Shall I Buy The Fuji FinePix E900?

[sea_minerals]

Review on the E900 is found here (http://www.dcresource.com/reviews/fuji/finepix_e900-review/index.shtml)

[sea_minerals]

Sorry, i pressed enter and it ended up posting it.


The actual message should have read:


There is a after christmas sale and this camera (Fuji E900) is on sale. It retails at $598 (im in Australia) and they are selling it for $299 (save $299).

Is it worth buying since its half price?

I have a Fuji S9000 which i great but would like just a small camera that is able to fit in a bag,for those 'point and shoot' moments. I have plenty of 1GB XD memory cards to use so the memory wont be an issue.

Any help would be great! The sales start in the morning - at 12.01am! The camera goes on sale at 2am.....

Thanks.

[AlexMonro]

I was looking closely at the E900 as a compact to have with me when my S9500 (UK name for the S9000) was too big. I ended up going for my other option (Olympus SP350) because I found it at a better price, but I've had twinges of regret ever since.

The best feature of the E900 is that the zoom goes out to 32mm equiv at the wide end, which is better than the 36-38mm of most compacts.

Since then I've found the E900 even cheaper at Fuji UK's online factory recon shop - does Fuji AU have a similar service? It might be worth having a thorough search of their website.

If you want a compact to accompany your S9000, I think the E900 is the obvious choice - I'm having a bit of a Doh moment for missing it! :o

[DavidNJ]

The question I have been considering is are the advantages of the E900's features--RAW mode, full manual controls, bracketing, lens range, etc.--outweight using 18 month old technology--old CCD, no face detection, no natural light + flash, etc.

The alternatives aren't great. The G7 is no longer as good a camera as the G6, the S6000fd is too big, the F31fd lacks manual controls (or any sort of manual focus), and the LX2 (which should be the best) doesn't know what a good picture looks like. Will there be a new E900 in a few months with these features? Or will Fuji just discontinue it?

The price here is 260-300USD, between the the F30 (210-260USD) and the F31fd (300-340USD).

The underlying questions: who takes the better picture: F31fd or E900?

There is also the Sigma DP1 on the horizon.

David