Fujifilm X100S First Look

The Fuji X100S is a much coveted camera, it definitely has style, if what you look for in technology is something that harks back to before you were born. It also has a pedigree of fine technical excellence so do you want one?

When Fujifilm announced its FinePix X100 retro-styled compact at Photokina 2010, it instantly captured the imagination of serious photographers. With its fixed 23mm F2 lens and SLR-sized APS-C sensor, it offered outstanding image quality, while its ‘traditional’ dial-based handling and innovative optical/electronic ‘Hybrid’ viewfinder gave a shooting experience reminiscent of rangefinder cameras. On launch its firmware was riddled with frustrating bugs and quirks, but a series of updates transformed it into a serious photographic tool. Certain flaws remained, apparently too deeply embedded into the hardware to be fixable, but despite this, it counts as something of a cult classic.

Fujifilm X100S key features

• Fujifilm-designed 16.3MP APS-C X-Trans CMOS II sensor
• On-sensor phase detection autofocus
• Novel colour filter array to suppress colour moiré, no optical low-pass filter
• EXR Processor II image processor
• Hybrid optical / electronic viewfinder with 2.35M dot LCD EVF
• Analogue dials for shutter speed, aperture and exposure compensation
• Fixed 23mm F2 lens (same as X100)
• Improved manual focus system (more responsive focus ring, focus peaking and split-image displays)
• 2.8″ 460k dot LCD
• On-screen ‘Q’ control panel and tabbed menu system
• Full HD 1080/60fps movie recording, 36Mbps bitrate
• Socket for electronic remote release/stereo microphone

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By the way it costs about £1000