Fujifilm FinePix Z90 Digital Compact Camera Review

Features
Handling
Performance
Verdict
Specification


Fujifilm FinePix Z90 Front Open

The Fujifilm FinePix Z90 was announced in January 2011 with a 3 inch LCD touch screen and Facebook & Youtube uploading facilities. It is available in blue, purple, black, red, silver and pink for £89.95.

Due to similarities in performance, some of this review is taken from our Fujifilm FinePix XP20 review.


Fujifilm FinePix Z90 Front

Fujifilm FinePix Z90 Features

The Z90 has a 5x optical zoom lens, which is a 35mm equivalent of 28 - 140mm and a 14 megapixel sensor as well as Digital Image Stabilisation to help take the sharpest pictures possible. The camera can also shoot at ISO 3200.

In SR AUTO mode the camera automatically detects from six scenes (portrait, landscape, night, macro, night portrait and backlit portrait) and sets the appropriate camera settings. Other modes include AUTO, Program Auto, Natural Light & with Flash, Natural Light, Baby, Motion Panorama, Sport, Snow, Sunset, Night (Tripod), Beach, Flower, Fireworks and Text.

There are a handful of features that help take perfect portraits. Face Detection automatically identifies faces and adjusts the focus and exposure, Red-eye removal detects and corrects flash reflection, the camera will also warn you when people are blinking. Face Detection can recognise up to 10 faces in a photo, which each cropped and saved individually. Smile & Shoot Mode automatically releases the shutter when a smile appears.

A range of features are included for post capture editing. For photos there is aspect ratio, cropping, brightness, face mosaic, image rotation, red-eye removal, resize and collage. For videos there is trimming and joining.

Movies can be recorded at 720p HD with optical zoom available during recording.

Fujifilm FinePix Z90 Top

Key Features

• 14.2 megapixel sensor
• 5x optical zoom (35mm equiv: 28-140mm)
• Slim metal body with vertical sliding lenscover
• 3.0 inch wide touch LCD screen
• YouTube/Facebook Easy Web Upload
• 720p HD movie capture
• One-touch Movie Mode and Movie Editing feature
• Digital Image Stabilisation
• Touch and Shoot mode
• Auto Picture Rotation
• Tracking Auto Focus
• Image search function

Fujifilm FinePix Z90 Rear

Fujifilm FinePix Z90 Handling

The Z90 has a very similar look and feel to the FinePix Z900, although the screen does not fill the whole of the rear of the camera. On the back there are buttons to switch between recording and playback as well as a grip for your thumb. On the top of the cameras is the shutter release with the zoom rocker and a dedicated button for video recording. There is no on/off switch as this is done by sliding down the front lens cover.

The screen is a touch-screen and it is impressive how responsive it is. With the easy to navigate camera menus, the Z90 is ideal for the beginner. The camera is ready to take photos within two to three seconds after switching on and focus speed is perfectly acceptable. The battery has a CIPA rating of 220 shots which is good and likely to be enough to last through a day of shooting. The camera has just one mode of continuous shooting which takes a maximum of five full resolutions shots at 1.3 fps.

Fujifilm FinePix Z90 Battery

Fujifilm FinePix Z90 Performance

Images taken by the Z90 are generally well exposed with good colour reproduction and no signs of purple fringing. The images are let down by the amount of detail in the images. Macro images are good and the camera is able to focus closer than the 9cm stated by Fuji, but detail is lacking when shooting wide and even worse when using the lens at its longest.

Fujifilm FinePix Z90 Lens test images

Even at ISO 100 noise is clearly affecting image quality. It steadily worses through ISO 200 and ISO 400, with ISO 800 producing the kind of images you are only going to use for sharing on the web. Noise is terrible at ISO 1600 and it's amazing that Fujifilm included ISO 3200 as the images are awful even when viewed small with large purple patches throughout the images.

Fujifilm FinePix Z90 ISO test images

Below are example images using some of the scene modes available. In sunny conditions the camera takes a very pleasant landscape shot, with superb blues and greens. The camera also takes good portrait shots and without any red-eye.

Fujifilm FinePix Z90 Scene modes

Under our incandescent lighting in the studio the auto white-balance gives a slight magenta cast in the image, with the incandescent preset producing the better image. When switching to the fluorescent lights, the AWB performs much better than any of the fluorescent presets.

Fujifilm FinePix Z90 White-balance test images

As well as Standard, the Z90 can shoot pictures using Chrome, Sepia and Black and White filters.

Fujifilm FinePix Z90 Digital filters

Video Mode

Videos can be shot at 720p HD and 640 x 320 VGA, both at 30 fps.

Value For Money

The Fujifilm FinePix Z90 is available for £89.95. There are a wide range of cameras to consider with a similar specification and price such as the Nikon Coolpix S3100 at £79.00, Canon IXUS 115 HS at £149.00, Canon PowerShot A3300 IS at £124.99 and Samsung ST90 at £89.99.

Fujifilm FinePix Z90 Verdict

The Fujifilm FinePix Z90 is an ideal camera for those on a budget and/or buying their first camera, who like to share pictures on social networking sites. Due to a lack of detail in images and poor noise performance, it is unlikely you'll want any large prints of your pictures. The touch-screen is excellent and the camera is available in plenty of bright vibrant colours.

Fujifilm FinePix Z90 Pros

Responsive touch-screen
Good colour reproduction
Good value for money
Available in wide range of colours

Fujifilm FinePix Z90 Cons

Poor noise performance
Detail in images isn't good

FEATURES
HANDLING
PERFORMANCE
VALUE FOR MONEY
OVERALL

Fujifilm FinePix Z90 Specifications

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