We first caught sight of Fujifilm's medium format back tucked away and behind glass at the PMA show earlier this year, but at the time there was no specific information available. Nine months later Fujifilm has now officially announced the 'DBP for GX680' medium format digital back. This digital back features a 52 x 37 mm SuperCCD sensor with 20.68 million effective pixels producing a maximum output image of 41.36 million pixels (7648 x 5408). This digital back is designed for use with Fujifilm's GX680 series of medium format cameras (up to 6 x 8 cm film). The back has selectable sensitivity of ISO 50, 100, 160 and 200, a 1.8" TFT LCD monitor, can shoot one frame every 1.5 seconds and stores images on Compact Flash (Type I or II). The back is due to go on sale at the end of January 2004 (in Japan) at a price of 2,380,000 YEN ($22,120), what a bargain!

Phil: Note this isn't Fujifilm's first medium format back but it is the first featuring a SuperCCD sensor, and hence probably designed completely in-house. UPDATE: We have just heard that this product WILL NOT be available in the US.

Fujifilm DBP for GX680 medium format digital back specifications


Camera compatibility Fujifilm GX680 series
Sensor • Fujifilm SuperCCD
• 52 x 37 mm (2.0 x 1.5 in)
• 20,680,000 effective pixels
• Low pass filter (anti-alias filter) installed
Storage • Compact Flash Type I/II
• Microdrive support
Image format • RAW
• JPEG (EXIF 2.2)
Image sizes * • 7648 x 5408 (41.36 million pixels)
• 6560 x 4640 (30.44 million pixels)
• 5248 x 3712 (19.48 million pixels)
• 3936 x 2784 (10.96 million pixels)
• 2624 x 1856 (4.87 million pixels)
File sizes • RAW (41 MB)
• JPEG Fine (15.8 MB) @ 7648 x 5408
• JPEG Normal (7.4 MB) @ 7648 x 5408
Sensitivity equiv. • ISO 50
• ISO 100
• ISO 160
• ISO 200
Lens Lens for GX680 series
FOV crop Approx. 1.5x
Shutter speed 8 - 1/400 sec
White balance • Auto
• Sunny
• Shade
• Incandescent
• Custom 1
• Custom 2
• Custom 3
Continuous • One frame every 1.5 sec
• Up to 7 frames
LCD monitor 1.8 " TFT LCD
Power Included AC adapter
Connectivity • GX680 connection terminal
• Flash sync terminal
• Video out (NTSC)
• Firewire (IEEE 1394)
Dimensions 140 x 140 x 73 mm (5.5 x 5.5 x 2.9 in)
Weight (no card) 830 g (1.8 lb)
Availability End of January 2004
Sale price 2,380,000 YEN (Japan)

* Because of the honeycomb pixel layout of the SuperCCD sensor the image data has to be 'processed' (I would call it interpolated) to a larger size (with a square layout), this is the default 41.36 milion pixel image. All other image sizes are produced by then downsampling this image.