For those who might be interested, here's a little progress report with first impressions of the Fuji X10.
After opening the box - wow. Quality feel to it. Smooooth. Very black, very small. Size and weight reminds me of Leica CL, but resemblance ends there. It looks just like a flippin film camera of days gone by but in fact full of gizmotech. No strap going on this - no need. It fits in my pockets! First things first - the viewfinder is essential for me, so does it work? Emphatic yes! Phew - it passes the biggest hurdle. Not as nice as the X100 or any Leica, or even the Epson R-D1, but yes, I can easily see through it and it's actually not bad at all. Later I test the 'WYSIWYG' by looking through and comparing a shot. 85% coverage seems accurate. The pics are slightly wider than as seen. Easy to compensate for and actually better that way round - more room for error on the edges. Feel and ease of use - menus are quirky and not the easiest to figger out but I get there and still haven't looked at the manual. Settings stay locked to each operation mode and not global (P, A ,S, M) so if I set M (Manual) for 200 ISO and whatever else, when I switch back to P (Program) it goes back to the settings I used previously for that, say 800 Auto ISO and whatever else I set previously. Means I can set up M for things like landscapes and leave P for parties and grabs, S for high shutter speed shit and A for arty street shooting ;-) Whatever. Things I was interested to see that people had mentioned: Specular highlights - shit a brick! What's all the fuss about?? I probably wouldn't have even noticed it if I hadn't read the doom and gloom! Tried a few shots with highlights in and a complete waste of time bothering about it! I didn't buy the camera to pixel peep with - I bought it because it has a way better optical viewfinder than the Canon G12. What a relief. And Fooj are working on a fix so wtf. Parallax error - easy - close ups, just use the rear LCD. Everything else - non event. Finder is very good. For critical focus applications use rear LCD. End of. Mechanical operation - so far everything works, camera switches on and off as designed - very fast power up - in 'normal' - from switching on to 'alive' just over 1 second. In 'quick start' mode - almost instantaneous - my guess would be 2/10ths of a second. The rotating lens barrel for switch on is interesting and geared for shooting from cold. Nice. Shooting with it - fantastic. I preferred the articulated screen (and hence being able to fold away so can't bee seen) of the G12 or even the Epson R-D1 but hey. The rear LCD is visible from any angle - amazed at that. On the whole I tend not to use the rear LCD of any camera for composing - hence why I wanted a usable optical viewfinder. I would have liked Bob's X100 but for the restriction on the lens. The zoom range on the X10 isn't stellar but it suits my needs. The low light night shots are fantastic. Very impressed. To sum up - as Steve (Of The Gardens) said - it's been a long time since I've been this happy with a camera! Pics in due course. That is all. -- Cheers, Cotty ___/\__ || (O) | People, Places, Pastiche ---------- http://www.cottysnaps.com _____________________________ -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
