Fuji X100 Digital SOMETHING from Fujifilm

[semilog]

not a sore subject Paul - just mildly amused at the pointless speculation.

I dont care if the sensor is woven by blind nuns from threads spun from unicorn hair or assembled by mad scientists in a laboratory deep in an extinct volcano - all I care about is how the pictures will look - and that I wont discover until I have the camera in my hand and take the pictures myself

K

I think that you can expect with pretty high confidence that the pictures will look like pictures taken using a very good 35mm-e lens mated to a modern CMOS APS-C sensor.

As much as we (self very much included) all like to split hairs, the properties of a well-designed imaging system with these parameters are just not going to vary that much.

Say, at least as good as the 24mm AF-Nikkor on a D90 or D300 or D5000.

The truth is is that most such pictures are going to look more or less the same. As it happens, those are precisely the parameters I am looking for in a small, RF-like camera.

Worry about the interface, especially the AF system. To a first approximation we know what the pictures will look like.

 

[Frankie]

which means that since all of... "us" seem to like the camera, and the price seems reasonable, and there is plenty of warning to start putting $6 a day aside, if Fuji releases X100 sales numbers we are about to find out how many of us curmudgeons are still out there 😀

$6 per day is the equivalent for quiting smoking, or 2 "*buck's"...easily doable, and better for your health. 😀

 

[BillBingham2]

i was told, in person, that it was the former. by more than one person.

Having worked in and walked through labs making all sorts of products often followed by walks down product management cube/office rows I can say first hand that many great ideas never see the light of day.

Having worked many shows representing products I helped build and design and other times where I was a "Demo Don" some times they tell you what they know or are told to know.

Trust but verify, that old auditor saying.

B2 (;->

 

[cam]

Having worked in and walked through labs making all sorts of products often followed by walks down product management cube/office rows I can say first hand that many great ideas never see the light of day.

Having worked many shows representing products I helped build and design and other times where I was a "Demo Don" some times they tell you what they know or are told to know.

Trust but verify, that old auditor saying.

B2 (;->

i agree completely!

i've worked a lot of shows and usually was the one telling everybody at the booth what to say 😛

it does seem to be something they were coached to say, though, so i'd like to believe it's true. what it actually means is another story...

 

[Frankie]

Through the viewfinder, is it for real? wow

it has the histogram, distant scale,

The EVF panel...I believe that is the correct name...when not used as EVF, serves as a display panel for firmware generated datasets and could be superimposed onto the OVF as numbers or graphics.

Such datasets include measurements (knob/wheel positions): shutter speed, aperture, focusing ring/wheel position (not distance yet), exposure compensation...; internal gyroscope...; also from menu input: ISO, L/F... and from LUT: DoF... and menus resources: grid...

When EVF is operating then also: histogram, focus distance, focusing aids...

[And for Brian Sweeney, selected EVF functions for OVF superimposition, suppress the rest: focusing patch, parallax wedge (M-style)...]

The whole idea is to select what you want, hopefully also to place them where you want...

If Fuji would publish an SDK, APPs could even be added by mad scientists...you know who you are...and my Skunk Works gang. [We have done the equivalent 2 decades ago retrofitting analogue stereo plotters.] 😀

 

[tapesonthefloor]

If Fuji would publish an SDK, APPs could even be added by mad scientists...you know who you are...and my Skunk Works gang. [We have done the equivalent 2 decades ago retrofitting analogue stereo plotters.] 😀

We'll be fiddling with custom firmware within minutes of first connecting the camera by USB, with or without a SDK. 😀 Of course, Fujifilm should really be encouraging this sort of positive behaviour, but it will happen regardless.

 

[Sonnar Brian]

So what processor is Fuji using...

 

[ebino]

Personally, i really like the look of this camera. If i buy one of these it would be simply for the look of it and enjoyment of carrying it around, not to mention the VF and shooting through it like a rangefinder. I also know for a fact that a lot of us feel the same way.

But still the thought of fixed lens bothers me. Especially considering the price. The practical side of me cannot justify it, the emotional side wants to add some excitement to my shooting. we shall see which side wins.

 

[tapesonthefloor]

Fujifilm releasing this camera as the birth of some new interchangeable lens system full of cheap, slow zooms seems like a far more expensive proposition to me. I'll stick with the fixed lens, thank you.

 

[__--]

Personally, i really like the look of this camera. If i buy one of these it would be simply for the look of it and enjoyment of carrying it around, not to mention the VF and shooting through it like a rangefinder. I also know for a fact that a lot of us feel the same way.

But still the thought of fixed lens bothers me. Especially considering the price. The practical side of me cannot justify it, the emotional side wants to add some excitement to my shooting. we shall see which side wins.

Well, I would have preferred the camera to be black and less retro in look — de gustibus non disputandum est.

Also, I like that it's a fixed lens. In an interview at Photokina, to which there is a link somewhere earlier in this thread, the designers of the camera repeatedly said that they made a prime, as opposed to a zoom, lens; and a fixed, as opposed to an interchangeable, lens because their objective was to maximize image quality by optimizing the lens-sensor combination. Once you have to use one sensor for lenses of various focal length you get sub-optimization, at least with todays technology. So yiou are getting value in the sense of the best image quality possible with this combination.

Also, as discussed earlier in this thread, Fujifilm may make wide-converters, say, for 28mm, 24mm or 21mm, which is an inexpensive way to gain more focal length — and effective, going by the example of excellent 21mm wide--concverter that Ricoh produces for its 28mm EFOV GRD3 camera. I don't know whether a tele-converter for 50mm is possible — I assume that it isn't because of the large, heavy chunk of glass necessary for f/2 and the possible flare problem — but they could produce a second, 50mm version of this camera.

—Mitch/Bangkok
Wild Beasts of Botswana

 

[narsuitus]

What kinds of wireless remote controlled shutter release devices will work on the X100?

 

[semilog]

What kinds of wireless remote controlled shutter release devices will work on the X100?

It has a cable release socket! 😀

I don't see any sign that it has an IR receiver. 🙁

But really, that's the sort of application where I'd be using a DSLR anyway.

 

[kevinparis]

So what processor is Fuji using...

I believe it is based around very small highly intelligent squirrels with abacuses - you adjust the image quality by feeding them the appropriate kinds of nuts - almonds for higher contrast images, peanuts for JPEGS, pistachio to correct the green cast of fluorescent lights

🙂

 

[Doug]

Here's some info on the EXR technology. The application in this case is for an existing camera. Any fab will take a clients design and produce a "chip" with the client's recipe. Sony has a history of making quality sensors, if they are the indeed the foundry of choice.
http://www.fujifilm.com/products/digital_cameras/exr/about/index.html
http://www.fujifilm.com/products/digital_cameras/exr/interview/index.html

Interesting stuff, and I note their comment that "Official name: Super CCD EXR". But from the press release the X100 sensor is a CMOS: "The FinePix X100 features a custom CMOS high-performance sensor, internally optimized and developed exclusively for this model."

Sounds like Fuji is making a special sensor for the X100, but it's not their EXR technology.

 

[cam]

and walnuts for high ISO.

 

[Frankie]

So what processor is Fuji using...

This is the third time I wrote about customizing, SDK etc. and finally registered.

Take over Mad Scientist. 😀

 

[dazedgonebye]

Fujifilm releasing this camera as the birth of some new interchangeable lens system full of cheap, slow zooms seems like a far more expensive proposition to me. I'll stick with the fixed lens, thank you.

Amen.
If this was introduced with some slow 14-28 and a promise of a prime some time in the future I'd be far less interested...all the way to not interested.

 

[Frankie]

That's asking a bit much, no? 🙄

I actually meant to say: When in doubt, READ [and then THINK]. 😉

 

[ebino]

Well, I would have preferred the camera to be black and less retro in look — de gustibus non disputandum est.

Also, I like that it's a fixed lens. In an interview at Photokina, to which there is a link somewhere earlier in this thread, the designers of the camera repeatedly said that they made a prime, as opposed to a zoom, lens; and a fixed, as opposed to an interchangeable, lens because their objective was to maximize image quality by optimizing the lens-sensor combination. Once you have to use one sensor for lenses of various focal length you get sub-optimization, at least with todays technology. So yiou are getting value in the sense of the best image quality possible with this combination.

Also, as discussed earlier in this thread, Fujifilm may make wide-converters, say, for 28mm, 24mm or 21mm, which is an inexpensive way to gain more focal length — and effective, going by the example of excellent 21mm wide--concverter that Ricoh produces for its 28mm EFOV GRD3 camera. I don't know whether a tele-converter for 50mm is possible — I assume that it isn't because of the large, heavy chunk of glass necessary for f/2 and the possible flare problem — but they could produce a second, 50mm version of this camera.

—Mitch/Bangkok
Wild Beasts of Botswana

I'm not particularly against using lens adopters. but then again a lens adopter is not a lens, its use and potential is limited... on the other hand, someone considering investing in a new system could very well buy an X100 with lens adopters of their liking and their all set.

For example if I buy an X100, i will be set with a 24/50 mm equivalent adopters and to me that would be a complete system. Its also a dream starter system for someone finally moving to digital or for new amateurs... anyway, we will have to wait an see.

 

[BillBingham2]

I'm not particularly against using lens adopters. but then again a lens adopter is not a lens, its use and potential is limited... on the other hand, someone considering investing in a new system could very well buy an X100 with lens adopters of their liking and their all set.

For example if I buy an X100, i will be set with a 24/50 mm equivalent adopters and to me that would be a complete system. Its also a dream starter system for someone finally moving to digital or for new amateurs... anyway, we will have to wait an see.

Adopters of years back were, well, sub-optimal. Ricoh has changed my mind on the quality potential. Adopters are no more limiting than another prime lens.

I will be interesting to see what adopters they plan on doing. Could they go say with a 25 and keep the same aperture but then have say a 18 or 20 with a stop slower? Can they do a 75 without the flair problem Ricoh has? Perhaps a stop slower with a lens hood?

What ever they do just make them the highest quality possible please and thank you.

B2 (;->