Fujifilm FinePix Z33WP Overview

Fujifilm has unveiled its “Life Proof” camera, i.e. FinePix Z33WP, which is waterproof up to 10 feet (3 meters) with newly designed body. The Fujifilm Z33WP comes with a Fujinon-branded 3x optical zoom lens offering a range from a 35mm-equivalent wide angle to a 105mm-equivalent telephoto. There is a 1/2.3″ CCD image sensor with 10 Megapixels resolution behind the lens. 

The FinePix Z33WP doesn’t have mechanical image stabilization functionality, but does come with what the company calls “Picture Stabilization mode”. Fujifilm boost the ISO sensitivity / shutter speeds to freeze blur, but in the expense of some image noise / detail. ISO sensitivity in the Fuji Z33 ranges up to a maximum of ISO 1,600 equivalent at full resolution. 

The FinePix Z33WP rear panel has no provision for an optical viewfinder, instead opting solely for a 2.7″ LCD display with 230,000 dots of resolution. 

Fujifilm emphasizes a lot on on simplicity and ease of use. Thus, the camera doesn’t offer much in the way of manual controls. On the focus aspect, it features Multi or Center AF with Face Detection capability that can detect up to ten faces in a scene. The face detection function offers automatic red-eye removal capability. 

The FinePix Z33WP has the shutter speeds range from 3 seconds to 1/1000 second, and apertures from F3.7 – F8.0 at wide angle, or F4.2 – F9.0 at telephoto. For simplicity, these can be controlled automatically with seventeen scene modes to control the look of images. The SR Auto scene recognition mode will automatically selects from a subset of six different common scene types and adjusts for exposure, focus, white balance and ISO sensitivity accordingly. 

The Fujifilm FinePix Z33 is also capable of recording VGA or QVGA videos at 30 frames-per-second with monaural sound. The movies are saved in AVI format using QuickTime Motion JPEG compression. There is a dedicated Movie record button, which is separated from that for still image capture. One down side is that usage of Z33’s optical zoom lens is not possible during movie recording.

The Fujifilm FinePix Z33 stores its images on SD or SDHC cards or in 50MB of built-in memory. It is powered with an NP-45 Lithium Ion rechargeable battery. The camera will be available from late March 2009 with pricing of about $200 in black, pink or green finishes for US market customers.