Celemens,cgnieder wrote:As far as I can see it\fitfigure
scales the images to fit a whole page. This might not always be what one wants. Also, this can be the reason for putting the float to another position in the text.
However, if things are working for you now: never mind.
Regards
I had suspected so and tried
\fitbitmap
, which supposedly is similar to \fitfigure
but does not scale the figure. However, the result was the same. I think the problem was what you just pointed me to: adding a "!" which I had missed! 
Best,
Saam