Inside Story

Further enhanced freedom in picture-taking with an electronic level

	"To increase accuracy, we added and adjusted the electronic levels one camera at a time." (Daisuke Fujioka)

High picture quality was ready. So, various features that greatly enhanced freedom in picture-taking were packed into the GX200 so that users could swiftly and assuredly capture special moments in this high quality. One such effort was the higher definition LCD monitor. The 2.7-inch monitor with about 460,000 dots projects subjects clearly to the point that users shouldn't miss a picture-taking opportunity. Daisuke Fujioka, who was in charge of hardware design, said, "We aimed at reproducing natural colors on the level of the GR DIGITAL II that users have highly appreciated."

"We incorporated a sensor to detect camera tilt, but we adjusted it one camera at a time so that level would be accurately detected under diverse environments," tells Fujioka. He added, "The GX200 might very well be the only camera to incorporate both this level and image stabilizer."

Image stabilizer for enhanced rapid action shooting

Kobayashi was in charge of image stabilizer. "Even professionals admit it is hard to take slow shutter shots without a tripod and avoid blurring. We, therefore, fine tune the image stabilizer so that users wouldn't miss a picture-taking opportunity," tells Kobayashi. A sensor detects any shaking and shifts the CCD so that the image stays focused.

Fujioka and Kobayashi went through a long series of trials and errors trying to find out how much current should flow through which circuit and what design would provide overall balance for a small circuit board on which various circuits would be run. Fujioka admits, "We were ecstatic when we finally got the waveform we wanted for the electric signals."

*All focal distances in this text have been converted to 35 mm format camera.