Fuji MX-2900 Zoom

Photographic enthusiasts are well-catered for with the MX-2900. The manual mode offers seven white balance settings, exposure compensation from -0.9 to 1.5EV in 0.3EV increments, a choice of F4 or F8 aperture, shutter speeds between three seconds to 1/1,000th of a second, five flash brightness levels, three metering modes, and continuous shooting in 640 x 480 at 3fps (frames per second) for nine frames. There's a self-timer, a slow flash sync, macro setting down to 25cm, an external flash hotshoe, red-eye reduction and even manual focus adjustment. The camera can apply five levels of image sharpening and four special effects if desired. Digital Print Order Format (DPOF) is also supported for ordering prints directly from the memory card. Fully automatic and aperture priority modes are provided for those users who prefer the easy life, while enthusiasts of slide show presentations will welcome the composite video output.

You can frame your shot using the optical viewfinder or the 2in polysilicon display. We prefer using the displays as they show you exactly what you're getting and don't suffer from parallax effect. However, like so many other digital cameras, the MX-2900's display is rendered useless in direct sunlight, despite a brightness adjustment. Sony's 55E features a transflective display, which works very well outdoors, and also saves power by allowing you to switch off the backlight. The MX-2900 could do with such a feature since ours ate through its rechargeable battery in a relatively quiet morning.

Don't get me wrong, the MX-2900 is a great camera, but one that's matched or beaten by the competition. The image quality is very good, but not quite up to the Sony 55E or Nikon 950. The feature set is excellent, but then so is the Nikon 950's. It does carry a retail price that's similar to Sony's 55E, and slightly lower than Nikon's 950, making it fair value for money, but we'd still recommend these other models.

Author: Gordon Laing