Reg Kit Watch

Digicams

Fujifilm today unveiled three new FinePix digital cameras, the S7000 Zoom, S5000 Zoom and the A205S Zoom, all due for release in Europe in the autumn.

The S7000 'prosumer' 6.3 megapixel camera offers full manual control of aperture, focusing shutter speed and flash, and a 6x optical zoom equivalent to 35-210mm on a 35mm camera. It can also digitally double the image resolution to an effective 12 million pixel image - allowing the user to enlarge to 10 x 15in, Fujifilm says.

The six megapixel CCD provides a "serious digital alternative to a film SLR", the company claims.

The S7000 also provides a 30fps VGA digital movie mode with sound. Images can be saved to XD Picture Cards, CompactFlash and IBM Microdrive cards thanks to a dual-card memory slot. Pictures can be transferred to a PC via a USB 2.0 connection.

The S5000 Zoom is a compact SLR model with a 10x optical zoom equivalent to 37-370mm on a 35mm camera, though it's only a 3.1 megapixel device, which again can be digitally doubled to six million pixels.

The camera offers a single XD-Picture Card slot. It too can record movies at 30fps, at QVGA resolution.

Finally, the Z205S Zoom is a consumer-oriented point-and-click machine with a two megapixel CCD for a 1600 x 1200 effective image size, and a 3x optical zoom (equivalent to 36-108mm) function.

The camera offers a video-out port to allow users to view pictures without the need for a PC, though there's a USB port for copying over images if you do have access to a PC. The AS205S has an XD-Picture Card slot for memory cards.

Designed to operate at low power levels, the A205S Zoom can shot up to 300 shots on a pair of AA alkaline batteries - though users will have to turn the camera's LCD monitor off if they want that kind of battery life.

The AS205S Zoom and the S5000 Zoom will both ship this September, with the S7000 Zoom following in October. Pricing has yet to be set.

Storage

Fujitsu Europe has added the digicam-oriented DynaMO 640 Photo line to its magneto-optical product range.

The unit features a built-in PC Card memory card reader that supports SD/MMC, Memory Stick, XD-Picture Card, Smart Media and CompactFlash, and can pull off the pictures they contain and transfer them to an MO disk.

That bypasses the need for a PC, but since many users will want to transfer their images to a computer for editing, the device also features a USB 2.0 port. While that offers a 480Mbps connection, data is read off the MO disk at just 20.4Mbps. The drive contains 2MB of read/write buffer memory and has an average access time of 45ms.

Disks are available offering up to 640MB, enough says Fujitsu for up to 300 two megapixel images. Each disk cost from €5 ($5.75). The DynaMO 640 Photo itself costs €249 including sales tax ($286.25), and is available in Europe now.

Notebooks

Dell today launched a pair of new notebooks, the Latitude X300 and the Inspiron 300m.

Both machines are based on Intel's Centrino platform, with Low Voltage 1.2GHz Pentium M processors and 802.11b WLAN adaptors. They also offer dual USB 2.0 ports and a 1394 connector. Each X300 or 300m is shipped with an external modular bay (D/Bay) that connects optical and storage devices to the notebook via a powered USB 2.0 port.

To those, the X300 adds a 20GB hard drive, 128MB of DDR SDRAM (shared with the chipset's integrated Extreme 2 graphics) and a 24x CD-ROM drive. The x300 weighs 1.3kg (2.9lbs) and comes with a 12.1in display.

The 300m ships with a 30GB drive, 256MB of shared DDR SDRAM and a DVD/CD-RW combo optical drive.

Both notebooks are priced at $1599 in the US. Both systems can be ordered with optional Bluetooth capability ($49). ®