I enjoy these comments Nick.... very good
I enjoy these comments Nick.... very good
Samsung NX 10 with pancake lens... But for the price difference I'd go with the Fuji... I get what you're saying, and your intentions may be good? And I don't mean to dissuade you...
However, anything bigger than a Minox, or an XA, or a little modern compact digicam with a retractable lens? It will soon not be a "with you all the time camera..." It's too big. After the "new toy" novelty wears off, you'll use it as much as your DSLR. It will get use, but it won't be on your person at all times.
In order to do this, the camera has to be so small and light you are not conscious of it, forget it's there. And taking it with you wherever you go is as "subconscious" as grabbing your keys or your cell phone.
This will be your everyday camera for a few weeks at best...
Betchya...
In my case, I grab the case and attach it to my belt when I get dressed in the morning. I forget it's there, not aware of it. And yes, that means I had to swallow my pride, "give in" to digital, and shoot with a very "uncool" soccer mom silver small sensor digicam or Nikon "Coolpix".
There's a reason why similarly sized film cameras stay on my bureau every morning and used for "events" and when I feel like shooting them... It's the same reason so-called "compact" rangefinders got trounced by point-n-shoots...
Nobody carried a Yashica GX, Oly RC, or even a Trip with them at all times... It's why the XA was a break trhough. And people didn't always have a camera with them until the plastic fantastics came out - with all their concessions, in the 80's...
We've been down this road before... decades ago.
I find your comments ring true with my 40+ years of carrying cameras.
I do not find it necessarily true that camera size has much bearing on whether I carry a camera at all time, or not.
Rather the commitment to shoot whenever presented with a viable subject is the key. I purchased an Olympus E-PL2 to get down to "always carry" size, and just sold it after 6 months of ownership.... I was not carrying it any more than I carry a smallish DSLR. It certainly had all the attributes of this upcoming x100, including a sensor that I believe people will find outshoots the Fuji.
I have outshot, to my satisfaction, every APSC sensor I've come up against. In fact, I bought the 18Mp Canon T2i and kept it for 2 months, until I found I got better OOC images with the Olympus m4/3 sensor. I shot both of these cameras side by side for about a month and compared same images. In fact, my experience with a number of owned 4/3 DSLR, plus the micro has been that I have always acquired better images with corresponding MP 4/3 sensors compared to APS/c sensors. This with all Rebel models and a Nikon D80 I purchased.
Now let me say this. All my comparisons are OOC jpegs. I truly dislike and avoid Post Processing. It bothers me that digital cameras create images relying so much on the user to post process for final images. One of the reasons I still shoot film in Medium Format.
I used a pancake lens on the Oly, so the size should be similar to the new X100, which has NO alternative lens options.
Then, as you say it, I recognize that it has definitely "been there, done that" many times over the last many years.
Camera size is, for me, not a function of whether I alway have a camera with me. What is the decisive factor is the commitment to be ready to shoot at all times vs. the intent to go shooting on purpose.
BUT... to answer the point of this thread....NO. I probably will never own this camera, although I am a veteran and inveterate user of all of Fuji's big medium format cameras, including 3 currently owned Fuji 690's.