September 29, 2005 – Fujifilm Japan announced the FinePix F11 today, which upgrades a few of the features from its sister digital camera, the F10. Both the F10 and F11 have 6.3 megapixels on their 5th generation Super CCD HR sensors and RP image processors, but the F11 adds two more modes to the gamut. The F10 has manual functions, but does not offer the shutter speed priority and aperture priority modes that the F11 now includes. The Fujifilm FinePix F11 will be available in November, but will not be offered in the United States.
The FinePix F11 and F10 have the same 3x optical zoom lens with the f/2.8 maximum aperture in its widest setting. Fujifilm kept all of the F10’s best traits, including its 1.3-second start-up time and lack of shutter lag. Both cameras have VGA movie modes with 30 frame-per-second rates and sound recording. They both use xD-Picture Cards, batteries with a 500-shot life, and have PictBridge compatibility.
Besides the addition of the priority modes, the F11’s major improvements include revamped auto focus and metering systems and a boost in resolution on the LCD screen. The Fujifilm F10’s 2.5-inch LCD screen had a paltry 115,000 pixels. The F11 has the same sized screen, but with 153,000 pixels. This is still behind what many manufacturers are offering, but it is an improvement nonetheless. The Fujifilm FinePix F11 has a 256-zone metering system as opposed to the F10’s 64-zone metering. The new F11 can focus as close as 5 cm, while the older F10 could only get as close as 7 cm. While both digital cameras have ISO offerings up to 1600 for still images, the F11 is the only one that can utilize its ISO to 800 in the movie mode.
