Are X100's still rare?

Avotius

Avotius

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I am a little confused about something. Used X100's are selling for as much as or more than a new one. But I see them for sell new all the time. Here in Seattle I have been to three different shops that have them in stock and they pretty much say the same thing, people come in to check them out, play and talk, but no one buys (including me) so they sit in stock. A guy at Glazers here in Seattle said they have had one sitting there for months.

Yet used prices are still so high? What the heck?

:confused:

When I was in Hong Kong they were everywhere, many shops had them on display. In Korea they even had them for sale in Icheon airport's international lounge (more like a big mall) I know, I stood there playing with one for a while as a way to use up some of my 14 hour layover there.

:confused::confused::confused:
 
Hmm, here in Japan they are common, and all stores have them in stock. Prices were MSRP when they were introduced, but have fallen about 15-20% since then. Used ones are turning up more often at good prices. Were it not for the crappy exchange rate, I would buy them up here and resell them to America.
 
Bought mine 2 days ago for 66% newprice

Bought mine 2 days ago for 66% newprice

Hi
Since Saturday October 1 I am the very happy owner of a 2nd hand X100. Bought for €800 (with adapter, hood, 2nd battery and UV filter) while internet prices are at approx €1100 (AND out of stock) just 1000 clicks on the counter
2nd hand prices seems to hoover between 800-850 - 950 so I am content.
Now getting used to it and use it to the fullest.
 
Good question, though, why so many already on the used market? I thought that this was/is a great camera.
 
I would venture that lots are on the used market because they were over-hyped and due to the cost were likely to be snapped up as a cool must-have plaything by people who were always going to pass them on once the novelty wore off.

The fact that lots are available used does not mean they are not very good cameras. I also suspect the volumes sold are rather large.

Some retailers seem to be perpetually out of stock - like B&H - while other have stock all the time. This I don't get either. No problem finding them in the UK...
 
Wow,

I was at Glazers last Tuesday and they have a demo but say they sell them as fast as they come in and didn't have one in stock. The guy even said the rental unit is in such high demand he hasn't had a chance to use it. Just as well, I have had second thoughts since all of the blade sticking issues.
 
You can always pay more than what is reasonable for an item. I checked Amazon, prices for new X-100's range from $1200 to $2500.

You can also buy a new Leica M8 for only $5999 or one used for $3699.

On the X100- from what I have read here on the X100, I lost interest. The Hardware is capable of much more than what is implemented in firmware. The manual focus should have been great- and is almost unusable by all accounts. The Japanese companies to not seem committed to upgrading firmware for a camera to reach it's potential, rather they go off and develop the "next, new one". The firmware in my Olympus EP2 has not been upgraded since V1.1, over a year ago. Now that the EP3 is out, I doubt there will be any more Revs. Let's hope Fuji does better on this front.
 
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I played for a while in a local shop but not like the control, seems not comfortable to me and the image not surprising me either. Focusing is also not good for me (only). Prices for new is $1450 in Hong Kong everywhere.
 
tom.w.bn said:
People who just want a very good camera keep it. People who thought they could get the M9+Summicron 35 for small money sell it.
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Yes, and people who expected manual focus to be a very fleshed out function of an AF camera were disappointed as well. .
 
It's a weird phenomenon this, where you can actually buy a new item for less money than what you see used items going for on the big auction site. Seems to happen with "hot" new electronics item. It's a form of auction fever where people perceive they're getting "a deal" and saving a few bucks by assuming that a used item is selling for less than new items or there's a perceived lack of availability. Strange phenomenon this, that can largely be chalked up to some buyers not doing their homework before purchasing.
 
They're super common here in BKK. Nearly every store I've been to had multiple in stock. They cost exactly $1,057.36 USD here brand new (as of today's exchange rate)
 
jsrockit said:
All of them... or do you mean a few of them? Mine is one of the first units shipped to the US and I've had zero issues.
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Yes, there are cameras that have been heavily used that have not failed, but that does not mean there are not a troubling number of failures being reported. Mine failed well before 1000 exposures; it's a progressive failure - eventually the blades stick wide open and you are left with a f/2.0 camera until it is repaired.

There have been a few reports (I'm aware of three) of cameras that have been repaired under warranty also failing in the same manner.

A poll hosted on x100forum.com shows that the majority of cameras in use by forum members are functioning well, even those that have seen thousands of activations.

Of concern, the percentage of x100forum.com user cameras that are failing is standing at around 25%. Now you could explain away some of those failed cameras as being out of the norm -- users with problems tend to hunt down a forum to ask questions. But it does seem that a surprisingly high number of X100 failures of this nature have plagued the cameras of x100forum.com users who have been there from day one of their purchase or before - long before the sticky aperture blade issue occurred.

Reported serial number fragments haven't yet shown a pattern to the failures that I am aware of.

I've been following reports of these failures across multiple forum sites and my best guess is that the failures are somewhat random, they seem to plague earlier runs of the camera, and that they are happening far too often.

Since the problem doesn't assert itself right away, we may not be fully aware of the extent of the issue until another year or so has passed and all shipped cameras have 1,000 activations or more. Surprisingly, some folks don't shoot much with their new $1,200 compact digital. Odd, eh?

It also seems that a surprising number (to me) of relatively inexperienced photographers are buying this camera and I can well imagine that many of these folks will fail to diagnose their camera's problems on their own. They will assume they are failing first, and/or blame the camera in some unspecified way. Will they be astute enough to realize the aperture blades are not stopping down at the time of exposure? Many will not.

In short, near as I can tell this is a real problem, not one of those internet rumour issues that gets blown out of proportion.

While Fujifilm immediately acknowledged the problem when I contacted them and repaired it and returned it quickly to me, my confidence in the camera has been shaken somewhat by the experience. The design of the camera is such that the aperture blades are most often in motion while the camera is on and active, and subject or luminence values are changing and I can't help but wonder if this is a design flaw that will come back to bite them over the course of time.

PS: On topic, here in Vancouver BC X100's are *still* hard to come by at the retail level, which in the face of the easy availability in other jurisdictions makes me scratch my head. Despite being in short supply here at retail, they aren't exactly flying at elevated prices on the used market either. On Craigslist here well priced X100s sell quickly; those that are bundled with expensive accessories tend to linger - buyers seem to want to check out the camera first before laying down more dough on leather cases and such.
 
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Well, we all no Fuji was under the gun to get this camera to the market and missed its deadline based on circumstances that were out of its control. I'm sure that may have effected quality control. That said, they are fixing or replacing cameras quickly, so I'm not sure why your confidence has been shaken... unless it keeps breaking down. Even Leica, Canon, and Nikon have issues on their high end cameras.
 
I don't think it's unreasonable to be concerned when we're potentially talking about a problem with the design of the camera, and one that Fuji may or may not have figured out how to resolve. There's no official information coming out of Fuji (and I doubt there will ever be) so we're left to wonder, which is never a good thing. The bottom line is that there seems to be a significant number of reports of this problem. We're talking about lenses whose aperture blades stop working. Pretty fundamental flaw. I had mine repaired and do not regretting buying the camera because the IQ is great and I like the form factor/external concerns. But I can tell you that I worry about whether or not the sticky blade problem will come back.

jsrockit said:
Well, we all no Fuji was under the gun to get this camera to the market and missed its deadline based on circumstances that were out of its control. I'm sure that may have effected quality control. That said, they are fixing or replacing cameras quickly, so I'm not sure why your confidence has been shaken... unless it keeps breaking down. Even Leica, Canon, and Nikon have issues on their high end cameras.
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