minute or two. The power switch which allows you to toggle between Record, Playback and Off sits on the comfortable handgrip wrapped with rubber. Dedicated keys for exposure compensation, flash and continuous shooting dot the top panel, yet leave enough room for the command and mode dials. These keys work in conjunction with the command dial, but you will have to hold down either of these buttons and rotate the command wheel to change the settings for each of these functions. The hotshoe and built-in flash unit sit right above the pentaprism, aligned with the lens.

	The connectors on the S9500 are well spaced out behind the rubber shelter.

The USB, A/V and DC-power ports lie comfortably on the left behind a rubber covering. You can select between single autofocus, continuous autofocus or manual focus on the three-way selector beside the connectors. There is an Info button which displays the histogram and information on the current settings of the camera; the macro button which allows you to go as close as 1cm using the Super macro mode; and a one-touch AF button sitting in the three-way selector. We managed to spook a colleague in bright daylight when we switched the camera to continuous autofocus (without pressing any other buttons) and brought the camera close to his ear. Though barely audible in normal outdoor surroundings, the door creaking sound generated by the continuous focus on the S9500 is a pain to the ear in quieter environments.

	You get a whole lot of options on the back of the camera as well.

A host of camera options are available on the back, most of which will take you through a tour on the 118k-pixel double-hinged LCD display panel. Though we prefer to use the 235k-pixel electronic viewfinder, the versatility of the LCD screen allows you to shoot at certain difficult angles, especially when you don't want to lie flat on the ground in public to get that down-up shot.

The focus check button below the EVF/LCD selector enlarges the central portion of the screen to assist you in focusing. Commonly used settings (picture quality, sensitivity and colour) are easily accessible with the Photo mode button marked by a capital F. The Display/Back button cycles between various display modes include one which shows you a thumbnail of your previous shot so you can compose your next picture in relation to the previous one. Pressing Up or Down on the cursor pad activates or cancels the 2x digital zoom feature which we doubt there is even a need for given the 10.7x optical zoom.

Features
If you equate the number of buttons to the learning curve of using a prosumer, compact snapshooters are bound to feel apprehensive about the FinePix S9500's less-than-simple control layout. Its 10.7x zoom which begins at a 28mm wide angle comes in handy when you want to take a subject from afar, but not get too close to it physically. We have seen megazoomers with a longer range, but chances are you will need a tripod to stabilise your pictures. Although the Anti-Blur mode sounds very much like image stabilisation, it actually boosts ISO levels (up to a maximum of ISO 1,600) at slow shutter speeds. What this means is you minimise the blurring effect but suffer from increasing noise in your pictures instead.

Using the burst mode, the camera captures only four frames: You can record either the first four frames after you press the shutter button or save the last four after enduring a maximum of 40 frames. When in Auto or any of the scene modes, you can take up to 40 shots at about 1fps. "Scenic" users will be disappointed as the FinePix S9500 comes with only five scene modes--anti-blur, natural light, portrait, landscape and night.

Powered by four AA-size batteries, we would advise you to opt for Ni-MH rechargeables if you don't wish to be replacing batteries every other hour of continuous shooting. The S9500 accepts both xD-Picture Cards and CompactFlash/Microdrives (we used Imation's 1GB CF card in our tests) and you can manually select which media to use in the camera's setup. We didn't like the fact that there was no battery indicator on the S9500, save for the time it appeared only when there was insufficient charge left and you had to replace the batteries straight away.

Performance
We jolted the S9500 awake for its first shot at slightly under 2 seconds and managed to shoot every 1.5 seconds thereafter without flash. The time taken tripled with flash enabled. When shooting in RAW format, be prepared to wait up to 10 seconds before you can take the next shot. We weren't impressed with the continuous shooting mode at approximately two frames per second initially, but it dipped to 0.5 frames per second after a couple of shots.

Shutter lag performance came in well under high-contrast illumination and slightly under a second in dimly lit conditions. The S9500 also encountered slight autofocusing difficulties in some of our telephoto shots.

We noticed a fair bit of purple fringing in our shots when we took the S9500 out on a clear day with blue skies. Though not visible in printouts, we lost quite a lot of details under high magnification. It was a tough choice when we had to decide between underexposing the huge rainforest tree or blowing out the skies while focusing on the tree.

The Super macro mode on the S9500 lets you get as close as 1cm to your subject -- your lens has to be at the wide-angle position to use the super macro mode.

Noise levels was manageable up till ISO 800. However, at the maximum sensitivity level of ISO 1,600, our images were noticeably less clean. So if you intend to do large prints, you may want to keep the ISO setting at 400 and below. But if it's just for 4- x 6-inch photos, higher ISO levels shouldn't affect the quality drastically. On the other hand, the S9500 produced realistic flesh tones in our portrait shots and colours were rich and saturated.

The FinePix Viewer software that comes bundled with your FinePix allows you to convert your RAW images to TIFF format, and that's about all it does. For that, it takes just slightly under 2 minutes to convert one RAW image to TIFF format.