Fujifilm Finepix Z90

Fujifilm's FinePix Z90 is a very different animal to the advanced cameras that have made their way across my desk recently. The Z90 is a basic point and shoot camera aimed at ‘fabulous fashionistas and social networkers’ according to the press release.

It’s a well built camera and while it’s not the slimmest out there, it’s definitely small enough to slip into a pocket. The design is restrained yet elegant and the Z90 looks good in its bright silver finish. As befits its point and shoot status, the Z90 is a simple camera. Intriguingly, there are only four physical controls: all other interaction is done via the 3-inch touchscreen and the sliding front lens cover. The feature list includes a 14-megapixel sensor, a 28mm wide 5x optical zoom lens and 1280 x 720 HD video recording. It lacks optical or sensor based image stabilisation. Instead, the Z90 uses a digital stabilisation system, which is less effective. The Z90 handles social media and sharing aspects well. Just mark the selected images in-camera – FujiFilm's supplied software (Windows only!) then uploads them directly to the relevant sites.

The touchscreen implementation is effective enough but it feels more like a first generation system in its look and feel – it’s a bit gray and one dimensional. Operationally, the Z90 is easy to use because there’s not too much to play around with. You could dig into the slightly clunky and old fashioned menu system but most users will probably stick with the Scene Recognition automatic mode and just shoot away. The Z90’s touchscreen also has “touch and shoot” or “touch and track modes” which work well.

Startup isn’t exactly speedy and neither are the Z90’s general reflexes (autofocus is notably slow at times) but that’s how most cameras in this class behave. With the lens located in the top left hand corner of the body, it’s easy to inadvertently drop a finger in the way but you quickly adapt to this.

Image quality is variable; at low ISO settings, the shots are sharp and saturated, with loads of detail but as the ISO levels climb, image noise creeps in, which leads to softening and detail loss. That’s pretty typical for a small high density sensor and this would be a better camera with a 10MP sensor. The Z90 also makes some strange decisions about shutter speed, picking speeds far too slow to be shot handheld; it occasionally does this even in well lit scenes. At other times, the flash fails to fire when it really needs to. I was happy with some images, perplexed and dissatisfied with others. Video quality is average in good light but grainy in low light situations.

The price is friendly and the touchscreen and social media uploading are neat features but all up, the Z90 feels like it’s less than the sum of its parts. Even though expectations aren’t too high at this level, the overall performance isn’t all it could be. While it will do the job it was designed to do, it’s worth shopping around to make sure that this is the one for you.