Speculation on Fuji F line?

I want to buy a Fujifilm F810 or F550 style camera
with the CCD sensor and image processing of the F10.
The F10 lacks viewfinder, which is a show-stopper for me.

Would anyone care to speculate how long I'll be waiting?
The F810 and F550 were released in autumn 2004.

 

Fuji will be making an announcement on Friday July 30th...

 

Thanks, that's certainly not long to wait. Two more days.

 

I thought that would be several years to come as today is 29th July.

 

Maybe that was to be July 30th on some other part of the globe.
Several new Fujis were announced here yesterday (the 29th). See
dpreview.com for spec's, but basically three models lines appear to
have been upgraded with the highly sensitive sensor technology used
in the F10 (ISO up to 1600). No IS in any of them, but the higher
effective ISO seems to be a better solution overall than IS. Maybe
someday soon you'll be able to get both. The S9000 seems to be an
upgrade for the S7000. The S5200 upgrades the S5100 (going from 4
to 5mp), and the E900 upgrades the E550. The S9000 and E900 have
9mp, 1/1.6" sensors. Interesting, and awaiting full reviews . . .

 

Especially for me-- my subjects move, so IS only helps reduce blur
from poor handholding technique, which is easily averted..

I need a new digital camera now. I really hate the Canon G5
so I'm hoping for something more usable: faster shutter response,
quicker recycle times, higher ISO, and unobstructed viewfinder.

All the S cameras are large have EVF (electronic viewfinder)
so I'm probably more interested in the E900.

Same here. Guess it's time to read up on the E550.

 

Have you actually seen an S5100 or just pictures? It may look
like a DSLR but it's much smaller and lighter, so while it's too
large to fit in most shirt and pants pockets, has no problem fitting
in my smaller jacket pockets. The S5200 should be near identical in
size. I assume that the S9000 is about the size of the larger S7000.

I once was biased against EVFs, but that was due to reading many
opinions that were negative. Justifiably too. But they've improved
quite a bit over the years. They're horrible if you have an older
one that has a poor response time, but the lag in most well designed
new cameras should be almost unnoticeable. The S5100's EVF isn't
very bright in poor light but that doesn't prevent it from focusing
properly. I've checked the EVFs in more expensive (and older)
cameras, and their EVFs were quite bright, so there's hope for an
improved EVF in the 5200.

The last complaint I've heard about EVFs is their relatively low
resolution, and that's true for some of them, such as the S5100.
But I eventually realized that even though it isn't nearly as sharp
as the ground glass in my old Nikon SLR (so I couldn't easily see
where the precise focus point was, or easily check DOF), the optical
viewfinders in my Canon P&S cameras couldn't show how well the
camera focused at all, and the EVF at least can show all of the
useful exposure and other parameters so you don't have to take your
eye away from the viewfinder to read a different display.

E550? Nah, too old. And it has one of the weird sensors that can
interpolate the 6mp pixels to a barely sharper, but bloated 12mp.
Did you mean the E900, or an E550 review to get a rough idea of what
the E900 might will be? The only full review so far of a camera
using Fuji's new sensor design is for the F10.

 

Just pictures. However looking at dimensions, the S5100 is too large
to fit in my Pelican 1150 case, in which I currently carry a film P&S.
If I wanted a big camera, I would probably get a DSLR for flexibility;
results are much better also.

I'll try it again, but I didn't like Minolta and Sony cameras with EVF.

Maybe E550 reviews will give me an idea of what the E900 will be.
Over the years I've read lots of positive reviews about digicams
that are totally unacceptable to me. Hopefully, with improved ISO
and shutter lag, digicams are now a useful tool.

Also I ought to try the F10 in a store, but I do not want a camera
without viewfinder-- an LCD is hard to see without my reading glasses.