Fuji:

How can fuji even come close to winning this when I poopooed it in my OMD review and sold it after only 1 month owning one?  Well, the X100 doesn’t technically win… I tested an X100 again (this time with firmware 1.30) just to see if it’s any better now and also to see how I liked it knowing the X100s is coming (which I’ll admit to having a pre-order in for already)…  The fuji has a few key things going for it.  It can process RAWs in camera, sure (but no preview as to what your adjustments are doing).  It can shoot 5fps.  But where it really shines is with it’s IQ and logic and controls.  This is a photographers small/second camera.  It’s not a system, there’s only the one lens that’s built in (and an optional wide angle adapter if you want to get technical).  But this means I’m less tempted to buy into a second lens system for a family/pocket camera. The sweep panos in this camera are quite good.  The logic is spot on, it lets me set a max ISO (but it does cap this to 3200 in the x100, 6400 in the new x100s) and a shutter speed to step at.  It also does what canon calls “safety shift” when it’s too dark for the settings you’ve got.

I think another thing we can’t forget about here is looks.  The X100 is the only camera I know of with a flickr pool dedicated to just pictures OF it...  This thing is old school range finder sexy.  There, I said it.  Because of this you WILL accessorize it a bit (negating those savings from not needed to buy more lenses).  But it’s nice to look at.  It’s also nice to use with it’s EVF/OVF.  Yes, I said earlier I don’t use them often, but at least on the X100 they don’t add a massive hump to the top of the camera, it’s only a few MM…

The major issues with the X100 are two fold still.  The AF is slow.  Yes it got better with 1.21 and now again with 1.3.  But it’s still slow.  It’s 20mm on MFT slow, maybe worse.  But that’s not even the biggest issue.  If you half press, lock AF, then shoot you’ll get a lot of out of focus shots.  The fuji forums suggested a trick to get around that actually; just mash the shutter instead of half pressing AND IT WORKS!  But that’s not how most photographers know how to shoot and why should we have to?

Ignoring that, the second major issue is the distance you need to switch into and out of macro mode.  It’s far too far away so it’s right around the distance I’m often at with my kids.  This gets very annoying because if you’re at the wrong distance it won’t take a picture, or if it does it’ll be OOF.  So yeah, focus speed and the macro distance step are both big issues but BOTH HAVE BEEN “FIXED” WITH THE X100S.  Without testing that camera the X100 is a loss for me (but I did shoot with it for a month and learned to deal with it because I really preferred it’s feel to the EPM2 and 17mm).  Basically if the X100s fixed these issues as fuji says it has (and initial reviews) it’ll be my savior, if not I’m back to oly….

Oh, while we’re listing grips with the X100, you can’t buy a replacement lenscap why fuji?  And the EV dial gets knocked out of place (and even the shutter dial) too easily, I’ll be getting a thumbs up with the bit that covers the backs of those if I stick with the X100s…

Yes there are a ton of samples below.  And yes they’re mostly of my family.  Why?  Because this camera is small and I took it everywhere with me for a month.  I like the look and feel and controls so I tend to take it with me more often.  I’ll also say processing all the files for this review (I don’t love processing) the fuji files were by far the easiest to process.  Best AWD, best “look”, best noise, etc.  It was just less work to get them where I wanted them.  So there’s more samples for you to look at…

Pros: Best controls available, awesome IQ, thin body fits in most pants (cargo) or jacket pockets easier than you’d think, rock solid, no temptation to buy more lenses, IQ for days, amazing logic, great in camera pano, in camera raw processing, in camera memory (so you can copy to it from your normal SD card then back to your Eyefi but you’re not forced to shoot with your eyefi if you don’t trust it).

Cons: only 1 lens, AF is a bit slow/inaccurate (but the x100s should fix this), the step between needing macro mode and not is far to far away from the camera (ie it’s not a macro but you’ll need macro mode).