Into Tech

This is the latest in ‘prosumer’ digital camera offerings from FujiFilm which is pitched as ‘boosts power and extends range without breaking the bank’. And with a US price of $250 - £128- who am I to argue? Just be aware that the same camera here will push the £200 mark, if not higher when it arrives in March, or later.

Aimed at advanced amateurs, the Finepix S700 is a 7MP camera with a 10x optical zoom, 2.5in LCD display and electronic viewfinder. It also sports a combo, xD/SD Media Compatible Slot for xD-Picture Cards and SD media cards. In terms of features there is picture stabilisation, i-Flash (Intelligent Flash) which varies flash intensity according to ambient light, and a dual shot mode for shooting two shots, one with and without the flash, in quick succession. There’s also 14 pre-programmed scene modes.

It’s certainly cheaper than the £330 10MP Nikon P5000 announced earlier this week and its 10x optical zoom trounces the measly 3.5x zoom.

Full specs after the jump.-Martin Lynch

FinePix S700 Specifications*
Number of Effective Pixels 7.1 million pixels
CCD sensor 1/ 2.5-inch CCD
Storage media Internal memory (approx. 27MB) /xD-Picture Cardâ„¢ ( 16MB - 2GB ) / SD card
File Format Still image : JPEG (Exif Ver 2.2 )
Movie : AVI (Motion JPEG ) with sound
Audio: WAVE format, Monaural sound
(Design rule for Camera File system compliant / DPOF-compatible)
Number of recorded pixels
Still image: 3,072 x 2,304 / 3,072 x 2,048 (3:2 format) / 2,304 x 1,728 /1,600 x 1,200 / 640 X 480 pixels
Movie: 640 x 480 pixels (30 frames/sec.), 320 x 240 pixels (30 frames/sec.) with monaural sound
Recording Capacity with 512 MB xD Picture Card (not included)
Still image:

Movie:
640 x 480 - Approx. 9.3 min.
320 x 240 - Approx. 14.8 min.
Lens Fujinon 10x Optical Zoom lens , F3.5 - F3.7
Lens focal length f=6.33mm - 63.3mm, Equivalent to 38-380mm on a 35mm camera
Aperture F3.5- F13.6, 7 steps in 1/3 EV increment
Digital zoom Approx 4.8x
Focus distance Normal : Wide angle :Approx. 30cm/1.0 ft to infinity
Telephoto: Approx. 1m/3.3 ft to infinity
Macro: Wide Angle: Approx. 4cm/1.6 in. to 3m/9.8 ft.
Telephoto: Approx. 60cm/2.0 ft. to 3m/9.8 ft.
Super Macro: Approx 1cm /0.4 in. to 1m /3.3 ft.
Sensitivity Auto / Auto(800)/ Auto(400)/ Equivalent to 64/100/200/400/800/1600 (Standard Output Sensitivity)
Exposure control TTL 256-zones metering
Exposure mode Programmed AE, Aperture Priority AE, Shutter Priority AE, Manual
Shooting modes Mode dial : Auto, Picture Stabilization Mode, Natural Light, Natural Light & with Flash, SP1, SP2, P, A, S, M, Movie
SP1/SP2: Portrait, Landscape, Sport, Night, Fireworks, Sunset, Snow, Beach, Museum, Party, Flower, Text
Shutter speed 4 sec. to 1/1000 sec. (depend on Shooting mode)
Continuous shooting Top-3 ( max.1.4 frames/sec), Long-period (max.0.6 frames/sec)
Focus Auto focus (Area, Multi, Center)/Continuous AF/ Manual focus
AF assist illuminator available
White balance Automatic scene recognition
Preset (Fine, Shade, Fluorescent light (Daylight), Fluorescent light (Warm White), Fluorescent light (Cool White), Incandescent light), Custom
Self-timer Approx. 10 sec./2 sec. delay
Flash Auto flash (Auto pop up)
Effective range: (ISO AUTO(800)): approx. 0.5 - 6.2m /1.6 - 20.3 ft
Macro: approx. 0.3m – 3m / 1.0 ft - 9.8 ft.
Red-eye Reduction + Slow Synchro.
Electronic Viewfinder 0.24-inch, approx.230,000 pixels color LCD monitor, approx. 97% coverage, 60fps
LCD monitor 2.5-inch , approx.230,000 pixels, low-temperature polysilicon TFT color LCD monitor, approx. 97% coverage, 60fps
Movie recording 640 x 480 pixels, 30 frames/sec.
320 x 240 pixels, 30 frames/sec.
With monaural sound, With Electronic Image Stabilization
Photography functions High speed shooting, Best framing, Post shot assist windows, Frame No. memory, Automatic playback, Histograms
Playback functions Slide show, Trimming, Single frame, 9 Multi-frame playback , Sorting by date, Image rotate, Voice Memo, Histograms (Highlight warning)
Video output NTSC / PAL selectable
Digital input/output USB Full-speed
Power supply 4xAA type alkaline batteries(included)/ 4xAA type Ni-MH rechargeable batteries(optional) or AC power adapter AC-5VX(optional)
Dimensions 106.1(W)× 75.7(H)× 80.7(D) mm/4.2(W)× 3.0(H)× 3.2(D) in.(excluding accessories and attachments)
Weight Approx. 306g/10.8 oz.(excluding accessories, batteries and memory card)
Accessories included 4xAA type Alkaline batteries
Shoulder strap
Lens cap
Lens cap cord
USB cable
A / V cable
CD-ROM: FinePixViewer
Owner’s Manual
Optional Accessories xD-Picture Cardâ„¢: 256MB, 512MB, 1GB, 2GB
Rechargeable Battery 2HR-3UF(2xAA type Ni-MH)
Battery Charger with Battery(2xAA type Ni MH) BK-NH/BK-NH2
AC Power Adapter AC-5VX
PC Card Adapter DPC-AD
CompactFlashâ„¢ Card Adapter DPC-CF

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Net law professor Michael Geist takes a look at US criticisms of the way much of the world handles intellectual property.

A chip the size of a fingernail and capable of more than a trillion calculations per second is unveiled by Intel.

The NY Times, Businessweek, the AP, and others are crowing over the powerful new chips Intel demoed in an hotel room last week.

What’s cool: Performing 1 Trillion calcs per second, the chip could do the same number crunching that 10 years ago took up 2,000 square feet of machinery to do. Instead of the half-megawatt of juice, it could take as little as 62 watts. The chips could have up to 80+ cores.

What sucks?: Five years, at least, til these are available. No x86 architecture version yet, even in prototype. And optimizing programs that to take advantage of eighty cores is still a very hard thing to do. Multiple core processing is still best for mass rote operations like those involving math and video.

The bottom line: Congrats on the teraflops on chip, Intel, but wake us up when this baby is for sale. The Verdict: Vaporous CPU, solid PR move by Intel.–Brian Lam

Intel’s Teraflop Chips [NYTimes and Businessweek]

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A new investor lawsuit against Dell
Inc. accuses the computer maker of improperly accounting for
hundreds of millions of dollars in payments from long-time
partner Intel Corp., a plaintiffs’ attorney said on Friday.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Intel Corp. is set to
capitalize on a new breakthrough in microchip technology more
quickly than its rival AMD, but analysts say the advantage will
only be temporary.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - California’s Silicon Valley, which
gave birth to high-tech giants Google Inc. , Apple Inc.
and Intel Corp. , has rebooted its growth as
it positions itself to be a leader on renewable energy and
clean technology.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - California’s Silicon Valley, which
gave birth to high-tech giants Google Inc. , Apple Inc.
and Intel Corp. , has rebooted its growth as
it positions itself to be a leader on renewable energy and
clean technology.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - California’s Silicon Valley, which
gave birth to high-tech giants Google Inc. , Apple Inc.
and Intel Corp. , has rebooted its growth as
it positions itself to be a leader on renewable energy and
clean technology.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - California’s Silicon Valley, which
gave birth to high-tech giants Google Inc. , Apple Inc.
and Intel Corp. , has rebooted its growth as
it positions itself to be a leader on renewable energy and
clean technology.