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Fuji announces Finepix X100: ultimate retro awesomeness


andylynn

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<p>Even at that price: if it's as good in built and picture quality as Fuji says, I would get one. They just got it right: viewfinder (not one of those crazy 80% peepholes Canon or Nikon deliver on their G12 / P7000), lens (even if fixed, I don´t care, right now I live with my one and only 50 mm Summicron on my M2, wishing it was a little bit larger), and more important than anything else: handling. Aperture ring, shutter speed dial... simply perfect. If someone's been dreaming of something around 400 USD, well, better go back to some Canikon plastic toy camera. This is more like a 5000 USD Leica clone at 1/3 of the price, and that, to me, is good enough. If Fuji deliveres, that is. One more detail: Fuji has been maker of the finest lenses on earth (only second, often on parr with Leica and Zeiss), they have been good enough to work with Hasselblad, so basically they should be ready to build some real solid digital cameras with a perfect lens. Looks like they were taking the plunge now. As a friend of mine said: it´s 99% perfect. And it would be 100% if only it came out in black paint, too.</p>
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<p>Btw, did you notice the DOF preview in the viewfinder? The white area on the distance line indicates the actual (!) DOF. So THAT is one really nice detail! With all those cameras without even a distance scale, let alone DOF markings! To me, this is NOT just one more MTF-sibling or PEN-copy, this is the first photographers camera I have come along in years (at this level, that is, Leica's been there before, but at a cost just out of this world).</p>
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<p>This camera is almost a mirror image of the Konica Hexar but for digital. I always found my long-gone Hexar to be very useful and I took some fabulous images wit it, but, like the famous Konica, this Fuji is a bit pricey and a niche product. I'd love to have one but I can think of many other places where $1700 would go to get equipment.</p>
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I hope Fuji will sell this EXR sensor to other camera manufacturers. EXR is insanely superior to Bayer-pattern at this juncture, when cameras have too many pixels for most uses. Instead of losing resolution and precision by downsampling, EXR gains dynamic range, and the operation is precise based on pixel binning. Here are two examples, the first from a Nikon D40 with 18-55VR, the second from a Fuji F200EXR. Note total highlight burnout on lower left of the D40 shot, despite a minimum of dark areas in the composition, versus retained highlights with EXR. Both are 6 Mp images downsampled 50% (the F200EXR is 12Mp in HR mode but 6Mp in DR mode). EXR is also great for cumulus clouds, if you ever encounter any.

 

http://g2.img-dpreview.com/22A6632DD5EB40948A86A9BCD0F1987B.jpg

 

http://g2.img-dpreview.com/EF85B2729F7F4FB19E486A826B508B55.jpg

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<p>I don't know if I would be a candidate at that price. But I am interested. The X100 is clearly designed to be a photographer's tool in a way most compacts are not. The hybrid viewfinder is brilliant, and the classic control layout is a welcome move for a compact camera.</p>

<p>We have to wait and see what the performance of the contrast detect AF is like, but I wish they had included IR AF. For those that remember, IR AF was often used on 1980's 35mm P&S cameras with prime lenses. It's very fast, works in total darkness, and its performance is not impacted by light levels. It seems perfect as an AF option for a camera like this. If the IR finds the range use it, if not, fall back to contrast detect. IR distance detection would be so fast that this would not impair the speed of the contrast detect AF. (IR has the limitation of not working past a certain distance, so you probably want both active when shooting wide open.)</p>

<p>I'm curious as to why Fuji didn't just go for gold and make this an interchangeable lens system. I'm also at a complete loss to understand why nobody else seems to be able to figure out this winning formula. Namely...</p>

<p>* Big sensor.<br>

* Fast, sharp prime.<br>

* Real viewfinder! (Or at least a darn good EVF that's INCLUDED with the camera.)<br>

* Simple, classic controls.<br>

* Fast operation.</p>

<p>You would think that SOMEBODY at Canon or Nikon could figure this out and pump out something similar in the $750 range. I mean really, is the X100 that much more complex to produce than a Rebel?</p>

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<blockquote>

<p>Bill Tuthill - Hopefully it's like the F300EXR sensor with on-chip phase-detection sites and 100-800% DR modes, but implemented in CMOS instead of CCD.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>It has an "EXR Processor" and a "customized" Sony CMOS sensor.</p>

<blockquote>

<p>EXR is insanely superior to Bayer-pattern at this juncture,</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Not from what I've seen. I'd say we're still only about half way to the resolution required to make pseudorandom pattern sensors practicable for general photography.</p>

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<p>How often do I shoot at that focal length? A lot. With a 35mm Summicron. HCB shot with mostly a 50mm, and perhaps only a handful of times with a 90mm. It's not the lens or the camera that determines whether or not the photographer will make good photographs, but I'll tell you, shooting street with a dslr isn't exactly the most discreet way. <br>

The Fuji X100 will fill a niche for a camera that's smaller than a dslr, with all the advantages of a smaller rig. </p>

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<p>For under 1k, I would buy one.</p>

<p>Under 1.4k, I would think about it seriously</p>

<p>Over 1.4k, I would merely yawn</p>

<p>With the 4/3rds, NEX and recent announced Samsung APS-C, I could buy a cam and 2-3 lenses for $1400. No to mention this fuji is a fixed lens cam, great lens (aperture and FL) but fixed lens no less. Sure...it appeals to a different crowd than your normal consumer compacts type as it has OVF/EVF as an option, knobs and buttons BUT remember, it is still mass produced in Asia similar to NEX, the Samsung NX100 and GF1/EP1 (which all can be had for ~$600 each) etc...</p>

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<p>I beg to differ. The fixed lens is the key to why this camera could be a niche-classic. <br>

I wholeheartedly agree that we can only wonder why no other company could figure out what Fuji seems to have done now. A high quality compact second camera for the pro or serious amateur needs to be just that - compact! As well as solid.<br>

If the lens is as good as it should be, and the sensor delivers in low light, the world looks lighter. In many respects.<br>

My Konica Hexar, which I downsized and upgraded to in the late film days, seems to have resurrected for the digital era.<br>

But I hope that a price of 1700 $ is mere speculation?! At a 1000 or even 1200 it could be a run away hit.</p>

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<p>from another PN thread, just my two cents:<br>

Thanks, Fuji, for making the camera I need as a replacement for my dear, departed Contax T2 (compact film camera w/ gorgeous 38mm/2.8 lens, AF and MF capability). The price seems to be 3/4 of the price for a Leica X1, but I would prefer the Fuji any time, even at the same price. They share the ingenous getting rid of the PSAM switch simply by having "A" on the aperture as well as the shutter speed selectors. Yes, the X1 is smaller - but not any longer when you put a finder on top of it!<br />The X100 is called a Leica clone. These people must be too young to remember the Yashica, Konica and Olympus rangefinders.<br /><br />Some lament the lack of interchangeable lenses. But a fixed lens can be made to match the sensor and focusing engine (and the ingenious DOF scale!), and the lack of lens mount makes it more compact - and the whole point of a camera like this is something you put in your coat pocket for a bike ride, city weekend trip or when visiting friends; situations where a DSLR will just get in the way.<br />It is a tell-tale sign of the value of a quality compact camera that more than half of the framed prints on my walls from my film days was taken with the Contax, not with the Nikon SLR gear!</p>

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My sentiments are the same as Leslie's.

 

At the end of the day it's a fixed lens APS-C camera that takes pictures.The retro styling paying homage to 60 year old cameras doesn't sway

me. What would, and this is what so far no one knows yet is the camera's IQ (and handling) performance

along with consideration of the tradeoffs that are always made.

 

I would be much happier to see manufacturers start with a fresh sheet of paper with respect

to thoughtful/innovative camera design and ergonomics rather than stay beholden to style references from the past.

www.citysnaps.net
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<p>Well, the retro styling is there, I'm glad. I mean, why change form? Nature keeps form when it suits the organism in its environment. We should take that into consideration. I would rather it stay "beholden to style references from the past" than changing the outward design just for change's sake. I like the X100's inclusion of the finger grip up front; something taken from past designs :) </p>
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>>> I would rather it stay "beholden to style references from the past" than changing the outward design just for

change's sake.

 

I did not say change for change's sake.

 

It's silly to think that modern digital camera design must conform and be restricted to designs that were dictated

largely by the medium of the time; ie film cassettes supplying roll film past an imaging chamber for exposure and then taken

up by a spool. Kind of like saying that calculators should look like sliderules, cars like buggies, etc, etc.

Certainly there are MUCH better industrial designs for picture taking systems that can spring from study and

fresh thinking towards the picture making process and ergonomics involved. Imagination...

 

BTW, I've been saying that for years; it's not directed towards a particular camera.

 

No doubt there are many people who feel that homage to style is more important and they'll certainly be delighted

with that camera. That's fine, just not something that appeals to me.

www.citysnaps.net
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<p>Re<br /> "I'm curious as to why Fuji didn't just go for gold and make this an interchangeable lens system."</p>

<p>You still do not know if that is in the works; with a variant of this model</p>

<p>Ie introduce a fixed lens model; then later a sister model system with removeable lenses.</p>

<p>This approach allows getting production up on the first model; with the variant fiddled with; tested; developed; ie lower risk.</p>

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<p>I'm sure they will (offer an interchangeable lens system), if they see an enthusiastic response from consumers (in the form of sales). If not Fuji, then Nikon or Canon. It would be nice to see adapters for different mounts!<br />I could live with just one lens on a rangefinder-type body (I do it with my Leica M & 35mm 'cron). That's the concept for me with rangefinders; travel light, move fast, shoot quickly & get out. <br />If I need longer focal lengths and frantic lens changes, that's what my dslr is for =)</p>
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