Camera Fujifilm Finepix X10

Most of today’s digital cameras look as sturdy as a plastic cup. And probably many of you can attest to that claim after one drunken night out. Not Fujifilm’s Finepix X10 camera. The camera’s body is built from lightweight, yet ultra strong, die-cast magnesium alloy. Course, this shooter is anything but a point and shoot designed for quick snap shots, though it can easily accomplish that.

A 2/3″ 12 megapixel EXR-CMOS sensor captures high rez photos, while a built-in wide angle and telephoto lens allows to you capture a variety of shots. Like many of today’s cameras it can zoom up to 4x, but Fujifilm says that their new Intelligent Digital 2x Telephoto zoom technology doubles that. On the converse the lens can achieve macro shots as close up as 1cm. And the always attractive soft-focus “bokeh” effect, often added in Photoshop, can be accomplished in cameras thanks to a “7-blade aperture.”

Unlike many point and shoot cameras, this one boasts a wide variety of manual options, including a manual focus ring, something that has all but disappeared from most of today’s cameras. There is also a viewfinder, a slightly small 2.8-inch 460k dot LCD and a pop up flash for low light shots.

Like other Fujifilm cameras, they’ve included their proprietary EXR technology, which boasts three settings for a variety of scenarios. Those include a High Sensitivity and Low Noise mode (SN), Wide Dynamic Range mode (DR) and High Resolution mode (HR).

In addition to capturing ful HD video and up to 7 frames per second, the X10′s lens features a fast power on switch that starts the camera in as little as .8 seconds, provided of course it’s set to Quick Start mode, whatever that is.

Other features include a default ISO mode that automatically selects an ISO of 100-3200. However, switch into manual mode and you can choose between a 100 to 12,800 ISO for low light shots. There is also a 49-point matrix contrast AF which provides high-speed and high-precision auto focusing, a variety of scene modes, auto white balance, noise reduction mode, panoramic mode and optcal image stabilization.

No word on a price or launch date, but you can probably expect it in the next few months.