Fuji Fuji New Rangefinder form!

Miserere, thanks so much for coming out of the SC shadows and introducing yourself - welcome! I had a chance to read your review on the Fuji X100 yesterday, thanks to Prototype's link - and enjoyed it very much. I'm going to reread your article later today or this evening and had already bookmarked after my first read through. ;) For now, my quick comment is that when I read your remark
..I can imagine many reviewing what gear they can sell to purchase this camera.
I had to laugh since I just finished selling off my micro four thirds camera and lenses to counteract my August Leica X1 purchase. Hmm, let's see...I wonder what I can get for an 8 year old cat with chronic sinus problems on the open market...?

All kidding aside, this is the camera I'll be addicted to reading about. I think your observations about the current fixed lens version and what might come down the pike make sense
I get the feeling that Fuji are sniffing out the market with this camera, and if sales and customer satisfaction are positive, they’ll consider either releasing another model with a different focal length or maybe going the full monty and releasing an interchangeable system.
and I hope you're right.

More later from me, and I'm sure from others.

Glad to have you here Miserere and I look forward to your involvement!
 
Thanks for your kind welcome, BB! My Fuji X100 post has been updated and expanded over the past two days, so if you read it early on you'll find it a lot longer now. I also added a section with videos that I recommend nobody watch unattended in case they suffer a heart attack :) Bear in mind a lot of the post was written under the assumption that the price would be $1,500-1,700; after the news broke that the camera could sell at $1,000, I added a few paragraphs to my conclusion but left the original text up also.

As for the SC forum, the reason I have not participated is due to lack of time rather than anything else; I actually agree with the ethos here and am becoming increasingly more reluctant to shoot with my DSLR. Having had the good fortune of spending almost 4 months shooting with the Samsung NX10 for my review of it, I realise I need a small camera (or camera system) for my street photography and anything that doesn't involve shooting with long lenses. Amin had it right all along when he started the original SC blog back in the day, and current sales of MILCs back him up :hail:

But back to the X100. I can't believe it's taken this long! We're not quite there yet, but this camera is a step in the right direction. I think we should all pledge to buy one just so Fuji makes a good profit and continues working on the project :laugh1:
 
Oh man, did you also buy BP shares in March...? :tongue:

No, but I do know a trader who bought them for himself about a month ago. ;)

Miserere, I didn't see your previous post before I replied to the BP/X1 post. I'll definitely be back to read more from your Fuji "report", thanks for apprising us of the updates.(y)

I had a feeling you and Amin knew each other from the photography sphere, but wasn't sure.

P.S. I'll be sure to be sitting down when I watch those videos.:D
 
Miserere, I had a chance to read your updates and watch three of the videos. I have to dole those videos out slowly or I'll be accused of spending too much of my day glued to the computer reading about cameras - plus, I had to revive myself after swooning!

I'm enjoying reading your blog and will continue to. Clearly you have the gift of soothsaying pretty wrapped up with your ideas about Fuji's goals with the X100, as corroborated:
Updated Sept 21st 2010, 07:00.

An e-acquaintance, Falk Lumo, has been at Photokina and had a chat with the guys at the Fuji booth:

I asked why not with a lens mount? Answer: We want see how this one sells first. I asked: but you know that if this version does not sell it may be because it has no mount? Answer: no, is it so…?

I hate being right sometimes. These guys really didn’t know they could have taken the compact camera market by storm? If it’s true they spoke to many photographers when designing this camera, they didn’t speak to the most important one: me. Seriously, I could have explained to them in 5 minutes why they should not release a “test the waters” camera and just jump into the deep end.
:D

The part in which you discuss the OVF and what they're saying one will be able to see via the optical viewfinder is pretty impressive. I understand that it's still early days, however this camera is certainly looking awfully good. I guess I'd better bookmark your site and keep it on my tool bar, so I can keep up-to-date with breaking news.

Now about those "BP shares"... Actually, Leica has just announced a planned firmware update for the X1, so that's my realtime good news.;) Meanwhile as March 2011 appears in the distance, I hope you'll keep us up-to-date on this Fuji and stay involved on Serious Compacts, too.(y)
 
This Fuji is really close to what I would call "a perfect serious compact". It is very close to what my next camera will be for sure :)
 
They lost money already. The street price is reported to be around $1000.00 USD.
So they lost $700.00 before release.
This is the dawn of a new age in digicams.
It looks as if Fuji has done it again.
The Fuji lenses are nothing to sneer at. The perform flawlessly.
Im excited to see what else they will bring to the table.
 
Did Fuji read my article "A Wish for Simplicity"? I can only applause this effort. For a long time I haven't seen so many active threads about a new camera like now. A digital Hexar AF and hopefully it will be up to our expectations when it finally arrives in March.
 
Wouter, I think they must have read your article! :2thumbs: Glad to see you here - you've been missed.

It would be interesting to see some kind of analysis that showed all the different threads from all the different sites that are discussing this camera and their dreams for it.
 
BB,
The real users of this camera reside at Rangefinder Forum.
Not that there aren't other places where groups of shooters will end up using it but the design of the camera suits RFF users.
By design, I don't mean a retro look. That's not the issue. It's the features that make this camera desirable. A fixed lens at around 35mm is close to perfect. Sheeesh, it is perfect.
I'm told it will have a DOF scale and be parallax corrected.
So, die hard Leica M shooters are ready to go.
At $1000.00 USD, ya can't get a lens for that...

If they have a way to keep the finder screen clean without info.. Then it will offer no intrusion on vision...
 
Don, I have no doubt about it - re the rangefinder folks.

What can I say...if I'd had a crystal ball... In the meantime I'll work with the fixed lens camera I have and keep my fingers crossed for Fuji.:2thumbs:
 
So much, and more...

I remember newspaper photographers in a major U.S. city in the late silver era with their big 70-200 (or 210) f/2.8s on SLR bodies, and a Hexar: for expanses, intimacy and silence. Could the X100 be just such a "pro" camera? Posters on other forums have decided it's only for amateurs.

Funny how the promise of so much we've been aching for leads to wanting more! Is that a manual focus ring on the lens barrel? If so, does it have a scale? Oh, please! A fixed prime makes that so simple! Perhaps in the box you get a Sharpie for customizations of that sort.

Now for a really crazy dream: how about a little display on the top deck that shows the histogram? I doubt that would bring about the end of camera history, but it must be something we have not yet suffered enough to deserve.

More seriously, it will be interesting to see how much chromatic aberration and barrel distortion are corrected by the lens itself. How are the X1 RAW files in that respect?
 
Posters on other forums have decided it's only for amateurs.

I bet they decided that the moment the price dropped from $1,700 to $1,000. Whatever. I'll take Amateur Cameras for $1,000, Bill.

Is that a manual focus ring on the lens barrel? If so, does it have a scale?

Yes, and no. Focus is by wire, not by mechanical coupling (compliments of the 21st century). But there is some good news, there is a distance scale in the viewfinder that indicates DoF (see here). I (and many others) have been asking for this for years; it is soooo easy to implement the only reason I could think of that camera companies haven't done so is because they plain didn't want to. So thank you, Fuji, for finally giving us this little victory :yahoo:
 
Focus by wire: ah yes, thanks for the clarification. But then for all we know (unless you know better), the diaphragm ring is probably also "by wire," only put in its traditional place. I'm sure you see my concern. One thing that makes something like a Leica for being ready to catch the decisive moment, is being able to glance at the camera as it hangs from your neck--without bringing it to the eye--and see how it is set for exposure and focus, and to make any necessary adjustments. The Fuji gives us externally visible exposure settings, as does the X1. An external focus scale--whether mechanical or by wire--would bring digital photography into the, what? The 1920s? The X100 seems to give back more of what digicams have taken away, than any other to date, and that makes it pretty exciting. But it seems that it would be so easy to give us just a little more! Life goes on!
 
Erik,
We all need to see the writing on the wall.
It's not just the camera Fuji designed, it's the simple fact that they made a camera based on user wants/needs. They have paid attention where Panny & Oly have not.
It is the dawn of a new era in digital cameras. It is the awareness by a manufacturer that users needs should be addressed and will be.
I applaud Fuji for this effort!
 
Focus by wire: ah yes, thanks for the clarification. But then for all we know (unless you know better), the diaphragm ring is probably also "by wire," only put in its traditional place. I'm sure you see my concern. One thing that makes something like a Leica for being ready to catch the decisive moment, is being able to glance at the camera as it hangs from your neck--without bringing it to the eye--and see how it is set for exposure and focus, and to make any necessary adjustments. The Fuji gives us externally visible exposure settings, as does the X1. An external focus scale--whether mechanical or by wire--would bring digital photography into the, what? The 1920s? The X100 seems to give back more of what digicams have taken away, than any other to date, and that makes it pretty exciting. But it seems that it would be so easy to give us just a little more! Life goes on!

Eric, I have no insider information, only what my knowledge of camera technology and the Fuji brochure say. I imagine the aperture, like all MILCs (and EOS Canon cameras if I'm not mistaken) is electronically controlled. I personally don't have a problem with this. Focus by wire is another issue because focusing is a continuous process with immediate feedback (unlike aperture choice on modern (D)SLRs); I would like it to be mechanical for purely hedonistic reasons: I like feeling the helicoid turn beneath my fingers and the tactile sensation that runs from my hand muscles to my brain... But we progress relentlessly forward, and modern focusing mechanisms demand focus by wire unless we're willing to pay a size, weight and prize penalty. I accept this the same way I accept that days get shorter in Winter and it's already dark when I leave work.

This said, there are different ways of implementing focus by wire. Have you tried the Olympus 17mm f/2.8 micro-4/3 lens? I believe it has some small ball bearings or something because it has a great feel when focusing manually. By comparison, Panasonic and Samsung lenses fell like plastic on plastic. I'm very curious to find out what the Fuji feels like.

As far as getting things back that digital technology took away from us, that's true, the X100 is doing just that. And if they wanted to have a distance scale on the lens, they could have accomplished that, even with focus by wire, simply by adding detents to the focus ring so instead of spinning endlessly it only had limited travel. There is a downside to this, and that is that the ring would then turn in whatever direction Fuji chose. One of the things I love about the Olympus micro-4/3 cameras is that you can choose what direction you want to set the focus ring to; Pentax and Nikon lenses focus in the opposite direction to Canon, Sony and Olympus lenses, and at least to me, this is important because I have my brain hardwired now to focus in a given direction.
 
Back
Top