LC1, f2.4, 1/160, ISO 200, RAW, 90mm
The latest Focus in Birmingham did not present much new and was pretty boring compared with previous years.
Maybe it was manufacturers not releasing any new products during the show or maybe it was lack of interest from my part in anything but the Fuji X100.
Since Photokina in September last year I could not wait to see a working X100 and I am sure I was not alone. This was the main reason to go all the way to Birmingham for me this time around. Unlike a few years ago when I was excited about the
Sigma DP1, the Fuji X100 did not disappoint.
Ever since Fuji stole the spotlight at
Photokina with the X100 people have been constantly talking about it and have been analyzing and scrutinizing every piece of information released. In recent weeks there have been more and more sample images released so the excitement was very high. The expectations of some people were so high that no camera can realistically fulfill them so some people are bound to be slightly disappointed.
So let me say that while I think the Fuji X100 is one of the best looking cameras and I will end up buying one just for that point alone even though it has a few problems. Some can be fixed in firmware and some will need to be changed in the X200 but overall it's great to see that Fuji has let the right people design a camera and has made one of the best enthusiast cameras you can currently find. Let's hope this inspires more manufacturers (Panasonic I look at you here) to pay more attention to design and controls on cameras, so far it seems only Ricoh, Leica and now Fuji have figured it out, I could also include Epson with the RD1 here but this was a one off like the Panasonic LC1.
