LAS VEGAS ? Fujifilm has officially unwrapped its first CSC, the X-Pro 1, in a bid to grab a hefty slice of the DSLR market and appeal to users of system cameras such as Leica?s M9.
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Due out in March the Fuji X-Pro1 will be launched with three X-mount prime lenses: an 18mm f/2, (around £450); 35mm f/1.4 (£500) and 60mm f/2.4 ?tele-macro? (£500).
At the time of writing a price had yet to be announced but AP expects the X-Pro1 to cost around £1,000, body only.
The official unveiling, at the CES show in the United States, comes as Fuji effectively rules out launching another DSLR in a market dominated by Canon and Nikon.
Theo Georghiades, senior business manager at Fujifilm UK Ltd, told AP that a new DSLR from the firm was ?unlikely?.
The company?s last DSLR, the S5 Pro, was released around five years ago.
The X-Pro1 is aimed at ?top-end? photo enthusiasts as well as professional photographers, said Fujifilm Digital Imaging director Adrian Clarke in an interview with Amateur Photographer.
Clarke hopes it will appeal to reportage, landscape and street photographers.
?It?s a system. There will be further [similar] cameras down the road? It?s Fujifilm striking out into new territory,? he said.
Key to the new camera will be a new 16.3-million-pixel APS-C size X-trans CMOS sensor claimed to combine high-resolution images with high sensitivity and new signal processing technology.
The imaging sensor moves away from the traditional Bayer pattern of photo pixels and does not use a low-pass filter which, says Fuji, ?degrades resolution?.
A Fuji-patented colour filter deploys an irregular pattern of colours, each line containing red, green and blue photo sites, to act more like film.
?The presence of an R, G and B pixel in every vertical and horizontal pixel series minimises the generation of false colours and delivers higher colour reproduction,? claimed the firm in a statement.
A new, more powerful, processor, the EXR Processor Pro, is designed to ?maximise the full potential of the X-Trans CMOS sensor and deliver high speed and high precision image processing’.
Fuji claims that the camera?s resolving power beats both the Canon EOS 5D Mark II and the Nikon D7000.
The firm says the camera has a short flange back distance of 17.7mm, meaning the rear elements are as close as possible to the sensor. ?The wide opening allows the lens to be mounted deeper within the body ? up to 7.5mm (approx) from the mount surface ? reducing the back focus distance of each lens to the minimum possible, thus achieving high resolution all the way to the edge of the image.?
Like its fixed lens high-end compact sister, the X100, the X-Pro1 features a hybrid viewfinder that combines an optical and electronic viewfinder.
The X-Pro1?s viewfinder automatically adjusts magnification to suit the focal length of the attached lens.
Fuji is keen to stress that the X-Pro1 is a brand new camera and not an interchangeable lens version of the X100.
Other differences over the X100 include a lock button on the shutter dial, fewer buttons on the back panel and an exposure compensation dial fitted into the camera body.
A ?Q? button is designed to allow short cuts to key camera functions.
Also on board is multiple exposure, a ?better placed command dial? and an easier to use menu, according to Fuji.
Accessories will include a new EF-18 flash unit and a slightly larger ?assist grip? to aid handling.
The X-Pro1 boasts 1080,1920 pixel, Full HD, video, a top extendable equivalent ISO of 25,600 and a 3in LCD screen said to be ?easy to view in direct sunlight?. The highest ISO at full resolution is 6400.
Housed in a die-cast aluminium alloy (top and bottom plates) body the X-Pro1 also features tiff and raw image file shooting.
Fuji expects to launch of a compatible zoom lens in the autumn, likely to coincide with the Photokina show in Cologne, Germany, along with another prime lens.
Fuji may also unleash a lens-mount adapter, more information of which was expected at CES as we went to press.
?It will be good to get involved in top-end photography and go back to our roots,? added Georghiades.
Fuji is hoping to launch the camera in the UK in time for the annual Focus on Imaging show which starts in Birmingham on 4 March.
