Fuji Z200fd comes to US shores
By
Mike Tomkins
(Friday, August 1, 2008 - 19:47 EDT)
Fujifilm USA has announced that its FinePix Z200fd digital camera, first unveiled for the European and Asian markets some ten weeks ago, will soon be coming to the North American market.
The FinePix Z200fd is an update to the existing Z100fd model, with the biggest change being a new CCD image sensor. Where the Z100 had a 1/2.5"-type with eight megapixel resolution, the Fuji Z200fd replaces this with a slightly larger, higher resolution 1/2.3" ten megapixel CCD. The increase in sensor size should hopefully help keep noise levels relatively similar despite the increase in resolution.
As a side effect, the larger sensor also means that while the lens is unchanged, the Z200fd's 35mm equivalent focal range is just a little wider. With that said, it's still not going to offer a particularly generous wide angle, yielding 33 to 165mm equivalent, instead of 36 to 180mm in the previous model.
The higher-res imager isn't necessarily great news if you don't need the extra pixels though, because it can potentially make the Fuji Z200fd a much slower camera than its predecessor. Where Fuji rated the Z100 as good for 1.4 frames per second (0.7 seconds between successive shots) in top / final three modes, the Z200fd can't even manage half this speed, being rated for only 0.6 frames per second (1.7 seconds per shot).
The available built-in memory is just slightly reduced, at 52MB available in the Fuji Z200, versus 54MB in the Z100. There are also two new self-timer modes - Group Timer and Couple Timer. The former can be set to start the camera's self timer automatically upon detecting anywhere from one to four faces (as specified by the user) in the camera frame. The latter mode looks only for two faces at a time, and automatically releases the shutter when the faces are close together.
Two remaining changes are that the Fujifilm FinePix Z200fd is listed as being four grams lighter than the Z100fd, and has a slight increase in digital zoom strength from 5.1x to 5.7x. US customers will be able to purchase the Z200fd in one of four body colors this September, priced at US$300 or thereabouts.
For detailed specs, see our previous news item covering the initial launch of the Fuji Z200fd.
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