The cameras listed alphabetically below have been inducted into our reader generated Serious Compacts Hall of Fame. Click on a name to read the entry written by that individual.

Canon A610/620 - eikona
Canon A95 - Mayank Bhatnagar
Canon G2 - Luc de Schepper (Skippy1958)
Casio EX-P600/P700 - Chris Nutt (chrispynutt)
Fujifilm E900 - JD (dicko6508)
Fujifilm Finepix F11 / F10 - JohnHHill
Panasonic LX1 - Jim (cledry)
Samsung Digimax L85 - Lili (colette_noir)
Sony DSC-V3 - sonomichele

Click here to learn how to add one of your own favorites to our Hall of Fame.

By Jon Dickinson

The Fujifilm Finepix E900 was announced in 2005 and is no longer in production - I picked mine up from Ebay for the princely sum of 50GBP, which is a bargain in my opinion. The E900 is the last pocketable RAW-shooting camera Fuji made - and it's not a bad little mover.



Tech stuff: 32-128mm EFOV, f2.8 at the wide end, f5.6 at the long end. PSAM, full Auto and some scene modes. Runs on a pair of AA batteries, I've had about 350 to 400 shots (no flash) from a full charge. Flash is a bit feeble and wayward, requiring turning down (which you can do, fortunately) at close range, and not doing much at all further away. Sensor is 1/1.6", 9MP, and delivers a decent JPEG or RAW if you like. You can get full tech details at various sites out there if you want something specific.





The main goodies, from my point of view are:

Good hand grip
Not too small sensor
Good JPEG output
Does RAW too
Dedicated buttons for drive mode and exposure compensation




On the mild annoyance side of things, it takes a good six seconds or so to put a RAW away to the xD card, and they're fairly long seconds too. Might even be over seven actual seconds if I were to time it. JPEGs take just under two seconds to put away, which isn't so bad. Flash is a bit rubbish (see above) but that's not part of my method of working 99% of the time. Oh, and it takes xD cards only, which means a maximum of 2GB per card; so I've got a few in my case for when I get RAW and run out - 107 RAWs on a 2GB card, or 457 JPEGs, you choose.



I haven't had enough time to evaluate different RAW developer packages as that's a new area to me, and not really within the remit of this write-up - however, I have had a week's holiday in the Isle of Wight and took about 2200 JPEGs during this time. The good news is, the JPEGs from the E900 are good and sturdy - straight from the camera on 9M Fine setting, 'Chrome' colour setting (Fuji's version of 'Vivid' on other manufacturer's cameras) and Standard sharpness, they're good for a bit of Levels adjustment, a little USM and done. For Black & White, I tend to Channel Mix and then play with Curves to get things the way I like, and then just some sharpening. Here are a few more samples from this first shooting spree:









Just a footnote - I'm using GIMP for all the PP work on my photographs, version 2.4 is very stable and very versatile, and also free.

So, to round up, the E900 is a pretty class act in that as a used buy today it offers a combination of features currently unavailable on any similarly sized new camera under about 250GBP. Necessity is often the mother of invention, and being skint has turned me down a vey interesting and rewarding path in my photography. Thanks Fuji!

Cheers
JD

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JD posted the above as a Hall of Fame entry in our Discussion area, and I'm reposting it here with his permission. Readers looking for a seriously capable compact on a budget will certainly want to consider the E900. -Amin
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Serious Compacts Flickr group member Luc de Schepper (Skippy1958) has added an entry to our reader generated Hall of Fame, the Canon G2. Check out his post here. Thanks Luc!

Click here to learn how to add one of your own favorites to our Hall of Fame.

- Do you still use you older film or digital compact?
- Still happily carrying a Rollei AFM 35 or Konica AF?
- Don't see any reason to upgrade from that trusty Sony DSC-V3 or Canon S70?
- Still frequently leave the DSLR at home and carry a Minolta A2 or Olympus C-5050 instead?
- Or do you simply have fond memories of a particular camera you wish you had kept?

Tell us about it. Contribute an article telling us why your camera deserves a place in the Serious Compacts Hall of Fame.

Here's how:
1) Join our Flickr group.
2) Start a new thread on the Discussion page, beginning the title with "S.C. Hall of Fame", for example the thread title might be "S.C. Hall of Fame - Canon Powershot G3".
3) Write your review as the original post in that thread. The discussion forum supports HTML, so feel free to include links and photos in your review.
4) Send us a note to let us know about your entry.

That's it! We'll link to your review from the blog front page and add your article link to the Serious Compacts Hall of Fame.

If you wish to contribute a separate review on a camera that is already in the Hall of Fame, please by all means do so; but start a separate discussion thread. That way we can properly recognize your contribution.

Many of these older models are underappreciated, and some are truly irreplaceable. Help us build up a valuable resource by contributing a piece on one of your favorite older cameras.