Fuji FinePix E900 (1 Viewer)

[Craig Thayer]

One of the "local" digiscoping blogs mentions a new camera that has features that seem desirable . The Fuji FinePix 900 (9Mp) has an adapter with 43mm thread, 4x optical zoom, manual overrdie(aperture priority) and 2 inch LCD screen. The blogger believes this camera might be good for digiscoping. Does anyone have any comments about this camera(it is brand new but is now avaiable in the US at locales such as Ritz Camera)

Craig Thayer Chicago

 

[Anntan]

Hi Craig, My first digital camera, baught in 2003 was the Fugi FinePix A405 and I'me still using it, and still with the same card. Last year I upgraded to the Fugi FinePix F700, this camera has served me well so far. Both cameras are excelent for Biniscoping, I don't have a telescope. This new Fugi FinePix 900 sounds like it's superceded all others to the Fugi range. Next year the 900 will be superceded, where will it all end.

 

[garry1366]

Hi been doing a bit of reading on this camera (not seen one in the flesh). Despite 9mp (which can apparantly produce lots of noise) it seems to have recieved favourable reviews for image quality, and seems to be usable at 80/100/200 ISO settings.

It seems like it has all the features bar a tilting screen that would be desirable for digiscoping. A 2 inch monitor, adaptor ring available, thread for cable release bracket, 2xAA batteries for power, less than a second start up time and 1 second shot to shot times seem pretty fast. It has a continuous shooting mode where it takes 40 frames and when you release the shutter it saves the last 4, which seems like it could be almost as useful as the contax/kyoceras.

This thread suggests it has no vignetting problem http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=45537

Can anyone with access to them in a shop have a look and post any feedback for us? Andy?

I see they are advertised on the net in the UK for £299

G

 

[Alain75]

Garry, just got it today, and from the early testing I did in the thread you mentioned it is ok about vigneting. I'm quite happy about it for the moment, however about the features you mentioned, there is no thread for cable release bracket or other means of cable or remote electronic shutter release from fuji to my knowledge, yet ?

 

[garry1366]

Garry, just got it today, and from the early testing I did in the thread you mentioned it is ok about vigneting. I'm quite happy about it for the moment, however about the features you mentioned, there is no thread for cable release bracket or other means of cable or remote electronic shutter release from fuji to my knowledge, yet ?

Alain,
As there is a thread for a tripod mount you will be able to use either the Eagle eye or Jessops generic cable release bracket. Look forward to hearing your thoughs and seeing your images with this camera.

G

 

[garry1366]

Pixmania has these advertised for £255.

 

[Alain75]

Alain,
As there is a thread for a tripod mount you will be able to use either the Eagle eye or Jessops generic cable release bracket. Look forward to hearing your thoughs and seeing your images with this camera.

G

Thanks for the info garry, but I think with the swarovski DCB adaptator I won't be able to use these, as the piece using the tripod screw for the DCB is quite special and the screw not very long (so don't think possible to put the cable release piece in between).

By the way on the E900 the tripod thread is in hard plastic, no issue at all for now but would have prefered metal, think I'll cobble up something for the cable release.

So below my very first tries , didn't have much time plus the light was not as good as the previous days where it was great, maybe better tomorow.

All pics unchanged, no cropping no filtering.

A robin at 20x, the only sharp bird pic I managed to get (got some blurry black crows in the frame besides that, although saw a pheasant and a few jays and magpies):

Robin

Then tried to get some cormorants (at bois de Boulogne lake) but they kept on diving at the wrong moment :/ , so thought something not moving might be easier.

Notre Dame lowest camera zoom :

ND lowest

Notre Dame highest camera zoom :

ND highest

Then from the same spot tried digiscoping on a gargoyle (at 20x or 30x forgot), and here strangely a red AF was flashing on the screen and the camera could not get the focus :

gargoyle

What could be the reason ? poor light ? Then tried aperture priority and manual focus but anyway it was too late (damn short days ... ), will be able to check that tomorow I hope

 

[garry1366]

Hi Alain,

The Robin looks like the camera is promising

Garry

 

[Alain75]

Ok here are some more tries from today, the light in the afternoon was quite good, but could not start very early.

Basically, I still have this focus problem ||

Below for the light level at arrival :

Light at arrival

Below digiscoping tries around at 20x 30x (or 40x) on some gargoyles and statues, most got blurry because of the autofocus not getting it :

"devil" angel blurry

"devil" almost sharp

gargoyle blurry

gargoyle sharp

"monkey" best sharpness from the lot


"devil" best sharpness from the lot

another "devil" best sharpness from the lot

statues best sharpness from the lot

So is that typical of digiscoping or is the camera not very good at it ?

The sharpness/focus was really great looking directly in the scope. And the camera was almost always displaying a flasing red AF! (going into autofocus error)

Thought basically the camera has to focus on the "infinite", is that not the case ?

I also tried manual focusing with different aperture values, but could not get better results :/, in fact I think I got the sharp ones in automatic mode.

And the way of manually setting the focus on the E900 is really not great, no way for instance to lock it on the infinite and almost no info on the screen.

I woud be grateful for some advises on this focusing aspect (can still change it towards the Olympus SP350 for instance).

Could it be due to "optical limitations" of the camera ?

Besides that at around 5pm the light was great :

nd from below

nd vertical

And some birds "hitchcock style" :

woman with pigeons and sea gulls

Almost as many seagulls (not sure of the exact species) as pigeons ! :

pigeons seagulls

nd seagulls

seagulls

And a starling in the lot :

starling

pigeon with feet messed up as so many

Christmas decorations just on on "galleries lafayette" (same for three years at least, they could move on ... ) here and the previous ones tried the "natural light" mode which seems ok in low light :

lafayette


So basically, besides this focusing and manual focus set up issue I'm quite happy with this camera, other few things :

Using "standard batteries" is almost useless, they get empty very quickly. However on rechargabled ones it is really ok, did yesterday and today on the same ones.

The macro mode is not great : minimum focus distance is 7cm (only 2 for the Olympus) and the zoom is locked at the minimum.

Again if somebody could tell me if this focusing problem is really an issue with this camera or if it is typical of the "digiscoping practice" it would be great !!

Cheers,
Alain

 

[Alain75]

Hi Alain,

The Robin looks like the camera is promising

Garry

Hi Garry, but I was really close on this one, around 5 or 6 meters I would say, what do you think about the blurry pics above on the statues ?

 

[garry1366]

Hi Alain,

I have a similar problem with my Kyocera. Previously I had a coolpix 4500 and 950 and didn't seem to get this problem. I can get better focus with the Kyocera by focusing the scope, attaching the camera and getting focus, then refocus the scope until the camera monitor is sharp. It works but isn't ideal, with the monitor being small it is difficult to get really good sharp focus, especially in poor light. I tried a friends Canon A95 and this required the same fine tuning of focus.

Garry

 

[Alain75]

Hi Alain,

I have a similar problem with my Kyocera. Previously I had a coolpix 4500 and 950 and didn't seem to get this problem. I can get better focus with the Kyocera by focusing the scope, attaching the camera and getting focus, then refocus the scope until the camera monitor is sharp. It works but isn't ideal, with the monitor being small it is difficult to get really good sharp focus, especially in poor light. I tried a friends Canon A95 and this required the same fine tuning of focus.

Garry

Garry, thanks a lot for the advice, I just made a quick indoor try and it looks like it is exactly what I was missing.

In an on purpose poor light, at first the focus shows the flashing AF, I refocus with the scope, and no more flashing AF . Hope to try that outside quickly.

On another note, I'v seen that in fact a lot of people use the macro mode for digiscoping, this clearly is not possible with the e900 as in macro mode the zoom is fixed at wide angle position, which leads to major vigneting...

Still wondering if I change it to the Sony W7 or W5 ...

With the A95, were you using macro mode or "normal" mode ?

Also on this, I'm not an optical expert but it puzzles me that both "macro" and "focus at infinity" can be used. The camera grabs a different focused image position in the scope in the two different cases ?

 

[Marc Delsalle]

Garry, thanks a lot for the advice, I just made a quick indoor try and it looks like it is exactly what I was missing.

In an on purpose poor light, at first the focus shows the flashing AF, I refocus with the scope, and no more flashing AF . Hope to try that outside quickly.

On another note, I'v seen that in fact a lot of people use the macro mode for digiscoping, this clearly is not possible with the e900 as in macro mode the zoom is fixed at wide angle position, which leads to major vigneting...

Still wondering if I change it to the Sony W7 or W5 ...

With the A95, were you using macro mode or "normal" mode ?

Also on this, I'm not an optical expert but it puzzles me that both "macro" and "focus at infinity" can be used. The camera grabs a different focused image position in the scope in the two different cases ?

Hi Alain,

I don't know for Garry but I always use my Canon A95 in macro mode.

Before to change your E900 for a Sony W7 (a good camera)why don't you try the Fuji F11 ?
The F11 has a thread mount so you can use a DCB adaptater for digiscoping.
This camera looks promising too ? (Aperture priority, 2.5 "screen). Just my 2 cents.

Regards,

marc

 

[Alain75]

Hi Alain,

I don't know for Garry but I always use my Canon A95 in macro mode.

Before to change your E900 for a Sony W7 (a good camera)why don't you try the Fuji F11 ?
The F11 has a thread mount so you can use a DCB adaptater for digiscoping.
This camera looks promising too ? (Aperture priority, 2.5 "screen). Just my 2 cents.

Regards,

marc

Marc, yes I could try the F11 also (have to make sure the zoom position is not fixed in macro, not the case for the F10 but who knows ...), but somehow at this point I'm reluctant to go without an optical viewfinder (also no way to add lenses on the F10/11 no ? )

The Olympus SP 350 also looks like a good candidate, have to check with the fnac if the 15 days trial is put back to zero after an exchange

Not sure, I guess if the scope focus procedure works well I will keep the e900, but this macro mode thing bothers me, the results on the A95 are clearly better in macro ? The camera grabs the focus more easily ?

 

[garry1366]

Hi Alain,

Not sure what the setting on the A95 was (it was only a quick look at it).

I think people started using macro on the coolpix range because the thinking was the camera achieved focus slightly quicker like this. I don't notice any difference with the Kyocera so I guess it comes down to each individual camera. I would not let the wide angle aspect of the E900 macro put you off if it works ok in infinity.

How do you find the LCD screen? is it easy to see in direct sunlight?
What does the continuous shooting mode (when it saves the last four shots) work like? Is it a useful feature for getting images of say a preening or moving bird to start taking shots then releasing the shutter and saving the last four as the bird stops moving?

Garry

 

[Alain75]

Hi Garry, about the LCD screen on the e900, yes I would say it is quite good even in bright daylight, the F11 on this point might be better though, at least it is bigger and has more pixels (2"/115 000 for the e900, 2,5"/150 000 for the f11).

About the continuous shooting mode, I didn't tried it yet digiscoping, I tried it on flying seagulls handheld but the light was really too bad at that time, so I'm not sure. Note that there is also a fully continuous shooting mode (but less frames per second and does not work in PSAM modes, only on the predefined ones). Also here the F11 is better I think.

Hope to be able to test it again on Thursday or Friday, if I can manage the focus properly I think I'll keep it (for the optical viewfinder, the 4x zoom, the possibility to add lenses, and the 9MP high sensibility CCD).

Note: about vignetting the F10/F11 also seem to be ok, at least with a pentax scope, found below on digiscopingbirds yahoo list :

"The Pentax scope is one of the best scopes on the market and the 20-60x
eyepiece is exceptional. I am using this scope for digiscoping for a
longer time no and are very pleased by the results as well as the
handling. I use it in combination with different compact digicams, my
favorite is the Fuji F10 and will be the F11.

In fact, the lack of apropriate adapters for this scope made me develop
an adapter for it. This adapter is versatile, you can use most digicams
with the Pentax scope and our adapter. Next week I will hold the
preproduction adapter in my hands, the other week it will start to be
produced. So if you can wait you will get more information on our web site.

-Andreas

--
Andreass Lehmann Tel: +49-5507-964770
Delta Optics Fax: +49-5507-964771
Hohler Weg 2 mailto:lehmann@...
37136 Ebergoetzen http://www.delta-optics.de
"


Cheers,
Alain

 

[iporali]

I think people started using macro on the coolpix range because the thinking was the camera achieved focus slightly quicker like this.

The macro on the CP4500 is nice for digiscoping because it actually makes the camera's focus range larger (from 2 cm to infinity). It only limits the usable zoom range from both ends, which doesn't matter in digiscoping. I don't think the focus is quicker on macro, but it has more steps to find the correct focus. Anyway, I have't seen a big difference between macro and "normal" mode - both hit sometimes and miss often .

Ilkka

 

[Alain75]

Ok managed to do some more tries today in parc Monceau at about 50, 60 meters :

statue 30x

statue 40x

statue 50x


magpie around 60 meters

magpie around 60 meters

leafs

platane

I think I will keep the e900, the focus with the scope is managable, for the infinite focus you just have to push the T and listen (close) to when it stops moving, could be better, but this is without cable shutter release ...

Also tried the continous shooting for the magpie, think it can be quite useful

 

[Neil]

Alain,
I had a look at your photos and their seems to be two issues on the early ones. The point of focus seems to be better in the background on the gargoyle and some of the others show camera shake. The Red AF focusing probably means that the scope wasn't focused close enough and the camera AF can't lock on , although it still may take the photo (my Olympus 7070 does this ). As you don't have a Remote Release use the Self Timer and photograph something at the same height as the scope at 6m,10m,20,50m. If you use your finger to trigger the shutter use the Continuous Mode and you'll find that the third or fourth image should be sharper than the first. There's a lot of trial and error in digiscoping but keep posting as I'm interested in the results from this camera myself.Neil.

 

[Xenospiza]

Here's one I made today in the 9M pixel "jpeg mode" through a Leica 62 Apo. I just cut out the bird to get to an allowed file size, I didn't enhance or reduce anything. I have 3 days experience with this camera... and none with others!