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Fujifilm FinePix F70EXR: Like a superzoom, but different

The Fujifilm FinePix F70EXR is the latest entry to the burgeoning market for compact superzooms, but what clever features set this novel little snapper apart from its peers?

Richard Trenholm
Richard Trenholm was CNET's film and TV editor, covering the big screen, small screen and streaming. A member of the Film Critic's Circle, he's covered technology and culture from London's tech scene to Europe's refugee camps to the Sundance film festival.
Richard Trenholm
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Is that a superzoom compact camera in your pocket, or are you just pleased to see us? Oh, it's the newly announced Fujifilm FinePix F70EXR, with a 10x zoom and clever new sensor.

The F70 gets the EXR moniker because it packs the Super CCD EXR sensor that first appeared in our Editor's Choice award-winner, the Fujifilm FinePix F200EXR. The Super CCD EXR sensor has a clever layout of pixels that optimises the sensor's performance for different situations. If it's dark you can choose to improve the camera's ISO sensitivity without adding ugly noise, or ramp up the dynamic range for more dramatic pictures, or let the camera decide for itself.

Cool new options include Pro Focus, which simulates the sort of cleverly focused shot that's so hard to capture with a compact camera. It creates a shallow depth of field by combining a focused shot of the subject and out-of-focus background and foreground shots, giving you the sort of pleasing bokeh effect that's usually the preserve of dSLRs.

The other mode, called Pro Low-light, uses bursts of four high-sensitivity photos and then overlaps them, creating a single photo with lower noise.

The F70 leaps into the compact superzoom market dominated by Panasonic's TZ series, including another recent Editor's Choice, the Lumix TZ6. It's becoming an increasingly crowded market with the likes of the Samsung WB500 and Canon PowerShot SX200 IS all boasting 10-12x zooms. In fact, that's enough that we're going to invent a name for them to distinguish them from full-sized superzooms. Suprazoom, anyone?

Ahem. Click through our gallery for more on the F70EXR.

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The F70 EXR sports a 69mm (2.7-inch) LCD screen.
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The 10x zoom comes courtesy of a f3.3-F5.6 lens with a wide angle of 27mm.
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The F70EXR will also be available in silver. There's no UK pricing yet; in the States you'll be forking out $280 (£180), but we'll be amazed if the F70EXR is anywhere near that reasonable when it hits the UK in August.

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