Enough already… It’s Fricken awesome. (Oh, and there’s heaps wrong with it too)

[DavidX]

^^ Thankyou - useful info there. (More so than in my ramblings.) I used it in a couple of different scenaios today; some candids and some food shots. In use in real-life situatins it behaved very well.

The only frustrations were misses on focus (using MF and pressing the AFL/AEL button to focus with OVF) Decent light, but very close discances - maybe 15cm. Focus once, no probs, then shift slightly and refocus - bang! goes off to infinity - happened a couple of times in maybe eight shots. But still, looking at the shots the IQ is just fine (OOC jpegs) and the lens is great. at 2.8 it's just what I like.

I used to make a virtue of the necessity of shooting wide open handheld with 100asa Provia and getting as close as I could with my 35mm 2.8 MF Nikkor. I would do quick restaurant/food shots under available light like that and the style kind of stuck I guess.

It's getting easier to find things in the menus too.

 

[Perfect Imposter]

^^ Thankyou - useful info there. (More so than in my ramblings.) I used it in a couple of different scenaios today; some candids and some food shots. In use in real-life situatins it behaved very well.

The only frustrations were misses on focus (using MF and pressing the AFL/AEL button to focus with OVF) Decent light, but very close discances - maybe 15cm. Focus once, no probs, then shift slightly and refocus - bang! goes off to infinity - happened a couple of times in maybe eight shots. But still, looking at the shots the IQ is just fine (OOC jpegs) and the lens is great. at 2.8 it's just what I like.

I used to make a virtue of the necessity of shooting wide open handheld with 100asa Provia and getting as close as I could with my 35mm 2.8 MF Nikkor. I would do quick restaurant/food shots under available light like that and the style kind of stuck I guess.

It's getting easier to find things in the menus too.

I was having this issue of missing focus at close distances as well. I found that it's not that it was refocusing, but actually missing focus in the first place. When you're focusing up close the distance from the lens to the viewfinder starts to come in to play. You need to move your intended focus point to towards the bottom right of the box when using the OVF.

It's a useful exercise to point the camera at objects at close distances and switch back and forth between OVF and EVF and observe the change in position of the focus box relative to that object. It is significant, and will cause the camera to miss focus.

 

[jsrockit]

I don't think you need a true manual focus to make it effective. Look at Sigma's distance dial on the DP2. Fuji could have put a mechanical ring on the lens with distance scale. It is more important to me than the actual focusing patch of the M's. Yet, that fly-by-wire system whose information shows up on the LCD or viewfinder is plain useless.

But Fuji never said that it is a manual focus camera... it's an AF camera. I can assure you that the X100 is the more pleasant camera to use compared to the DP2. Don't be afraid of auto-focus... it's not that horrible.

 

[jsrockit]

If chimping is important to you, you will be frustrated by the X100. The design does not encourage chimping.

Huh? The camera will show you every photo (not only the LCD) in the viewfinder if you want it to. It depends on how you have it set-up. Also, it has the play button just like any other digital camera. Not sure what you mean here.

 

[Neare]

I walked into the store and played with one for the first time today.
I looked through the viewfinder and honestly though I was flying an aeroplane.

🙂

 

[willie_901]

If you see the photo in the finder, then you can't see what's going on. So I have to turn this off. Chimping would be ok when shooting using the LCD (which I would only do in an emergency where I had to hold the camera above my head for instance).

I shoot RAW and often I bracket 3 exposures, so the write time (even with the San Disk Extreme Pro card) is slow enough to make chimping even more inefficient.

You can chimp, but the process is inconvenient compared to the LUMIX G1 and the Nikon D200/300/700. Once I became familiar with the X100, chimping had limited use for me. But If I was a person who relied on chimping after every shot, I would find the X100 would be frustrating.

 

[Pherdinand]

Why can't they build in an active infrared autofocus mechanism similar to Hexar AF?
That just worked soooo nice! And it didnt make the camera super expensive or big, neither!
To hell with phase detection and all that rubbish!

 

[jsrockit]

But If I was a person who relied on chimping after every shot, I would find the X100 would be frustrating.

I just can't see how... all you have to do is press the play button to chimp.

 

[hxpham]

I just can't see how... all you have to do is press the play button to chimp.

I think he's saying that as a euphemism for the camera being slow at saving/reviewing images that have just been shot.

 

[smillie]

Why can't they build in an active infrared autofocus mechanism similar to Hexar AF?

Or the Contax G2. I know, right? That would be awesome!

But such a mechanism would have to be completely separate from the image sensor, which like all digital sensors, has a hot mirror. This doesn't make it impossible, just uneconomic, since on-sensor contrast-detection autofocus is clearly "good enough" for a huge portion of the market. It's really hard to compete with "good enough".

 

[bigeye]

I played with it at B&H for awhile yesterday and the impression was that it's a digital re-incarnation of something like a Yashica GSN rather than a Leica M.

It's a bit gadgety - ridiculous manual focus and unnecessary EVF ('looks good on paper' consumer electronics design). The build is OK, as expected.

With all the comparisons to an M9, there really isn't anything 'Leica M' about it. I would play with one before buying.

.

 

[jsrockit]

I think he's saying that as a euphemism for the camera being slow at saving/reviewing images that have just been shot.

No slower than a M8 or M9.

 

[jsrockit]

It's a bit gadgety - ridiculous manual focus and unnecessary EVF ('looks good on paper' consumer electronics design).

Unnecessary? Hmmm, no macro without EVF, no 100% framelines without EVF, and the EVF beats the OVF in dim rooms or outside in the dark.

 

[DavidX]

Unnecessary? Hmmm, no macro without EVF, no 100% framelines without EVF, and the EVF beats the OVF in dim rooms or outside in the dark.

Indeed - I'd have to say that while it's the OVF with "HUD overlay" that is unique, the EVF is great. And I like the expression that someone used of having a "Holy Crap!" moment when it kicked in for the first time.

I thiink in playing with it in the shop you can only get a feel for the build quality and have a quick squiz through the OVF - as I said, I found that it took a long time to work it out, and after a week (on and off as other things permit) i'm nowhere near familiar. This in itself may be seen as a shortcoming, but others are getting some great pics with it, so no excuses.