Introducing the Fujifilm X10

Fujifilm X10; For Rangefinder Lovers.

Well, this is not quite what I had in mind, but it’s a start. A wonderful start.

I had envisioned a successor to the X100 with interchangeable lenses, and some sort of optical viewfinder, but this is certainly the next best thing.

While the sensor is only slightly larger than the 1/1.7" of the Canon G12 and Nikon P7100 the quality of the optics are vastly different. The maximum aperture varies between f/2.0 and 2.8 across the zoom range, not f/2.8-5.6 or f/2.8-4.5 as in the Nikon and Canon. And the minimum aperture goes up to f/11. These specs make this camera a completely different animal.

The manual zoom is operated by twisting the lens barrel just as in a DSLR. In fact, so is the power. You just twist the barrel to turn the camera on, extend the lens, and dial in your exact focal length on the scale on the lens itself... Just like an SLR. It’s like a rangefinder with a zoom lens.

There’s even manual focus capability, although this is accomplished by electronic means.

This could be the digital rangefinder I’ve been looking for. I just have to see the image quality. To be honest, in a fixed-lens camera such as this, the sensor size is far less important than the actual image quality.