Macro:
Final Thoughts
The Z900EXR is a very small, light-weight digital camera with lots of easy to use features. And when I say easy, I really do mean it! You just have to touch the screen to change shooting modes and settings, and even take pictures by focusing the camera on whatever you touch on the screen (if you choose that option).
The camera is small enough to easily slip into your pocket and not be that noticeable. When you first switch the camera on, the Z on the front of the camera lights up – not that you will see it as you will be behind the camera!
There are a lot of different shooting modes and menu options to choose from. Fortunately they are mostly all self explanatory, but as I mentioned in the review above, it is worth taking some time to learn all the different settings and features, and to take numerous test pictures – even if you just end up putting the camera on auto.
The 360 degree panorama feature is pretty cool. This is the first camera I have used that had this feature built it. When you select that mode, you decide on the direction you are going to pan and the press the button and turn in a circle keeping the displayed icon on a yellow line that appears on the screen, along with a progress bar. Once you have finished the magic takes place and the picture is ready to be viewed.
I found the zoom worked very well as well. I have had cameras with digital zooms in the past, and to be honest I have always found them a little hit and miss compared to “actual” zoom lenses. I was pleasantly surprised by the Z900EXR (and you can see the results above on full zoom).
The HD movie recorded worked very well and I was pleased with the results – although make sure you have a decent sized SD card if you want to record in maximum quality otherwise you will soon notice the space disappear before your very eyes. You can even connect the camera to a TV or monitor with the built in HDMI port – good thinking Fujifilm!
One other nice little feature was the rotating screen image when the camera is either in landscape or portrait mode. This may not seem like a big deal but having the icons in the correct orientation at all times was very helpful.
A feature that sets this camera apart from a lot of others is the social media upload feature. A lot of people like to post their pictures to Facebook and their videos to You Tube and having the ability to select what you want to upload on the camera and then just connect the camera to your computer is a really good, and time saving feature. I found it worked very well and was very simple to use.
And I was very happy with the picture quality (again as you can see from some of the test pictures I took above).
What was a shame was that Fujifilm didn’t include an SD card in the box so that you could just charge the battery up and go take pictures or shoot video. SD cards are very cheap so it wouldn’t have been a big deal to do that. So if you are thinking of buying the Z900EXR just make sure you also buy at least one SD card if you don’t already have a spare one.
The camera retails for £229.99, although you can find it significantly cheaper than that. Just today I found it on Amazon for £138.99, which frankly is a bargain for a camera of this quality and feature set – highly recommended, get one today!
