Fujifilm Finepix Z800EXR

Photography News

Combining Style and Substance for the Ultimate Point-and-Shoot Experience

Fujifilm North America Corporation today announced the FinePix Z800EXR, with next generation EXR sensor and Hybrid High Speed Auto Focus, adding to its stylish Z Series. The FinePix Z800EXR digital camera combines beautiful styling, with a generous 3.5” Wide (16:9) High Resolution Touch Screen to offer consumers the latest digital imaging technology wrapped up in a sleek, sophisticated package.

Available in matte black, red, gold or shell pink, the FinePix Z800EXR combines a large 3.5” LCD with a 12-MegaPixel Super CCD EXR sensor, a Fujinon 5x optical zoom lens (36-180mm equivalent) and ISO levels of up to 1600 at full resolution. Housed inside a full metal chassis, the FinePix Z800EXR will fit in any pocket or purse at only 16.9 mm¹ thin and features a horizontal lens cover with wave detail, which serves as the on/off switch, and an LED “Z” that lights up when the camera is in operation.

“The Z-Series has come to be known as Fujifilm’s fashionable camera line and the Z800EXR is no exception,” said David Troy, director of marketing, Consumer Digital Cameras, Electronic Imaging Division, FUJIFILM North America Corporation. “This time, we’ve added an EXR sensor with phase detection pixels to enable features like Hybrid High Speed Auto Focus, plus Intelligent Image Stabilization for great anti-blur protection. And those features, coupled with the highly responsive touch screen interface, give fashion-conscious consumers the ability to take photos that look as good as the camera does.”

Touch Screen Technology
The FinePix Z800EXR’s most appealing feature is its intuitive touch screen technology. The rich 460k-pixel 3.5” touch screen display panel facilitates effortless navigation of the camera’s many functions. The touch screen not only lets you take and view photos with the touch of a finger, but also provides a large, bright screen to compose and view your photos. With Dual Direction GUI and Dual Image Display, travelling though the FinePix Z800EXR’s functions are smooth and easy. Dual Direction GUI detects the orientation of the camera and automatically switches the direction of the menu button accordingly (for shooting, playback, multi-viewing and image search), while Dual Image Display splits the screen in various ways to view multiple images at once, so you can scroll through your images quickly and easily to locate the one you are looking for.

EXR Sensor Technology, with Hybrid High Speed AF
The next generation EXR sensor in the FinePix Z800EXR incorporates “Phase Detection pixel built-in CCD” to realize Hybrid High Speed Auto Focus. It has the ability to intelligently decide between the two focusing systems on the camera. For example, when a bright, high-contrast subject is positioned in the center of the frame, Phase Detection AF works fast and accurately; and in dark scenes, Contrast AF is employed to work accurately.

The Z800EXR uses both Phase Detection AF and Contrast AF to offer fast auto focus speeds in all scenes. To achieve an incredible auto focus speed of 0.158 seconds², Fujifilm engineers placed pairs of phase detection pixels on the EXR sensor, which work like external sensors on DSLRs. The Z800EXR automatically selects the better focus system (Contrast or Phase Detection), by measuring the amount of light or contrast in the scene. The benefit for the photographer is immediate and obvious – an almost instantaneous capture of the subject in the frame, with no missed shots or subjects half out-of-frame.

Intelligent Image Stabilization
Longer zoom cameras need stabilization more than any other compact, with handshake and subject movement a particular problem in low light at telephoto range and in movie mode. With a newly enhanced gyro sensor, the new image stabilization system promises further improved image quality with reduced blurring and noise in still pictures and even when shooting movies at the full 5x optical zoom or in very low-light. The new sensor is able to overcome handshake and can compensate for both sharp and wide hand movements, therefore increasing ISO to freeze action is no longer so necessary, meaning beautifully sharp low-light pictures can be achieved at 400 ISO, rather than 800 or 1600 ISO at night scenery. The FinePix Z800EXR also works to reduce blur to a minimum by deploying higher ISO sensativity to automatically increase shutter speeds, and CCD Sensor Shift Stabilization to counteract the problems of handshake. By cleverly combining these two, blur is reduced to an absolute minimum.

HD Capability
The FinePix Z800EXR also offers HD movie capture in 720p with sound and high quality HD stills playback at 1920×1080. Many consumers are happy to enjoy HD movies on their PC, but with the new HD Player (optional extra), which comes equipped with a remote control, families can gather around their home HDTV to enjoy amazingly detailed stills and high resolution movie playback.

Face Recognition Technology
With Face Recognition Technology, you can identify the people in a picture by name. Fujifilm’s Face Recognition Technology gives you the ability to pre-program 8 people into the camera. To do this, you start by taking a picture of the person you want to program into the camera and then tell the camera who that person is (e.g. Mom). You also have the option of inputting the category she belongs to (e.g. friends/family) and the date of her birthday. The next time you take a photo of her, the camera will cleverly recognize “Mom” and optimize the settings to ensure that exposure and focus are best suited to her, rather than the other people in the picture.

In addition, the FinePix Z800EXR’s Picture Search Tool is able to use the Face Recognition data (name, birthday and category) to help you find and playback your photographs quickly and easily. If you want to scroll through all pictures featuring “Mom” for example, the camera will be able to select them for you for easy viewing.

Motion Panorama 360 for the Perfect All-Round Shot
New to the EXR sensor, the Z800EXR extends the sweep range to 360˚ (shots can also be taken vertically). Combined with high quality Fujifilm printing, astounding scenes can be taken, showing fine detail, low noise and high resolution at 180˚, 240˚ or a full 360˚ range.

Photobook Assist
Photobook Assist lets you select and organize images in your camera to create a digital photobook. You can download the photobooks to your computer using MyFinePix Studio software that is included.

The FinePix Z800EXR also offers these additional features:

• EXR AUTO Technology: Prized for bringing a new level of image quality to the consumer compact market, Fujifilm’s EXR technology has the unique ability to switch its behavior depending on the shooting conditions by selecting any of 3 different sensor modes. The FinePix Z800EXR can be left on EXR Auto Mode and the camera will do all the hard work for you. It intelligently detects the scene type you are shooting and optimizes the camera’s focus, exposure and white balance and selects the best sensor setting, so whether you’re photographing flowers or a holiday landscape, you will get flawless photos at the press of a button. Or alternatively, you can manually select one of three EXR Priority modes for high resolution (HR), dynamic range (DR) or high sensitivity and low noise (SN).
• Touch Shot: Provides the ability for one touch focus and shooting for easy photo taking. After the user taps the focal point of choice for the shooting scene on the LCD display, the camera automatically sets the appropriate focus and functions, and then releases the shutter for optimal one touch picture taking.
• ‘Super Intelligent’ Flash: The FinePix Z800EXR offers a flash control system which efficiently controls the level of flash for a given exposure to produce beautifully balanced flash illumination across the foreground and background. Gone are the ugly washout shots where the subject is blasted with light and the background dark and unexposed. Super Intelligent Flash is most useful in macro photography where the contrast between subject and background can be especially challenging, but is also effective for night and backlit photography.
• Face Detection and Automatic Red-eye Removal: To provide perfectly exposed and focused portrait shots, the FinePix Z800EXR is fitted with Fujifilm’s latest Face Detection technology which is able to track up to 10 faces simultaneously, at almost any angle to the camera. The system instantly corrects red-eye and then saves both the original and the corrected image file automatically.
• Pet Detection: For those who enjoy the company of four-legged friends, the FinePix Z800EXR comes equipped with Fujifilm’s Pet Detection technology, allowing users the ability to detect up to 10 faces of dogs or cats and automatically optimize the focus. Pet Detection works by matching various dog or cat data of facial parts with patterns to detect the dog or cat being photographed.
• Easy Web Upload: The FinePix Z800EXR also has the Facebook/YouTube Automatic Upload feature which is perfectly suited for consumers who want to share their pictures and videos more easily. Users can mark their favorite images and videos for Facebook or YouTube upload so they are all ready to go when they next connect to their computer. No more time is wasted sorting through pictures on the computer – just connect to MyFinePix Studio (supplied with the camera) and all marked images and videos will upload directly to the respective site at the press of a button.

The FinePix Z800EXR will be available in late August 2010 at a retail price of $229.95.