Fuji MX-2700

Digital camera has 2.3 million pixels

Product: MX-2700
From: Fuji
Price: about US$900
Pros: high resolution (2.3 megapixel) output from a remarkably compact digital camera. 2" LCD screen. Unit features built-in flash, digital zoom, macro mode, PC connectivity, analog video out, uses SmartMedia storage.
Cons: Can't turn off on-screen status readouts, making this unit less suitable than some for video conferencing tasks. USB connectivity feature is an extra-cost option.

FujiFilm in Feb. announced its MX-2700, the first digital camera ever to offer over two million pixels of resolution per image.  Interestingly, although the company's press release at that time said the camera supported Universal Serial Bus connections to transmit images to a personal computer -- as it turns out, this feature is optional. The unit includes a color LCD capable of viewing up to nine images at a time. The user can also magnify images on the LCD 2.5 times closer, for examination of specific areas of a picture.

The camera records images on a SmartMedia card that can be upgraded to the 32MB version, storing a maximum of 142 shots. The MX-2700 uses a rechargeable lithium ion battery, said to be good for up to 250 shots when the LCD is turned off, and 80 shots when it is on. The camera sells for around $900 US.

In our tests, we transferred pictures from the camera to a PC running Windows (We tested Win98 and beta 3 of Windows 2000 successfully) via the included serial cable and TWAIN-compliant transfer software. The package also includes Adobe PhotoDeluxe, which provides numerous image-editing possibilities.

Sending data to the PC takes quite a while, when images are snapped at the camera's highest 2.3 megapixel resolution. Via the included serial cable, it takes over 90 seconds to send a single image, although preview "thumbnails appear in the computer's image preview windows much more quickly. We did not test the USB option, but presumably, it would provide similar performance to the 115Kbps serial transfers of the standard serial cable.

For sending pictures to a Mac, you can use an the included Mac serial cable -- unless your Mac is one of the newer models that doesn't include a serial port. Fuji also makes an optional floppy disk adapter that accepts the tiny SmartMedia storage cards and makes them appear to a computer as if they are a standard floppy disk. Although this adapter supports read-only functionality on a Mac, it doesn't support (LS-120 type)  drives with capacities greater than 1.4MB -- this effectively cuts iMac and new G3 owners out of the picture. Windows users can use the floppy adapter with full read/write compatibility, albeit with 1.4MB drives only.

Image quality from the MX-2700 was good. The camera provides four special effects in addition to a number of resolution options. You can convert standard colour images to sepia, black-and-white, or add white or coloured "star filter" highlights. There's also an option to output images directly to a printer such as Fuji's NX-70.