fujifilm

Carl Zeiss has begun selling its first two Touit lenses for Sony and Fujifilm compact cameras, high-end prime lenses whose existence reflects the steadying maturity of the market for smaller "mirrorless" cameras.

The $1,250 Touit 2.8/12 and $900 Touit 1.8/32 autofocusing lenses are geared for the Sony NEX and Fujifilm X series of cameras, both of which employ an APS-C-sized sensor common in lower-end digital SLRs. That means the 12mm lens has a field of view equivalent to an ultrawide 18mm lens on a full-frame SLR, while the 32mm is equivalent to about … Read more

Adobe Systems has released Lightroom 4.4 with support for two mainstream SLRs, Nikon's new D7100 and Canon's Rebel SL1, and with better image quality for a Fujifilm cameras with unusual sensors.

Lightroom is designed for editing and cataloging photos, especially those shot in cameras' proprietary raw image formats that offer higher quality but impose an image-processing burden on photographers. Adobe periodically updates the software to support new cameras -- and in the case of version 4.4 to fix problems with existing cameras such as the Fujifilm models.

Fujifilm's X-Trans and EXR sensors each vary from … Read more

Continuing to focus on its pockets of growth for point-and-shoots, Fujifilm announced today two new FinePix models, the XP200 and S8400W.

An update to 2012's rugged XP170, the XP200 gets better waterproofing, now able to shoot down to 50 feet, and is still shockproof to about 6.6 feet, freezeproof to 14 degrees Fahrenheit, and dustproof. It has a redesigned battery door with a dial-locking mechanism to help keep the seal tighter than simple sliding locks.

Other improvements include a 16-megapixel CMOS sensor, a 3-inch, 920K-dot-resolution LCD, and a new burst-shooting button for capturing shots at up to 10 … Read more

Some news about Fujifilm's new digital cameras leaked today, but the company is officially showing off its new products at 2013 International CES tomorrow. Its press conference starts at noon PT, and CNET will be there to cover it live. We'll have a live video stream, along with a live blog of news and analysis.

Check out the live blog here:

Last year at CES, Fujifilm's big centerpiece was the introduction of the Fujifilm X-Pro 1, a mirrorless camera aimed at wedding photographers.

Rumors about updates … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Fujifilm's X20 advanced compact gets to play in the same sandbox as the company's higher-end cameras, thanks to the incorporation of the X-Trans sensor technology that originally debuted in Fujifilm's interchangeable-lens models, most recently in the X-E1. To fit in the camera body -- and price segment -- the replacement for the X10 incorporates a new 2/3-inch version of the sensor, albeit at the same 12-megapixel resolution.

The new camera also includes hybrid phase-detection/contrast autofocus, which should provide a nice speed boost, 1080/60p video support with manual focus and mic input, and an … Read more

With the Photokina show in Germany producing so many new high-end cameras, it's evidently been a busy season for Adobe Systems' Lightroom team.

That team just released Lightroom 4.2, which supports 22 new cameras, 43 new lenses, and lets people shoot with 11 new cameras tethered to a computer. It takes work to figure out how to decode each camera's proprietary raw format.

Here's the full list of new cameras supported, but note that the Nikon D600 support is "preliminary and there is a minor risk that the appearance of your images may change when … Read more

Japan's Fujifilm has sued Google's Motorola Mobility, claiming that several cell phones and tablets infringe on four of its patents related to digital camera and photography technology.

Fujifilm, which filed its lawsuit Tuesday in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, said its filing came after attempts to negotiate a licensing deal with Motorola failed. The Japanese photo giant said it notified Motorola in April 2011 of its belief that the handset maker was infringing on its patents and held face-to-face meetings with Motorola representatives. However, those discussions failed to produce a licensing deal and … Read more

If you shelled out for the Fujifilm FinePix X-Pro1 ILC and have been waiting patiently for some new lenses to arrive, your wait is almost over. According to the company's official new road map, you can expect a couple of new ones this fall and the rest in 2013. No prices yet, of course.

Actually, the new official road map is much different than the original one available at the time of launch at CES 2012. For instance, the company had initially expected to release a 14mm and 18-72mm f4 IS this year, followed by four more next year: 28mm f2.8 pancake, 23mm f2, 70-200 f4 IS, and 12-24mm f4 IS.

However, the 18-72mm is history, replaced by a more traditional (but faster than usual, as befits its class) 18-55mm f2.8-f4 OIS. The 18-72mm f4 zoom always seemed an odd choice to me; it would probably have been cheap, but not very desirable. This year's 14mm will be f2.8. And next year promises three primes -- a 56mm f1.4 lens, 27mm f2.8 pancake, and 23mm F1.4 -- and two OIS zooms, a 55mm-200mm f3.5-F4.8 and 10mm-24mm f4.

All of the lenses seem to follow the same design and feature conventions as the already-shipping lenses.… Read more

Zoom lenses sell cameras these days, so it's no surprise that manufacturers are doing everything they can to get longer lenses into increasingly smaller bodies.

A 3x or 5x zoom lens used to be the standard for ultracompact cameras -- those measuring 1 inch thick or slimmer -- but in 2012, you can easily find a skinny point-and-shoot with a 10x optical zoom.

The frontrunner here is the sub-$250 Sony Cyber-shot DSC-WX150 thanks to its excellent features, fast autofocus, and the quality of its pictures and video (though its color accuracy could be better). Most of the category consists of sub-$200 cameras, though, so there are several options if you're just looking for a simple pocket camera with a long lens.… Read more