The Sony H9 is a medium-sized ultrazoom camera that is loaded with features and manual controls, although like all cameras it retains a user-friendly automatic mode for those who want to just point and shoot. The H9 has a big 31-465mm (15x) zoom range which isn’t quite as wide as the 28mm on other cameras, but is still a big step up from the 35mm or 36mm of most other cameras, and is adequate enough to cover most travel situations. The long telephoto end of the zoom is perfect for zooming in for close-up pictures of fast action, and covers the medium range useful for portraits of people and animals, as well.

The H9 uses a conventional image sensor (unlike the Fuji S6000fd), so high ISO results won’t be extraordinary. Because of Sony’s slightly more aggressive noise reduction, however, the out-of-camera high-ISO pictures will be slightly better than what you’d typically find in this class. While it may be good enough for slower subjects like simple people portraits in low-light, the H9 simply won’t be able to photograph any sort of fast action in low light situations, and will produce some grainy/noisy photos even in daylight situations.

While it won’t help much for moving subjects, for static subjects in low light the H9 makes up for the lack of high ISO performance with its “Super SteadyShot” image stabilization (IS) system, which will help greatly with low-light pictures of static scenes on travel, like buildings or landscapes.

The H9 can take photos continuously at 2 frames per second for an unlimited number of pictures - extremely good for a consumer camera, and allowing the H9 to capture a whole series of photos and increase your keeper rate - a useful feature for consumer cameras that otherwise struggle with things like consistently focusing. As with the S6000fd and other non-SLR cameras, the autofocus system of the H9, while among the best in the consumer market, is simply not good enough to keep up with fast action subjects in low light, and is just barely able to keep up with the fastest subjects even in daylight situations.

The H9 uses a Sony battery which lasts 280 shots (CIPA standard) - a bit below average for cameras in this class, but still good enough to last a day of travel for most people.

While not the leading camera in terms of image quality (especially in low-light and fast-action situations), the Sony H9 is still above average, and the more compact size makes it a better option for those who don’t want to carry something as big as an SLR or bridge camera while on travel.

The newly-released S8000fd is the first camera in Fujifilm’s series of medium-sized ultrazooms. The S8000fd packs a whopping 18x zoom range from 28-504mm, easily covering the midrange useful for portraits of people and pets, the long telephoto for fast action close-ups, and just about any sort of scene - landscapes, building interiors, close-up detail, wildlife - that you might encounter on travel.

Unlike the S6000fd, however, the S8000fd uses a conventional sensor rather than Fujifilm’s heralded SuperCCD sensor, yielding far more average high ISO results - slightly worse than the Sony H9. The S8000fd will struggle to take photos of moving subjects such as people or pets in low-light situations, and will yield slightly noisy images for fast-action even in daylight situations. The average high ISO performance means that fast-action photos in low-light situations is practically impossible without either heavy blur or unusable noise. The S8000fd does have an image stabilization system, which will help for photos of static subjects, such as landscapes or buildings encountered on travel.

The S8000fd can shoot continuously at 1.3fps, but only for the first 3 pictures. After this the continuous rate is only 0.5 frames per second - far too slow to be of any use. The S8000fd’s autofocus system is like most other consumer cameras - just about good enough to keep up with fast-action in daylight situations, but essentially unusable for fast-action in low-light.

The S8000fd is rated for 500 shots on one set of batteries, which should easily last 3 or more days of travel.

While it isn’t the fastest-performing camera, or the camera with the highest image quality, with its 18x zoom and relatively compact size the S8000fd is certainly one of the most versatile cameras on the market.