Digital Home Thoughts - News & Reviews for the Digital Home

"What you just heard was the sound of five new FinePix cameras popping out of Fujifilm's doors. Yippie! If all goes well, we'll be seeing these SDHC-loving / xD-hating babies from late August. Let's start working through the list: the 12 megapixel, 720p-video (24fps) F300EXR boasts auto-focus speeds that are "as good as" DSLRs, all thanks to the camera's hybrid auto-focus system -- a combination of Contrast AF (as used on most compacts) and Phase Detection AF (as found on most DSLRs)"

Fujifilm has launched a number of cameras, and the two most interesting are the F300EXR (pictured above) and the Z800EXR. Both use Fujifilm's 12 megapixel EXR sensor, and both pack a hybird AF system that somehow manages to pack a phase detect AF sensor (usually a separate module in DSLRs) onto the imaging sensor. I'm not sure how that is done, but it could be the imaging sensor being used to read specific peaks and valleys of incoming light.

While both the F300EXR and Z800EXR share similar electronics, both have differing form factors; the F300EXR is a bigger camera that falls in the "travel zoom" category, packing a 24-360mm equivalent lens, compared to the folded optics 35-175mm equivalent lens in the much slimmer Z800EXR. The Z800EXR also packs a 3.5" touchscreen. Both cameras do 720p video at 24FPS. I'm looking forward to see how both cameras turn out, especially with the EXR sensor and the hybrid AF system.

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"It's now more than a year since we published our last superzoom group test and despite the hype surrounding mirrorless system cameras such as Micro Four Thirds or the Sony NEX, and the fact that entry level DSLRs are becoming more and more affordable, superzoom cameras are as popular with consumers as ever. It is easy to see why. The combination of a large zoom range from wideangle to super telephoto, DSLR-like ergonomics and an attractive price point guarantee that these cameras appeal to a very broad audience."

Following up on their travel zoom roundup, Digital Photography Review has released one on the travel zoom's big brothers; the super zoom cameras. As mentioned, despite mirrorless interchangeable lens cameras being the new must-have for manufacturers, the appeal of such "bridge" cameras still lies in their versatility at a low cost. This time round, the winners are not so surprising. Still, I can't imagine going back to using thumbnail-sized sensors in my cameras!

"The Fujifilm FinePix S1600 is a new super-zoom digital compact camera that looks and feels like a DSLR. Featuring a 15x zoom lens with a 28-420mm focal range, 12 megapixels and a 3 inch LCD screen, the Fujifilm S1600 offers full manual photographic control for the more experienced user and an Automatic Scene Recognition mode for beginners."

Although it may indeed be a case of "another day, another superzoom," FujiFilm's FinePix S1600 does appear to have at least one thing going for it: a remarkably low price tag ($229 CAD MSRP) for its feature set - so much so that I literally had to look twice to be certain that that was not a misprint! Although at a 15x zoom it stands near what is now the lower end of the "superzoom" market, the S1600 includes a number of competitive features, including image stabilization, 720p video, a panorama mode, and a "Natural Light & With Flash" mode that takes two pictures in quick succession, with and without flash. In addition, Photography Blog gives the S1600 a nice review, and it includes two items that I find very attractive: a 2-year manufacturer's warranty, and the ability to run off AA batteries. Indeed, the primary drawback from a personal perspective is that it is not officially available in the USA: instead the US market starts with the S1800, which adds an 18x lens and lists for $229 (USD), but is readily available for less.