Fujifilm Announces New Digital Cameras

: Six new digicams have been added to the Fujifilm line-up, including two with a new 6.3-megapixel Super CCD HR sensor.

Fujifilm has also released details of a new ‘E’ series of ‘no-nonsense’ cameras characterised by ‘wide zooms, large LCD screens and a competitive price’. Leading this series is the 6.3 megapixel FinePix E550 Zoom, which features a 4x zoom lens with and equivalent focal length of 32.5-130mm in 35mm format and a sturdy metal case with large 2.0-inch LCD monitor. The E550 Zoom can be used as a snapshot camera but also supports aperture priority, shutter priority and manual exposure modes and includes RAW file capture as well as the regular JPEG file format. Its sensitivity settings range from ISO 80 to ISO800 and it supports VGA video capture at 30 frames/second with sound. Power is supplied by two AA batteries and images are stored on an xD-Picture Card.
Other ‘E’ series cameras are the 5.2-megapixel E510Z and 4.1-megapixel E500, each of which has a Fujinon 3.2x zoom lens with a focal length equivalent to 28-91mm. Both models support movie capture at 10 fps with sound and both sport large 2-inch LCD monitors.
Fujifilm has also updated its S5000 Zoom model with the release of the S5500 Zoom, which has a 4-megapixel sensor and 10x optical zoom lens (37-370mm equivalent). The sensor is a conventional CCD chip but the S5500 Zoom supports a wide range of sensitivity settings (ISO64-400) and a full range of exposure modes plus RAW file capture. VGA quality video can be recorded at 30 fps with sound and displayed on the 1.5-inch LCD monitor.

The FinePix S3000 Zoom will also be replaced by a new model, the FinePix S3500 Zoom, which also boasts a conventional 4-megapixel CCD sensor but has a 6x optical zoom lens. A compact, SLR-style body with a silver metallic finish and four scene mode settings combine with a switchable LCD/EVF display system and multi-mode flash to make this model attractive to a wide range of users.
The new FinePix F810 Zoom combines Fujifilm’s 6.3-megapixel Super CCD HR sensor with a high performance 4x optical zoom lens (equivalent to 32.5-130mm on a 35mm camera) and a high-resolution 2.1-inch LCD monitor in a compact camera body. Features that will attract photographers include widescreen (16:9) capture, RAW format support and a variety of manual controls, including Program AE, aperture and shutter priority and metered manual, accessible via a neat command dial.

Full details of the new cameras will be available from www.fujifilm.com.au close to the local release date for the new models, which is likely to be in the last quarter of this year.