PHOTO QUALITY. This 16-megapixel superzoom camera captured images with very good quality. We judged this model very good for outdoor performance, such as shooting landscapes in the daytime; good for indoor performance, such as photographing a well-lit basketball game in a gym; good for performance under natural light without a flash, such as shooting under an overcast sky.
FLASH. The FinePix S9800 captured flash shots that were very good. In our distance test, we found the camera's flash could illuminate subjects very well, both near and far. The flash also has good, relatively even coverage.
LENS. It has a very long 50x zoom lens that can be great for travel and sports shooting when you need to zoom in far to capture your subjects. The lens also has very wide-angle (24mm) capability that's very useful for landscapes and group portraits, although you may notice a bit of distortion when you're shooting faces up close, for instance.
IMAGE STABILIZER. This is an important feature with a long zoom lens; taking hand-held shots at the telephoto end of the zoom range can generally blur or soften images due to the slight movement of your hands. Shooting telephoto in well-lit scenes, this model did a very good job of minimizing the effects of camera shake. In low-light settings, it performed excellently and almost never produced blurry photos.
SPEED. In terms of performance, the Fujifilm FinePix S9800 powers up very quickly. It has a short interval between shots, which can be important when shooting fast-moving or unpredictable subjects.
VIDEO. The Fujifilm FinePix S9800 takes fair video, lower quality than most in its class. It captures full HD video at 1920 x 1080 30p or 60i. As for sound, it captures good audio in stereo.
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS. It has HDR (high-dynamic range) settings. It has an electronic viewfinder, a rarity for point-and-shoot models, which we found to be very good. This superzoom is much bigger and heavier than most in its class.
