Here is a link to a thread here with links to threads with photos from the S200EXR prosumer Fuji is selling for under $500 US street price. It is a prosumer body with a 12mpix EXR sensor and a 14X fitted zoom.

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1020&message=33394657

So here is the deal. It is all Fujifilm or contracted by Fuji with other manufacturers. Fuji can make the body but does it; Fuji can make the lens but does it; same with the sensor, autofucus and exposure software. Anyway, Fuji gets all the profits from the entire camera and it sells for under $500 US. Apparently, they can sell and make a profit after R&D and materials and labor, marketing, overhead, shipping and such related to the camera model. This is a sophisticated camera not just an auto everything with a simple zoom. You would think some of that R&D could directly transfer to a higher level camera model.

So we have Fujifilm entering the micro four thirds market. I'll bet a very high percentage of the software and digital processing hardware in those bodies will come from the S200EXR. The new sensor chip will be a 12mpix EXR chip in the 4/3 format. Fuji gets to keep all the profits from the body but has to share lens sales with the 4/3 partners like Olympus, Panasonic, Samsung, Sigma and others.

So why is the S200EXR R&D not scaleable to APS size sensors and bodies? This could even go FX mode it would seem. With the EXR sensor set for resolution you have 12mpix of sensor power which would be pretty competitive in today's market for DX and FX cameras. Even if you go to the HDR mode with effectively a 6 mpix sensor, the pixels are run at a 45 degree angle like the Super CCD sensors in the S3 and S5 bodies. If the normal Fuji interpolation formulas are used the resolution could be listed as 12mpix with an actual 9-10 mpix of visible resolution equivalency. The in camera processing hardware and algorithms could be the same as Fuji is using in the S200EXR, F200EXR and the new 4/3 12 mpix camera line.

So it looks so much like Fujifilm could give us a nice S7EXR (let's face it, the S6 generation was missed) and we could get on with our lives. The S200EXR with the lens and features offerred for under $500 has got to be quite a bargain. This would also indicate the sensor cost cannot be astronomical, either.

Just wondering why Fujifilm is strong or at least noticeable in cameras which have a small mark up and absent in the DX and FX bodies which should carry a higher return even if the hardware comes from Nikon.

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Alan, in Montana