[Kombisaurus]

Just saw this...

http://www.43rumors.com/ft5-panasonic-to...this-year/

It's the mystery announcement discussed at the end of the article that's really got me interested. Finally a worthy successor to the GF1?

[NT73]

There is a rumour that Panasonic will unveil another 6 GF's within 4 years.

Talk about keeping up with the Jones's.

[shuttertalk]

Usually after a few week/months after a product is launched and the dust has settled, Engadget post a "How would you change product X" and get their readers to respond. Found a few good gems from people who've actually owned and used the product:

http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/05/how-w...qus_thread

From one commenter, who loves his X100:

- improve battery life (thankfully NP-95 clones are $9 on Amazon, so I bought several); battery life sucks

- improve startup time if an SD card isn't formatted by the X100 (even if it is and then you delete photos from Aperture of iPhoto it confuses the X100 and startup times can approach 15 seconds!!!)

- do a better job retaining settings when modes are changed. All sorts of things can change when you don't expect; the UI needs work

- improve the settings / configuration for the view modes. Frankly - I still don't understand them well enough. I use the OVF almost 100% of the time and find that the camera still want to display stuff on the big LCD screen when I move my eye away from the camera. Could be I don't understand the settings. It's no iPhone when it comes to usability.

- give me another one or two fn keys- I definitely DO NOT need interchangeable lens. The near 35mm effect of the prime 23mm lens is fantastic. What I would like is to change the shutter design so I can select >1/2000 shutter speeds without having to use the built-in neutral density filter - which means assigning that feature to the fn key or navigating the menus.

- add a dedicated start movie mode; with only one fn key it's hard to devote it to starting video recording - but that's really a feature I'd like to see- always display images in the EVF in high resolution. It seems to have a low-res mode that's not appealing.

[Zig]

I also wonder what, if anything, the other marques will come up with in response to it. I gather there's the "new" tarted-up uber- Leica(P or something?) but I guess that's out on its own. Canon are presumably going to shimmy round the "rangefinder" and do 5DMk3...or have they a RF up their sleeve too?

[adam]

I decided not to buy it, as I need to save money
Fortunately, I convinced my sister to buy it, and let her have my spot in queue.
She got it last week! I can play with it too! bahaha, what a good brother!

[adam]

My sister is back from holidays,
and so is her X100

I got to play! HEHE

[Zig]

Snap!
As they say.

[Toad]

How about a mini-review, Adam?

[adam]

I'll play some more and then write something!

My review won't be really critical, because I've become accepting of everything! haha

[shuttertalk]

Fuji have announced a wide angle adapter for the X100 - the 0.8x adapter turns the 35mm equivalent lens into a 28mm perspective.

http://www.photographyblog.com/news/fujifilm_wcl-x100/

Sample images here:

http://www.photographyblog.com/news/offi...le_images/

[Toad]

I thought that was pretty cool - extending an already excellent fixed focal length camera to other focal lengths. Fuji continues to innovate.

[shuttertalk]

Looks like it's not without compromises - from dpreview:

After selecting the ‘Wide Conversion Lens’ option, the FUJIFILM X100 automatically applies image processing to shots taken using the WCL-X100 to reduce image distortion, ensuring balanced illumination across the frame and reduced chromatic aberration which can be commonly found in wide conversion lenses.

So reading between the lines, the converter degrades image quality so much it requires software correction.

They also say it only gives you 80% field of view through the OVF.

[matthew]

It's interesting to see Fuji bringing out an X100 accessory at this point – it makes me wonder what's going to happen this September. Will there be a new model, to sap some of the excitement from the Leica M10 announcement, or will they remain focused on the X-pro series?

Not that there's much to change about the X100, but it would be nice to see some of the control/interface lessons applied, as well as the nifty sensor from the X-pro1. Re-attempting the sensor-integral phase-detect autofocus system, which they pioneered with the F300exr (and Nikon uses in its mirrorless 1 system) could also sway some doubters.

[shuttertalk]

Take a peek at the insides here -

http://www.engadget.com/2012/05/18/water...education/

James Maher had the unfortunate luck of placing his bag and prized Fujifilm X100 in a "dry" container on a fishing trip that didn't keep its contents very dry. Maher survived his harrowing voyage on the SS Hit 'em Hard, but his camera did not. Thankfully, the photographer didn't let his shooter die in vain. He spent precious time dissecting it and disassembling it, piece by piece.

His site seems down at the moment, so maybe try a bit later.