Fujifilm Finepix X100 - Pricing, Availability and general OMG

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chylld

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First of all, thanks to BBW for the invitation to these forums, and suggesting that I start a new thread as one of the first soon-to-be X100 owners :)

Rather than continue on in the style of the existing X100 thread, I decided to gather as much pertinent information as possible so that everyone can get their fix... err, I mean find out what they need to know in order to (decide whether or not to) buy this camera.

Great intro video
A detailed walk-through of the camera and how it handles courtesy of Tyler Stalman:
YouTube - Fuji X100 Hands On Field Test With Tyler Stalman

Price (camera) ($ amounts in AUD/USD)
USA: Amazon briefly had a $1070 deal up (now withdrawn) so that seems to be the true market price for the X100 in the US :)

Europe: €999 (~$1380) according to richardovaste.
UK: £899 (~$1440) according to bubzz


Australia: My preorder is with Digital Camera Warehouse for $1099 (now raised to $1219) so the cheapest appears to be Gerry Gibbs at $1107. A few other shops have since announced pricing around the $1100-1150 mark.

Japan: Yodobashi Camera wants 128,000yen (~$1540) while internet prices are 115,000yen (~$1380).

Hong Kong: 11800 HKD (~$1500)

Price (accessories) (in Australian dollars)
$55 - Adapter ring (for putting on filters - may not have to buy this, see below)
$110 - Adapter ring + hood (hood requires adapter ring)
$104 - Leather case (top half is detachable, so it can be used as a half-case, but it will not fit when the adapter ring is attached)
$165 - EF20 flash (NB: this is a re-branded Sunpak RD2000 (US$60))
$253 - EF42 flash (NB: this is a re-branded Sunpak PZ42X (US$140))

Availability
Availability information is understandably scarce, however the situation in Australia is that we are receiving ONLY 200 units in the first shipment! The lucky shops are getting between 10 and 30 units each - my shop is getting 10, so I guess that makes me very lucky customer #6 in their queue!

Update 23/2: Many Australian shops have now SOLD OUT for both the first and second shipments, with third shipments around half sold out. Probably totally sold out by the time you read this.

ETA Japan: NOW SHIPPING! Lucky X100 customers in Japan are already receiving their units.
ETA Australia: March 18[/COLOR]

Features
Personally I'm bored to death of having the hybrid viewfinder basics explained to me, so here are some useful features that people may have missed (I have been following every scrap of news and tweets possible)

Peaking - First talked about here and not much ever since. This is a manual focus assist function that highlights sharp edges (i.e. in-focus areas) in green so that you can confirm focus easily, accurately and quickly.

EVF MF assist zoom in OVF mode - OVF mode doesn't show what parts are in focus, for obvious reasons. However, simply press the command lever in and the OVF switches to an EVF, which will be zoomed in to the current AF box.

Flash sync of 1/1000s - e.g. for fill flash in really sunny conditions. This is much faster than SLRs, which are typically limited to 1/250. This allows better subject separation in sunny conditions, as well as better ability to freeze motion.

Fast autofocus - Apparently on par with mid-range SLRs, and way faster than any current M43 offering (except for maybe the GH2 + 14-140). According to early previews, the AF is slower than a GF1 + 20/1.7 - very disappointing if true!

Exceptional high-ISO performance - Pictures speak better than words. Very much looking forward to usable ISO 6400 (one two) and ISO 12800! (one two)

Fully-customisable Auto-ISO - Just as with most SLRs, you can set both the minimum shutter speed AND max ISO that will be chosen by the camera. Basically, as the light dims, the shutter speed will slow down to your preset minimum (I'd recommend 1/35s or the closest to it) before it starts ramping up the ISO to your preset maximum (I'd recommend 6400 based on the quality of the samples) and then slow shutter speed beyond that.

Surprises
Some things are causing a bit of concern however...

Aperture limits at high shutter speed - The official specs say that the X100 is limited to a max aperture of f/8 at its fastest 1/4000s shutter speed! Apparently, f/2 is only available when slowed down to 1/1000s. While these limits are understandable due to the leaf shutter design(and not an entirely new thing), it is certainly annoying to be constantly wary of specific aperture/shutter speed combinations, especially on a camera with dedicated manual aperture and shutter speed dials :(

I've tweeted the fujiguys about this, however, and they say that they can shoot at any combination on their camera. They're currently awaiting clarification from the head office...

Update: seems like this won't be a problem, the video at the top shows the camera set to 1/4000 f/2!
Update 2: seems like this still is a problem :(

Adapter ring - rather than have a female filter thread, the X100 has a MALE filter thread. Fuji wants you to buy a special AU$55 adapter ring to fix this problem. However, all this adapter ring seems to be is a female-female 49mm adapter - which raises the question: Can we simply screw regular 49mm filters on backwards?

If we can, then we can screw the filter ring cover back over the filter's male thread, and it should look pretty neat. It will also save having to fumble with the questionably-impractical lens cap, which doesn't fit onto the camera anyway once the filter ring is fitted.

Obviously this trick won't work for circular polarisers.

Constantly switching AF modes - every time you want to shoot something closer than 50-80cm (e.g. macro shots, food, anything on a table in front of you) you must manually select the macro AF mode, and conversely, you must manually select normal AF mode when shooting farther away again. Time will tell if this annoyance becomes too much to handle...

Summary
It's gonna be a great camera. You want one. Now.
Correction: There is a lot of hype for this camera to live up to. Perhaps too much, for certain customers. When X100 distribution is a bit more widespread, we'll have a clearer picture...

As soon as it arrives, I will be comparing it to my current Olympus E-PL1 + 20/1.7 kit and selling one away - I do not anticipate that to be a very difficult decision at all :) For those interested, I reviewed the E-PL1 against the Samsung NX10 for Steve Huff Photo last year.

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Note from Amin: I copied this post to the home page for more exposure. Visit the original thread to see the most updated version and discussion.
 
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