The Fuji X100 is a small, rangefinder sized camera with a12.3 Mpix APS-C (crop) sensor and a fixed 23mm f2.0 lens. It provides you a pocket-sized camera that gives image quality equivalent to what you can get with an SLR. Competing with the Leica X1 (yeah, Fuji, we see the name was no coincidence) at a better price and a different feature set.
The X100 has a 460k dot, high-resolution LCD but also has a welcome hybrid optical/electronic viewfinder so you don’t have to use the LCD to focus and take a picture. It can capture images in RAW or jpg, up to ISO 12,800 (note I said “can capture” not “it is useful”). But it does seem comfortable at ISO 1600 and usable at ISO 3200. It can also record video at 720P and has a little built-in flash for fill.
The lens has a 9 blade aperture ring and at f2.0 gives very nice out-of-focus highlights. It also has an interesting feature: a built in 3-stop neutral density filter. It can focus as closely as 4 inches, which is cool. I guess. The whole “wide-angle-pseudomacro” thing is rather lost on me, but OK, it has it. Speaking of features, it has all the Fuji-like Velvia/Provia film mimicking settings for your jpgs for those of you who are RAW challenged.
Please Note: If you’re getting a “frame number full error” message, you can reset that counter following the instructions here.
