Fuji announce new cameras: Finepix 2900Z and 1500
Aug 24, 1999 at 04:00:00 GMT
Fuji surprise us all and announce two new and very interesting digital cameras. The 2900Z (top) sports a 2.3Megapixel CCD @ 1800 x 1200 whilst the 1500 (bottom) is a 1.5Megapixel CCD available in a variety of colours. These cameras will probably be named Fuji MX2900 and MX1500 when they reach the worldwide market.
Fuji Finepix 2900Z (AKA Fuji
MX2900) 
Essential (brief) specifications:
- 1/2" 2.3 Megapixel CCD (1800 x 1200, 1280 x 1024, 640 x 480)
- 3:2 image aspect ratio (same as 35mm film)
- ISO 125 rating
- Large diameter low distortion "fast" lens
- 3x zoom (35-105mm equivalent on a 35mm camera)
- 2.5x digital zoom
- Full manual control: Aperture and Shutter priority and full manual mode
- Auto and manual focus
- Whitebalance: seven modes plus manual presetting
- Shutter speeds: 3s - 1/1000s in manual, 1/4s - 1/2000s in auto
- Exposure compensation: -0.9EV/+1.5EV (0.3EV steps)
- Optical viewfinder
- 64 area matrix metering
- TIFF uncompressed mode (4.3MB @ 1800 x 1200, 610KB @ 640 x 480)
- Three JPEG (EXIF 2.1) compression modes
- Burst mode of up to 3fps at VGA for up to 9 images
- Built in and hot-shoe flash socket
- SmartMedia storage (up to 32MB card supported)
- Supplied with 8MB SmartMedia
- RISC CPU for high speed image processing
- 2" TFT LCD
- Lithium-Ion battery pack, charger and AC adapter included
- Magnesium alloy body (corrosion and impact proof)
- Built-in map viewing software which allows the user to pin-point the exact location of image being taken (more info on this soon...)
- "Best of framing" feature (not sure on this, may be similar to Nikons BSS...)
- RS232C/RS422 connection
- Video out
- 130mm x 69mm x 60mm @ 385g
- Expected 99,800 YEN (US$811)
- Optional: wide angle adapter, lens thread adapter & soft case
Both of these cameras should be available on June 22nd in Japan (who knows how long after that for the rest of the world). The 2900Z looks like a very interesting camera espeically with its featureset plus built-in flash and hotshoe, I just wonder if SmartMedia will ever catch on...
The 1500 is a departure from Fuji's "upright" design and looks more like the Nikon Coolpix 700 (however it's worth noting that the Coolpix 700 is 2.1 Megapixel, the 1500 shown below is only 1.5 Megapixels)...
Fuji Finepix 1500 (AKA Fuji MX1500)
Essential (brief) specifications:
- 1/2" 1.5 Megapixel CCD (1280 x 1024)
- Fixed lens (38mm equivalent on a 35mm camera)
- Light aluminium alloy body available in three colours (see below)
- ISO 125 rating
- Shutter speeds: 1/4s - 1/2000s
- Exposure compensation: -0.9EV/+1.5EV (0.3EV steps)
- Whitebalance: seven modes
- Optical viewfinder
- 10cm macro mode
- Three JPEG (EXIF 2.1) compression modes
- Map viewing function (see above)
- SmartMedia storage (up to 32MB card supported)
- Supplied with 4MB SmartMedia
- RISC CPU for high speed image processing
- 1.8" TFT LCD
- 2 x AA NiMH batteries and charger included
- RS232C/RS422 connection
- Video out
- 104mm x 69mm x 31mm @ 250g
- Expected 62,800 YEN (US$508) - for all colours ;)
Specifications
of both cameras can be found
here in the comparison database