Fujifilm Goes Deep for Teens

By TWICE Staff -- TWICE, 2/23/2009

Valhalla, N.Y. — Fujifilm will ship its first Z-series, youth-oriented camera with a waterproof housing to dealers in March.

A new ultra-zoom and new compacts will round out the company's PMA offering.

Among the new features to debut in 2009 is SR Auto (automatic scene recognition) which chooses from one of six scene modes based on shooting environment.

The 10-megapixel Z33WP is waterproof to a depth of 10 feet and features a 2.7-inch LCD and a 3x optical zoom lens.

The Z33WP also features face detection; automatic red-eye removal; and a blog mode that resizes an image to VGA resolution and provides access to 12 in-camera editing tools, including zooming, miniaturization and painting, among others.

Using face detection, the Z33WP's couple and group timer modes will focus on two or four faces in a frame for timed portraits.

Additional features include a dedicated movie button (VGA/30 fps) and a 200-shot-per-charge Li-ion battery.

It will be sold in green, pink and black for $199 in March.

Another Z-series model, the Z30, will offer many of the Z33W's features minus the waterproof housing. The 10-megapixel camera features a 2.7-inch LCD, a 3x optical zoom, SR auto, face detection with red-eye removal, a blog mode, and a dual shutter release for movies and stills. A successive movie mode lets users create 60-second clips from multiple, shorter scenes.

Additional features include a natural light with flash mode, which takes a pair of images in succession (one with the flash on, the other with it off) for comparison's sake, and 13 scene modes. It will be sold in pink, orange and black for $179 in March.

In the ultra-zoom category, Fujifilm will introduce the 10-megapixel S1500fd, which features a 12x optical zoom lens (33mm-396mm, 35mm equivalent). The S1500 features a 2.7-inch LCD, an electronic viewfinder, the SR auto mode, CCD-shifting image stabilization alongside digital stabilization technology, and ISO 1,600 at full resolution.

The camera offers manual controls, face detection with automatic red-eye removal and continuous shooting at 7.5 fps for up to 15 2-megapixel stills.

An instant-zoom feature lets users track a moving subject on the LCD and when the shutter is released, the zoom ratio is boosted and captures the subject in the frame as a full sized image. Additional features include VGA/30 fps movie capture, panaromic shooting, 14 scene modes and an SDHC card slot.

The S1500fd will ship in March for $249.

There will be new additions to the company's J-series: the compact J20 and J250.

Both feature an SR Auto mode, face detection and full-resolution shooting at ISO 1,600.

The 10-megapixel J20 features a 3x optical zoom, a 2.7-inch LCD and digital stabilization. It ships this month in black and silver for $129.

The J250 builds off the J20 with a 3-inch LCD and 5x optical zoom lens(28mm) with CCD-shifting digital stabilization. It will be available in March in black for $199.