Coming soon - Fujifilm X100

Note: I do not claim any rights on the above photo. All photo credits and copyrights belong to Digital Photography Review .

You can visit their website about the introduction about this product below;

http://www.dpreview.com/previews/fujifilmx100/



Just about a month ago I did mentioned about my strong interest to grabbed the soon to be available "advance compact digicam" Olympus XZ-1 and suddenly recently I just found out that Fujifilm also joined this niche segment of "advance compact digicam" and will soon release their own Fujifilm Finepix X100.

From the photo above as you can see, Fujifilm seems to be going all out to the max to replicate the "classic retro" feel on this model and if you look at it from the front side only, you might think that this is one of those old camera using film.


I personally love this "classic retro" look and feel and honestly there are times when I want to buy those old camera for collection purpose but then again they are not cheap.

Nonetheless, back to this X100, Fujifilm really go all out on the marketing campaign of it and they even purposely created a special website dedicated to this camera;


http://www.finepix-x100.com/



For me personally, apart from the "beautiful look" - the following features also managed to aroused my desire to grabbed this model;


First the lens;

- High-performance FUJINON lens with Super EBC Coating
- fixed focal length of 23mm, equivalent to 35mm
- Fast lens Aperture of maximum F2 to minimum F16
- 3 stop neutral density filter built in


With the exception of Canon 1000D (as it comes with not so great lens-kit though it does the job fine), I'm lucky that in the past 2 or 3 years I have used several cameras with great lens, the Panasonic with the Leica, the Olympus with the Zuiko and even the long zoom Fujifilm HS10 eventually have an excellent lens (for a super zoom class).

Thus I think this X100 from Fujifilm will also have a good lens knowing that they go all out for this model... let's hope so...

One important thing to be mentioned about the lens is that the "FIXED FOCAL LENGTH" - that means "NO ZOOM" at all, yeah I repeat that again, No Optical Zoom what so ever. You have to follow the old days "range finder" style - moving backward or forward if you need to "zoom"..... fun eh?


Secondly, the sensor and the engine;

- APS-C CMOS sensor
- 12.3 million effective pixels
- Fujifilm EXR processor


APSC CMOS sensor, that is basically the same sensor used in DSLR camera and coupled with Fujifilm trusted "EXR" know-how, thus I believe it can produce excellent image quality. The pixels output is also a reasonable 12.3 MP and I really hope that all these combination can produce great result.


And lastly as bonus;

- Optical viewfinder
- Aperture ring and manual focus ring on the lens
- A dedicated wheel to control the shutter speed
- External Flash Hot-Shoe

I really would love to try operating the camera using the old fashion way (or you can also say the DSLR way). Judging from the way they design it, this camera would be wonderful if you love to use the "Manual mode" - adjusting both the Aperture and Shutter speed on your own will and with the intuitive control layout, it would be interesting to actually feel and experience operating this camera. The ability to use OVF and that External Flash Hot-Shoe are just brilliant and makes it more attractive.



Judging from the photos on the overall ring, wheel, button, knob, lever, switches and what ever external control features available on this camera - I'm surprised that the button or wheel for ISO setting is missing. According to Digital Photography Review we can eventually use the "Fn" button and customized it for ISO settings but then again the dedicated video recording mode button is also no where to be found. So you either customized the "Fn" button for the ISO settings (if it's me, I chose this for sure) or you can use it for "Video Recording" or any other function that you think important to you.


Oh yeah, this Fujifilm X100 also offer "1280x720 HD with stereo sound" though honestly video features is never something that I really need - but for those who love it, there you have it.


Fujifilm says this model will be out om March 2011 - and thus I am really looking forward to it.

Now I anxiously waiting for the review for both the Olympus XZ-1 and this magnificent Fujifilm X100.

From the way I look at it, Olympus XZ-1 is an improved Panasonic LX3 (and also Panasonic LX5) while the Fujifilm X100 is something unique and beautiful look.


Both camera obviously offered great lens with fast speed but XZ-1 (F/1.8 WA and F/2.5 TP) comes with 4X zoom while X100 is fixed with no zoom. The XZ-1 offer the modern control style while the X100 offer the old fashion control style though in a way both also are almost similar to DSLR. Last but not least, the XZ-1 offer a modern compact look and that X100 offer a sexy old fashion look worth to die for... LOL

Apart from the expert review opinions, the price is also a major factor for me to decide - 1 thing for sure, in 2011 Shewsbury Land shall welcome 1 new camera and it could be 1 of these 2.

I did some "Googling" and the early price prediction for the Fujifilm X100 is about USD 1,000 (about roughly SGD 1,300 - so the local retailer might sell it within SGD 1,500 range) - not cheap for sure, considering that we can get an entry level DSLR camera with a standard kit-lens for that amount of money.... oh well, something with unique look and great quality will never be cheap... but I hope this wont be too expensive...

As for the Olympus XZ-1, according to Olympus website the price is USD499 (about roughly SGD 640 - so the local retailers might sell it between SGD 700 to SGD 800)


I remember in the old film days, when I was still a kid, I did use those film camera that doesn't have zoom at all, you have to move forward or backward before you can finally get the desired frame and then you press the shutter. I'm not sure if this is a "range finder" camera or not.

Nonetheless, I could already imagine that using this Fujifilm X100 is just a different way of taking photos and we cannot expect to use it like the typical digital P&S cameras. In a way I think it's like using Canon 1000D with the cheap prime lens of "Canon EF 50mm F/1.8 Mark II". That lens is certainly a joy to use with the bright F/1.8 but the limited 50mm viewing angle surely need some compromise - then again it is really fun.




Let's wait and see......




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