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Moving on from Fuji A310 ,,,
My first digital point-and-click was a Fuji Finepix A310. Since it
died, I am stuck with the XD cards, so looking for an up-to-date equivalent, hopefully impoving on the most annoying features (easy accidental turning on in pocket, batteries falling out, switching off all the time, obliterating continuous pictures by continuing to snap the pavement when batteries low, large file size for not-so-great images). I am a bit confused about the spec. The A310 claims 6 m pixels, and certainly creates large enough files, but also claims only 3.1 m effective pixels. The A350, on the other hand, claims only 5.2 m pixels, but also 5.2 m effective pixels. In normal mode its pictures are smaller, but it also has a "fine" mode, which takes yet bigger pictures (in file size). Are the inconsistences in information simply due to changes over time in the way they advertise the different camersas? Is the A350 a higher spec equivalent of the A310? I am guessing that the "fine" mode on the A350 might be the same kind of electronic trickery that takes 3.1 m to 6 m pixels on the A310, but that they've stopped claiming the equivalent higher figure in more recent specifications. Thanks for any advice on this rather basic question. (Incidentally, the death of my A310 seems to be just that it can't get enough power. Maybe there is some kind of leakage, but it works briefly on fully charged rechargeables, and won't work at all with normal batteries. Is this a common fault? I can't imagine it to be worth fixing.) |
#3
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Moving on from Fuji A310 ,,,
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#4
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Moving on from Fuji A310 ,,,
ASAAR wrote: On 28 Dec 2005 03:48:18 -0800, wrote: I am a bit confused about the spec. The A310 claims 6 m pixels, and certainly creates large enough files, but also claims only 3.1 m effective pixels. The A350, on the other hand, claims only 5.2 m pixels, but also 5.2 m effective pixels. In normal mode its pictures are smaller, but it also has a "fine" mode, which takes yet bigger pictures (in file size). Fuji used an unusually designed CCD in some of its older cameras that tried to add a slight bit of extra detail by using software interpolation. The bad news was that the extra detail didn't amount to much, maybe 5% at best, and even that couldn't always be guaranteed, since it depended on what was contained in the image. And to get that minuscule extra detail, the file sizes doubled, since the interpolation created twice as many "pseudo" pixels as actually existed on the camera's sensor. With these cameras, it was probably best to select a resolution matching the cameras actual number of pixels. The good news is that Fuji seems to have stopped using this interpolation in their cameras, so if a camera is listed as having 5mp resolution (such as the A350), it will be based on having a 5mp sensor. The maximum file sizes will be much smaller than what the older cameras would have produced. In their "A" model lineup, I think that Fuji stopped using those interpolated sensors when they replaced the A310 with the A330 (also discontinued). Are the inconsistences in information simply due to changes over time in the way they advertise the different camersas? Is the A350 a higher spec equivalent of the A310? Not inconsistencies so much as the fact that Fuji's cameras now use "standard" sensors. The A310 had a 3mp sensor. The current cameras in this model line are the A345 (4mp) and A350 (5mp). There's also an A360, but it's just a relabeled version of the A345 which is sold by Walmart. I am guessing that the "fine" mode on the A350 might be the same kind of electronic trickery that takes 3.1 m to 6 m pixels on the A310, but that they've stopped claiming the equivalent higher figure in more recent specifications. No, the "fine" mode on the A350 is the same 5mp resolution as the "normal" mode, the only difference being that the file sizes are larger because "fine" mode uses less compression when saving the JPEG files. If the A350's 5mp sensor was of similar design to that used by the A310, using interpolation to produce a barely improved image, Fuji would be able to advertise that the A350 had 10mp resolution. They've stopped using those types of sensors and I doubt that anyone really misses them. (Incidentally, the death of my A310 seems to be just that it can't get enough power. Maybe there is some kind of leakage, but it works briefly on fully charged rechargeables, and won't work at all with normal batteries. Is this a common fault? I can't imagine it to be worth fixing.) Cameras can fail in many ways, that doesn't sound like a typical or common failure mode. You're probably right about the A310 not being worth fixing. Getting it repaired might well cost you nearly as much as buying a new, similar camera, and all of the internal parts (such as the flash tube and flash capacitor) would still have several years of use on them. The A350 Thank you both for the replies. I understand now about the compression in the fine mode. Also, the explanation for the interpolation used on the A310 explains both the large file size and the lack of corresponding quality. I note that there is now also an A370, which doesn't seem to be greatly different in spec from the A350, but may be all that can be found in some shops. |
#5
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Moving on from Fuji A310 ,,,
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