Tuesday 8 January 2013

Very Promising 'Hands On' Preview with the Fuji X100S

Ok, first the health warning.

This is an officially sanctioned 'hands on' run through of the brand new Fuji X100S by 'The Fuji Guys', so they are hardly going to show you anything it is not so good at, but all the same it does look VERY promising.

I accept that I may be a little premature with this statement but as an owner of the X100 I could not help but be impressed by the focusing speed in the test compared to the outgoing camera.

Also check out the peaking demo, which I remain to be convinced by.

As you can see in the video it does not seem to work so well on lighter subjects, though this is a youtube video so I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt.

The pseudo 'split image' function which relies on the 'phase detection' built into the sensor does look much more promising.

Though that  could be down to nostalgia on my part....

They do seem to have made the menu much more accessible as the demo for the ISO control shows.

As a footnote the 'reviewers' are using a preproduction model, so a few of the buttons are in the wrong place on this model.

It does go to show just how down to the wire on a launch manufacturers go with new camera's.

Have a look and let me know what you think?

6 comments:

François Sechet said...

Hey Drew,

I must say that I only have ONE SINGLE concern about the X100, and no matter what they do with the X100S, if they don't fix it I won't buy it. Here it is (and please don't tell me that you have never been annoyed as hell with it too):

On all cameras ever made, if you keep the finger on half-press after taking one picture, it will not recalculate anything and the next picture will be instantaneous, as long as you do not release the shutter. I am not talking about burst mode, but rather a "click - wait/recompose/whatever while keeping the finger on the shutter - click" and repeat.
On the X100, this will always recalculate god knows what, even when on full manual (AF, aperture, speed...), and you get a slight delay that you don't have on the first complete press. Always. This drives me mad. AAAAAAARGH.

All the rest, slow focus etc., I really don't care. But THAT. I hate it. What are your thoughts here?

François Sechet said...

(I hate that so much that if they fix it here, I actually will buy that new version instead)

Libby said...

Split image focusing is NEW - Oh I love that LOL.

I love the spread on the focus points - very nice.

Video peaking - they should have done Zebra stripes like some of the external video monitors do. If you are aiming for some fine detail with very shallow DOF, and if you are old farts like us, you still may have to do the close up zoom. And although I can still do pretty well with an LCD at full screen view, there are times now when I work with the C Mount lenses in low light when I have to do the zoom thing. That's what I would like to avoid.

The Fujiguy is not too self serving in the video - he did an ok job.

You have a great Wednesday! It's already late where you are -)

Unknown said...

Hey Guys

Just like you I'm waiting to see what they have fixed and what they haven't.

Will you wish come true F?

We shall see.

Regards

Drew

JKorn said...

Of all the great changes they've made, the one I'm most excited about is that they've moved the AF button to the right side. Choosing an AF point is no longer a two-handed operation.

Unknown said...

I maintain that in this very competitive market place Fuji will suffer in the long term if they don't work a little more closely with the third party software manufacturers like Adobe and Phase One. roygroething.com |Higher Ed Photography