I really enjoy photography and even do some paid work. I use Nikon DSLRs and a selection of great lenses. I have always craved a camera that I could slip into a pocket and take anywhere without having to take a substantial camera bag that may get in the way and stop me carrying other stuff or attract the wrong attention. I fancied something that wouldn't attract attention when I'm trying to go unnoticed as a photographer and that would be easy to look after while travelling through dodgy cities or countries. A camera for skiing, for lightweight travel, work trips...the list is endless. The thing that has stopped me getting such a camera to date is the poor image quality and sluggish handling, with a serious absence of user control and the use of slow aperture lenses.
When I saw the X10 I was excited by the concept of a compact camera that handled like a real camera, had build quality to be proud of, a fast and decent zoom lens and offered decent image quality.
Having ordered one I have had time to have a useful play and make some assessment of the performance and user experience.
Firstly, I found the user interface and menu system generally intuitive and easy to understand, only having to use the book a few times.
Build quality is excellent and its a pleasure to handle and look at the camera.
Handling the camera is a joy with all the controls a keen photographer could ask for and the short range zoom lens is a gem in use, with well-damped zoom action. It is sharp all the way from f2 and to both ends of the zoom (perhaps slightly better at wide end), with only slight corner softness at some settings. There seems to be no obvious chromatic abberation and distortion is satisfactory. The close up modes are really effective and careful use of the fast apertures with close focus can give subject isolation I have never seen on a compact camera.
Response in focus and shutter release is superb with none of that awful shutter or focus lag that misses the moment. The option to easily choose from a huge coverage of focus points is very useful.
Image quality is really quite amazing for a compact camera and much better than I have ever seen before. Sure, the sensor has its limitations and dynamic range, noise and a multitude of other factors will never compare with the absolute performance of a large sensor camera. But I am very satisfied with the images, when usually I am horrified by the jpeg artifacts and awful over-sharpening on so many compacts. I think the jpeg processing engine does a superb job of producing shots that need little if any work. I am a dedicated RAW shooter but I will be shooting jpeg on this camera almost all the time. I have tried RAW and it is now supported in ACR, but I cannot achieve as good a result generally as the in-camera jpeg engine. I really love the Fuji image rendering and this can easily be changed by easy to access and understand settings or film simulation modes. There are some interesting options in the EXR and other modes, including panoramas.
The flash is not powerful but is easy to use, well-designed into the body and gives a useful boost to exposures without blasting light and causing ugly shadows...its more of a fill-flash that works very well with the ambient exposure.
To me it is a revelation to have a compact camera that can take very good images at ISO 1600, usable ones at ISO 3200 and that handles like a real camera, giving joy to the act of photography itself.
There are a few annoyances...when face detection is selected it disables the ability to display and choose a focus point. The lens cannot be properly fitted with a UV filter due to its unusual thread size/design, unless the overpriced hood is purchased. RAW shooting is selected in the setup menu (a RAW button does give the option to take one RAW shot after each button push). Auto ISO seems to choose ISO 400 a fair bit when 200 would do (although quality is still very good indeed) Video quality looks very good but there is some jerking while panning.
In short, this camera puts the fun back into easy and spontaneous shooting in a convenient and very competent package. I love it so far.
| Package Dimensions L x W x H | 17.4 x 17 x 9.8 centimetres |
|---|---|
| Package Weight | 930 g |
| Product Dimensions L x W x H | 11.7 x 7 x 5.9 centimetres |
| Item Weight | 350 Grams |
| Brand | Fujifilm |
| Camera Lens | 28-112mm zoom lens with f/2.0-2.8 maximum aperture |
| Colour | Black |
| Continuous shooting speed | 3.00 |
| Has image stabilisation | Yes |
| Included components | Fujifilm NP-50 Rechargeable Lithium Battery, Battery Charger BC-45W, Shoulder Strap, Objective Cap, USB Cable, Lens Hood and Adapter Ring, CD-ROM, Owner's Manual |
| ISO Range | 100-12800 |
| Max Focal Length | 114 Millimetres |
| Memory Slots Available | 1 |
| Min Focal Length | 28 Millimetres |
| Minimum shutter speed | 4 seconds |
| Model year | 2011 |
| Plug profile | Fujifilm 1X |
| Part number | 4004220 |
| Viewfinder Magnification | 0.85x |
| Zoom Type | Zoom ottico |
| Focus type | Auto Focus |
| Maximum shutter speed | 30 seconds |
| Maximum Format Size | 1/2 3 inch |
| Effective still resolution | 12 MP |
| Guaranteed software updates until | unknown |
