At last I have got my hands on a Fujifilm FinePix X100; believe me it is well worth the wait. The X100, is a beautifully-designed rangefinder-styled camera that squeezes an SLR-size APS-C sensor into its compact body. The fast F2 maximum aperture semi-wideangle lens has a classic 35mm-equivalent field of view which really gives wide images that cinematic feel. Image quality is excellent, very sharp indeed. The Fujifilm FinePix X100 creates noise-free JPEG images at ISO 100 all the way up to 3200, with a little noise at ISO 6400 and more visible noise and slight colour desaturation at the fastest setting of ISO 12800, an amazing performance for a camera with an APS-C sensor. The RAW files were also excellent, with usable images throughout the entire range of ISO 200-6400. But one of the truly innovative and unique developments with the Fujifilm FinePix X100 is the hybrid viewfinder, which combines a conventional direct-vision optical viewfinder with a high-resolution electronic viewfinder, offering the best of both worlds plus a few unique tricks of its own. I am still getting to grips with this compact bundle of joy and will hopefully post further blogs on findings and examples of images using the Fujifilm FinePix X100. The image below was taken today looking towards Darenth Valley in Kent; Silver Efex Pro was used to render the image in black and white.
