Pieter Franken has written in with an early review of the Fuji X100 for SteveHuffPhoto.com. Franken is a Dutch and a Leica M8 and M9 user living in Tokyo.
Here are a few nugget quotes from the article addressing questions that have been on everyone's mind:
On the f/2 23mm (35mm equivalent) lens: "When compared to a modern 35mm summicron (ASPH or late non ASPH), the performance of the Fuji lens lags a bit – Wide open it is a bit softer, less sharp. Some people may actually like this over the razor sharpness of the Summicron ASPH. From f2.8 onwards, it is crisper and clean. The lens can be stepped in full stops only."
High ISO noise performance: "Performance is in the same class as my D700. Pictures taken at ISO6400 have nice grain and color information is not lost or smeared."
Autofocus speed: "The speed of focus is not the fastest out there – it lags behind the Lumix GF1 with 20mm in terms of speed."
On manual focus: "The focus ring it self is very slow, which is great for precise focusing, but not good if you need to dial in the focal point fast."
More details, including assessment of the framelines and JPG and RAW quality and sample images, can be viewed at SteveHuffPhoto.com.
More Fuji Finepix X100 pictures taken by Franken can be seen here.
The owner's manual for the Fujifilm FinePix X100 is now online.
FinePix X100 vs. Leica M3: side-by-side photo.
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