F11 or e900 Tragic Choice. I just made it ..

Where's the best place to get an F11 in the U.S.? I recall two places on-line, one has the reputation of being crooked, and the other I forget.

Kim Letkeman said:

I'm sure the FZ30 prints great at 13x19 at ISO 80. Go above that
and you better be running Neat Image. But since I like Neat Image,
who am I to criticize the Panny for its little problem? I shoot
almost exclusively at 1600 ISO with the Fuji, so I am the perfect
candidate to buy that thing anyway

Click to expand...

Neat image really is an incredible tool. I recently discovered automation using profiles and it just seamlessly becomes part of the workflow when needed.

In one of the magazines. It was a glowing review. Anyone know if you downsize that 9mp file to 6mp, will it look the same as a f10/f11 pic at the higher iso?

The good reputation place is shirokiya in hawaii, for $350+shipping:

http://shirokiya.com/cart/shopcore/?db_name=shirokiya&page=shop/flypage&product_id=36&PHPSESSID=c7dc605614dc56e54a9cf56c76d88348

The bad reputation place is prestige cameras for $281+shipping:
http://www.prestigecamera.com/product~id~fjfpf11.htm

Note that the hawaii place comes with a US Fuji 1 year warranty, the prestige only comes with some warranty from them (which I would put zero weight in). This is the only option we know of so far to get a US Fuji warranty. Not a huge deal though, since you can buy a Mack extended warranty for $17 here:

http://www.compuplus.com/i-Mack-3-Year-Extended-Warranty-For-Digital-Cameras-Value-Up-to-500-839~sid-043a3llx62u8dtf-mfr-Mack-subcat-Digital%20Camera%20Extended%20Warranties.html

Folks also buy from http://www.dynamism.com/finepix-f11 or time2envy (ebay) for $360-$380 and say they're great. I don't see the benefit of this over the hawaii shop though, so these will probably become less popular.

No. Different sensor == different noise profile.

Lots of peolpe are very happy with time2envy (an eBay store) and dynamism.com ... I am a time2envy customer.

I bought from Michael at time2envy, also, on ebay and did the Mack warranty, great guy , great service 100% opposite of prestige as good as its gonig to get, however.............if your in the USA, buy from Jay @ Shirokiya and get the one year US warranty! Its great insurance at no extra cost and as Kim noted if you can buy with a credit card that doubles your warranty on electronic items.......your even better off! With having the only Fuji USA warranty he is probably having a hard time keeping stock, so get your order in.

The E900 has a lot going for it: 9MP, RAW output, 4xzoom with 32mm on the wide end, ability to add lenses.

The F11 has mainly just one thing going for it: lowest noise of any P&S camera on the market.

Sure I wish the F11 had RAW, the 4xzoom and the ability to add lenses (i.e. an E900 with the F11 sensor). But you know, no camera is perfect. My true dream camera (barring a dslr) would be the Panasonic FZ30 with the F11 sensor. Alas, that's never gonna happen.

mknobil said:

Well, I just pulled the trigger after pulling my hair out for days
... and I'm not happy about it!

Low light is my passion, but I need a real camera that I can
control ... as well as hold on to with gloves. I also travel all
over the world, and everywhere I go AA batts are there ... more so
then electricity! Also not just for partys and bars, so the
slightly wider lens is much appreciated.

So I bought the best camera in production anywhere for my needs ...
the e900. But to know it could be a LOT BETTER with the f11 chip,
leaves a bitter taste. I am angry at fuji for making a camera that
is significantly worse than it could have been simply to get the
magic number -9MP- stamped on the front. Sigh ... although it is
hard to be tooo angry at them becuse the 900 is such a great little
camera.

Come on Fuji, make a better camera with the "magic" f11 chip!

Click to expand...

--

Slowly learning to use the DRebel (only around 20.000 shots) and now also the Fuji F11.
Public pictures at http://wwwis.win.tue.nl/~debra/photos/

tbcass said:

I agree, there isn't much dfference between the two until you
magnify above the F10's native resolution where the s9000 becomes
superior. I did notice one thing in the iso 1600 images. I believe
the alleged superiority of the F10 at high iso's is due to higher
noise reduction, not some superiority in the sensor. While a little
noiser the s9000 images were much sharper. I believe the lower
noise in the F10 are achieved through softering the image because
the noise is there, just softened.

Click to expand...

Well ... this debate does not show signs of ending.

Your second-guessing of all the reviewers notwithstanding, the laws of physics are going to have to apply here too.

The two sensors are almost the same size, but one of them has 50% more pixels ... thus it must be amplified more to accomplish its 1600ISO sensitivity ... thus you will get more noise. Since this sensor is newer than the 6mp in the F10 (by just a bit), I'll grant that you might not require 50% more amplification and therefore it may not have get 50% more noise ...

But instead of arguing hypotheticals ... let's compare them directly with the excellent images from Steve's Digicams ...



The F10 appears to have low in-camera sharpening and fairly low in-camera contrast. I think that's why the images are so good in post processing. The S9000, on the other hand, appears to have higher default sharpening and contrast settings, which I believe can be turned down. But the point is that this accounts for the slight difference in crispness of the images. The 50% increase in pixels can probably account for the slightly higher level of detail.

I think that the S9000 images are more than "a little noisier" than those from the F10 at 1600ISO. Maybe with some Neat Image and other post processing ...



Even after Neat Image, the S9000 retains some noise in the shadows. But it's a pretty good result and will print or display well.

And, of course, they both look pretty nice when shrunk for the screen ...
F10:



S9000:



I'm not sure why there is still a need to contest the superiority of the F10 and F11 sensor at highest ISOs ... but it's pretty hard to deny.

If Fuji does not announce the intent to put the F11 sensor into an S9000 body soon ... I'll probably be grabbing one myself ... because it's still better than any other long zoom out there.

Paul De Bra said:

Sure I wish the F11 had RAW, the 4xzoom and the ability to add
lenses (i.e. an E900 with the F11 sensor). But you know, no camera
is perfect. My true dream camera (barring a dslr) would be the
Panasonic FZ30 with the F11 sensor. Alas, that's never gonna happen.

Click to expand...

But, just maybe, someone at Fuji reads these forums and will consider putting that sensor into the S9000z body ... that would do for me. I could live without the Panny's lense and OIS if I could get that sensor.