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Fuji X10 Camera (Fujifilm has a unique perspective again)

Fujifilm (or as I prefer to say…Fuji) just officially released details on their new X10 camera.

Edit: I owned this camera for a while many years after release. Here is my review on it.

As I was saying, they have a different perspective with this camera as they did with the x100.

– 2/3″ sensor
– A fast zoom lens that goes from f2 – f2.8, with a minimum aperture of f11…? Is a minimum of f11 normal for smaller cameras? That seems odd. The most interesting thing about this is the manual zoom ring with the “power button” integrated in to it.
– Optical stabilization.
– An optical viewfinder.
– 7fps still image capture.
– Very attractive retro look with metal top and bottom plates.
– A good number of external controls for easy access to needed functionality.

A few issues I see:
– It has an area of 58.1mm^2 for the sensor, which is pretty far from 4/3″ at 225mm^2 or APS-C at 370mm^2. Looking at it another way, it’s the biggest of the small fry digicam sensor options.
– Why go from that amazing x100 viewfinder to a physically tiny 85% viewfinder? Sure, it’s better than digicams, but how will it relate to entry level DSLRs? I would have rather seen a taller design with a nicer viewfinder that this. I’ll hold back a true opinion until I can see one in person though.
– No DNG raw support.
– Decent video support and stereo audio, but no external mic port? I’d rather have seen mono with a mic port.

It’s an interesting camera and I’d like to handle one eventually. I owned a Fujifilm prosumer digicam before getting into Pentax DLSRs and was pretty fond of the camera. Looking at the camera as a whole, it does certainly look unique and usable. It also sounds like it will undercut the Pentax Q by a few hundred dollars. While it isn’t an interchangeable lens camera, it does have a similar appeal to the Q.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qttiZkQBq2s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cj25re-1UpM