Fujifilm MX-2900 review

The MX-2900 is far more conformist in design than its sibling the MX-2700, which makes it a more enticing proposition for the conservative camera user. It uses SmartMedia as its primary memory storage format but, considering the maximum resolution is 1,800 x 1,200, the 8Mb card supplied seems a little mean.

One of the first things we noticed about the MX-2900 was its weight. However, it does sit well in the hand, aided by a moulded grip and sensible layout. The option dial sits on the top right of the camera next to a mono LCD which gives basic settings information. An excellent quality LCD can be found on the rear and allows the subject to be previewed camcorder style, although this doesn't have to be used thanks to the presence of an optical viewfinder.

The range of options on the camera is impressive, with manual settings for white balance as well as exposure control. In keeping with its pretensions to serious photography, it also has the rare ability to accept add-on lenses for more demanding tasks. The lens built into the MX-2900 is no slouch, though: it gives you an impressive 3x optical zoom, controlled by a lever on the back. On top of all that the camera is equipped with a hot-shoe connector for attaching an external flash gun, and there are settings to adjust the camera to allow for this. The standard built-in flash sits flush above the lens, and only needs to be popped up when required.

The MX-2900 sports two resolutions and four compression ratios, but even on the highest setting it's reasonably quick at storing an image and readying itself for another shot. A flashing red light informs you that the camera is busy.

As far as quality is concerned, we were impressed but not bowled over. The Fujifilm MX-2900 demonstrated good colour balance and resolved detail well, but artefacts marred the image. The fact that it only managed to score seventh place in the image quality stakes is indicative of the stiff competition it faced in Labs this month.