Of all the manufacturers, Fujifilm seems to be the one who is constantly making small improvements to their range. Where other firms are releasing huge ranges of new cameras (such as the ten new cameras from Olympus yesterday), Fujifilm constantly look at their lineup and make small but significant improvements. The S9600 is no exception - it's an S9500 with a few tweaks to make a camera that was already very good just a little bit better.
There's an improved autofocus system, which apparently works up to 40% faster especially in dark conditions. Sharpness and resolution have been increased by new firmware (though it's not clear what they mean by “resolution” here - the sensor is the same). A larger screen gives you a clearer view and also tilts nicely so that you can see it from any angle. The flash system has had an overhaul and is now “intelligent” which is supposed to give fantastic results with background and foreground nicely matched. Finally there is bundled software that allows you to edit the raw files from the camera with full control over every aspect.
But, mainly, it's the same as the S9500 - and why not? The S9500 is a very nice camera and it's great to see a few tweaks to an already winning design.
The interesting thing about their press release is that Fuji constantly compare the S9600 with DSLRs - and explain why their camera is better. You don't get a tilting screen on a DSLR and you never get a movie mode. It's an interesting point. We don't yet have a price for the S9600 which will go on sale in October but I'd expect it to be around that of an entry level DSLR. We look forward to seeing if the performance and image quality live up to the features list.
Camera specification
| Mega-pixels: | 9 |
Photo: | JPEG, RAW |
| Optical Zoom: | 10.7x |
RAW: | Yes |
| Digital Zoom: | 2x |
Aperture: | f/2.8-11 |
| LCD: | 2.0 inch |
Focal Length: | equiv. 28-300mm |
| Dimensions: | 128 x 93 x 129mm |
Shutter: | 30 sec to 1/4000 |
| Weight: | 650g |
Exposure: | ISO 80 to 1600 |
| Storage: | xD, CF, M |
Movie: | 640x480@30fps |
| Int. Mem: | 26mb |
Battery: | 4 AA |
| Interface: | USB 2.0, AV |
PictBridge: | Yes |
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