Above all, the Fuji Finepix S9100 delivers images of outstanding quality. Indeed, no current fixed-lens digital camera delivers such nice images, unless you like at its nearly-identical predecessor, the Fuji Finepix S9000. For that alone, the Fuji S9100 deserves some serious consideration. There are other things to like about the S9100 and, as no camera is perfect, some things to dislike.

The two greatest features of this digital camera are its low-noise 9 megapixels sensor and its mechanical 10.7X optical zoom wide-angle lens. There are only very few higher resolution ultra-zooms but none produce such clean images. The Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ50, for example, has a 10 megapixels sensor and a 12X optical-zoom which starts at a normal 35mm. This gives it a much longer reach. The 6 megapixels Fuji Finepix S6000fd, on the other hand, shares the same lens as the S9100 but sports a lower noise sensor with maximum ISO of 3200. Its ergonomics are quite good but lacks several of the S9100's external controls, including the control-wheel for adjusting exposure parameters.