Fujifilm announces FinePix F600EXR compact megazoom with improved GPS and motion detection

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Summary: Fujifilm updates its compact megazoom F Series with better GPS features, motion detection, and a new “intelligent” digital zoom.

At first glance, the Fujifilm FinePix F600EXR announced today looks a lot like the other two compact megazooms in Fujifilm’s F Series, the F500EXR and F550EXR which were announced at this year’s CES. The F600EXR sports the same body design (with a new rubberized coating to improve the grip and reduce fingerprints), and like its predecessors uses a 16-megapixel EXR CMOS sensor, a 15x wide-angle zoom lens (24-360mm equivalent), and a 460,000-dot, 3-inch LCD.

Like the F550EXR, the F600EXR supports raw and raw+JPG modes and includes a built-in GPS sensor, but the F600 ups the ante with a new Landmark Navigator mode that adds an on-camera database of roughly one million points of interest (POI). In addition to overlaying POIs on the screen, the camera can also display your relative position and distance. By pointing your lens down, you can get a 1.5km radar view of landmarks — a nice touch.  Place names are user-editable, and you can perform image searches according to the edited place names as well.

Another new feature in the F600EXR is its built-in motion sensor, which enhances the camera’s new EXR Auto mode with motion detection. This advanced scene recognition mode detects 54 scene types and automatically chooses the optimal settings (e.g., exposure, white balance, sensor mode) to create a blur-free image, even in low light. Using the motion detection technology, the camera can optimize sensitivity and image stabilization settings when it detects a moving object, in order to capture a sharp exposure .

The F600EXR also introduces a new Intelligent Digital Zoom mode, which selectively boosts sharpness in the cropped-in image that the digital zoom produces, theoretically improving the image quality over standard digital zooms.

Other features include:

High-speed auto focus (up to 0.16 seconds)Continuous burst shooting (up to 11fps for 32 frames; 8fps at full resolution)Motion Panorama mode for 360-degree panoramasISO sensitivity up to 12,800Five Film Simulation Modes (special effects filters)Shoots high-speed movies with slow motion playback at up to 320 fpsMini HDMI output1080p video at 30 fps with stereo sound

The FinePix F600EXR will ship in October for $349.95.

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Janice got her hands on a Nikon Coolpix 900 back in 1998 and has been a digital camera enthusiast ever since.

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The new Fujifilm FinePix X10: An X100 for the rest of us?

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Summary: Fujifilm announces its FinePix X10, a premium compact digital camera that echoes the retro appeal of its higher-end knockout, the X100.

There’s some great news out for everyone who has been drooling over the Fujifilm FinePix X100, but choking over the $1,200 price tag: Fujifilm has announced the Fujifilm FinePix X10, a new model that’s poised to compete against premium compact digital cameras such as the Canon Powershot G12, Nikon Coolpix P7100, Olympus XZ-1, and Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX5. Though pricing for the X10 has not yet been released, my guess is that it will be priced at roughly half of the X100, say $599, possibly slightly higher than the $500 price tag most of the other premium compacts sport, since the X10 currently outspecs them. Still, cameras like the G12 and LX5 are getting a little long in the tooth (in the insanely fast-paced camera market, anyway) and are ripe for updating. (The oldest of the group, the LX5 — released just over a year ago — is scheduled for a firmware update on September 13.)

The biggest difference between the X10 and its current competition is its larger 2/3-inch (8.8×6.6mm) EXR CMOS sensor — the others max out at 1/1.63 inch (7.89×5.81mm) CCDs. Though a bigger sensor typically means better image quality (especially in low-light), Fujifilm opted for a higher resolution of 12 megapixels, while other camera vendors have wisely stuck with 10 megapixels in their premium compacts (even while they cram the tiny sensors in their lower-end compacts with more and more pixels to appease the megapixel-mad masses). We’ll have to wait for hands-on reviews to see if the extra megapixels cancel out the benefits a larger sensor can offer in terms of image quality. Sensor size aside, however, like Fujifilm’s other EXR-sensor cameras, the X10 offers three different shooting modes that vary the usage of the sensor depending on the shooting environment: The High Sensitivity and Low Noise (SN) mode aims to deliver better-quality low-light images with less noise, the Wide Dynamic Range (DR) mode offers an increased dynamic range for detail in both shadow and highlights, and the High Resolution (HR) mode uses full 12-megapixel resolution to deliver better detail in bright, even lighting.

The X10 also sports a relatively bright 28-112mm equivalent (f/2.0-f/2.8) 4x optical zoom lens and a broader sensitivity range (ISO 100-12,800) than its competitors, as well as a much faster maximum continuous shooting speed of 10fps (at medium resolution) and 7fps at full resolution, besting even its big brother X100.

Speaking of the X100, the X10 echoes its older sibling’s fabulous retro look, with a textured finish, top-mounted dials, and a manual barrel zoom to complete the old-school feel. While it doesn’t have the X100’s cool hybrid optical/electronic viewfinder, it does have a straight optical viewfinder in addition to the 2.8-inch, 460,000-dot LCD. The X10 also inherits the X100’s 49-point autofocus system, but improves upon the HD video recording capabilities by offering 1080p full HD recording at 30fps (vs. the X100’s 720p at 24fps max).

Other key features include:

8 Film Simulation modes that mimic Fujifilm photographic films (e.g., Velvia, Provia, Astia)Custom and Auto White Balance (with 9 white balance presets)Noise Reduction Adjustment functionManual shooting modes (Program/Aperture Priority/Shutter Speed Priority/Manual)Power start-up within approximately 0.8 seconds (must be in Quick Start mode)360° Motion PanoramaManual pop-up flashElectronic horizon leveling gauge4 auto bracketing functions (exposure, ISO sensitivity, dynamic range, and film simulation)RAW shooting and in-camera RAW processing

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Janice got her hands on a Nikon Coolpix 900 back in 1998 and has been a digital camera enthusiast ever since.

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Fujifilm FinePix X10 to sell for $599.95 in early November

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