Fujifilm’s storming 2013 with two refreshed models. Today, the Fujifilm X100S and X20 were announced (along with some other compact cameras). Both X100 and X10 were, and still are, immensely popular and well received by photographers of all levels. Strangely enough, their popularity is not due to outright perfection, but a very subtle balance between quality and… character? By all means, these cameras are not exactly easy to live with due to an enormous amount, for a finished product, of quirks. Luckily, Fujifilm is big on customer opinions – they seem to have heard the more known complaints and reacted accordingly. As a result, the two updated compact cameras carry certain welcome improvements. Lets see what those are in more detail, starting with the X100S and the X20 covered in a separate article.
Fujifilm X100S
1) Commentary
Having mentioned quirks, Fujifilm X100 (click here for our review) was received very enthusiastically by most photographers. Carrying a sharp fixed lens with the equivalent focal length of 35mm, large sensor and unique at the time hybrid viewfinder, its biggest complaint was overall sluggishness. Start-up time wasn’t exactly brilliant, nor card write speed. Most unfortunately, AF was also average at best with manual focus hardly usable at all due to very long focus throw. Despite these and other shortcomings, some of which have since been fixed via firmware updates, X100 still remains a very desirable camera. The X100S builds upon the strengths of its predecessor and promises to fix some of the shortcomings while carrying virtually the same attractive design, save for a small S at the front of the camera. Being Fujifilm, we are yet to see how much of promises turn out to be true, but already I’ve forgotten all about Sony’s RX1. X100S sounds fantastic!
