Fujifilm says X-Pro1 will set you back around $2300. UK probably £1980

What about the gremlins that have cropped up with the latest X-100 and X-10 cameras? It seems like Fuji is expecting its recent owners to perform beta testing of its products. IMHO if Fuji continues this trend with the release of the X-Pro1 the call may be, "Three-Strikes-And-You're-Out."

Wow, did you say 311,000,000 hits? Threehundred-eleven-million hits? Trange, Fuji has not even manufactured that many lenses in it's entire history. But apart from that, it's always the complaint you read about on the internet because dissatisfied customers need to complaint somewhere, after the salesman is done with them. On the other hand, all of the SATISFIED customers are the group you'll never hear about, because they have no reason to complaint! So please be realistic when commenting please.

PS. I used to work in the Camera industry, you SURE you know what you are talking about Mr. HOWABOUTRAW? You're sure Panasonic has nothing to do with any LEICA body R & D or any of its components? Have you done any REAL research before you're so SURE about Leica 100% built and made in GERMANY?

Jmmg:

Yes, I am sure that the M9 bodies are built in Germany. There may as I already said be a Fuji made processor in there.

The micro lens array on the Kodak sensor is a big reason it wouldn't work with other cameras. Also it's a CCD, so not the greatest at higher ISOs. However people love this sensor upto ISO 800 or so.

Kodak is mostly a film and chemical company, not really a camera company. Then there is that whole stupid foray into printers. Ironically 30 year old Kodak tech, now owned by others, is about to replace every flat screen TV.

Leica the camera company also went bankrupt, does that mean that Leica camera lenses aren't any good?

For someone who claims to have worked in the camera industry you don't appear to know much.

Wow! sounded like I poke some Leica FANBOY hot button here so they have to defend the honour of mighty Leica or something!? BTW, all your so call camera knowledge, did you read them here at Dpreviews or you actually know them for fact? We truly believe everything we see and read on internet now, are we? You want to go technical, be my guest, the fact is Leica DO NOT built their camera all in Germany is a FACT, call up Leica or their mother company PANASONIC to find out for yourself FANBOY, get it real.

BTW, while you on the phone with Leica America or PANASONIC USA, why don't you ask them about which PARTS of your beloved mighty Leica M Camera's part is built in not just Japan, but China and Tailand, Indonesia.etc as well? Not all Mighty Germany, what a scandal.....

Jmmg:

Wow, you really don't get the difference between P&S cameras made in Japan by Panasonic with Leica lenses made under license in Japan and a body the M9 or M8. (And by the way those Panasonics most certainly say made in Japan on them.)

Panasonic is not some "mother company" to Leica.

There are however Canadian made Leica R and M lenses out in the world.

Make up whatever you want to claim is reality.

Leica M bodies are made in Germany, though who knows were the metal ore is mined.

No you don't know what you are talking about. And your attempt at analogies simply fail.

The sensors used for the M9 are excellent and have nothing to do with Kodak's marketing and sales failures.

Move along, you are simply trolling!

LadyGaGa;

Did I say that Kodak made sensor for Leica??? HOWABOUTRAW who is the Leica expert/fanboy brought that up, cheak the post, it is so funny I found that I said in the original post about IF the X Pro 1 get close enough quality SENSOR wise like a Leica, it will be a good buy, then all the sudden all you LEICA FANBOY up an arm and can't wait to defend the mighty German/ Portuguese/ Japanese built LEICA. Well OK, if you LEICA FANBOY are that insecure about your mighty "GERMAN" camera status being challenge by other brands or in complete denial that there are absolutely nothing in this world is better than your Leica then OK your Mighty Leica is the best, OK you can calm down now, do n't want you to have a heart attack about it.

HOWABOUTRAW;

I am living in a dream eh? You are such a Leica expert and you don't even know that your most part of mighty Leica mechanical part and body are built in Portugal then ship to Germany to assemble together at the Solms factory later. Both M8 and M9 parts were made by subcontractor all over the world then again ASSEMBLE in Germany not made in Germany, do your research EXPERT FANBOY or go ask someone really know the fact.

BTW I have a M8 and I love it too, but I also use Hasselblad, Contax, Nikon, Canon, Olympus, Sony, Yashica, Fujifilm models as well, they all good cameras and I love them all when they fit into different purpose when I needed them. I am not blindly Brand worshiping like you and other Leica FANBOY does.

Jmmg:

I have no idea if some part of the M9 is made in Portugal, who cares that wasn't your point.

You claimed that M9s are basically Panasonics. And M9s aren't. (There are Panasonics that have been branded Leica, like the LX5/Delux 5; you seem confused on this point.)

You seem to think me an M9 "fanboy", nope, I have big problems with not being able to shoot noise free at ISO6400, and the shutter is much to audible, then there are buffer problems.

Though I do like the M lenses, German or Canadian.

I see no point in bringing up these other brands, except to reinforce your delusion that all sorts of Leica fans are blindly worshiping M9s.

Panasonic and Leica both invested money in each other and have their engineers team work together and share many R & D, Panasonic also bought many share of Leica Camera AG, Leica Microsystems and Leica Geosystems. and is one of the single largest share holder for the Leica group outside of Europe. Yes, I admitted I shouldn't have "Called" Panasonic the "Mother" company for Leica, but when they held majority of your company shares and invested so much in Leica R & D plus basically have so many of their engineer team working at your labs side by side, what do you call that, please enlighten me.

Fir all you Leica die heart;

The simple fact is there is no single "Supreme" Camera system that is built by a single company and factory anymore regardless you like it or not(Who live a dream, now?). Globalization and cost saving anyone?(Economic 101) I know its hurt to know and accept that the mighty German brand is no longer built in Germany anymore, so did China built BMW and Mercedes now. India built a lot of part for Jaguar and Aston Martin...I once bought my wife a Rolex watch for our anniversary and its movement stuck 3 times and I had to send it back for repair within the first 6 months. that Rolex cost more than my M8 plus lens but not because it is a Rolex so it is the best, later I found out that the watch was not ALL hand built from swiss anymore, I was so angry for awhile but then I have to accept the fact of Globalization effect. that's my point.

Jmmg:

This is the first I've heard that Panasonic invested so heavily in Leica, so I have to take your word for it, though I wonder why, if Panasonic has such a part in Leica, the M9 and the S2 use Kodak sensors, and the S2 uses a Fuji processing chip. Can Panasonic not supply what Fuji and Kodak can?

No one here was claiming that there is some ultimate camera system, made in one factory. (The M9 has a variety of drawbacks, however Leica M lenses are hard to beat for colour and sharpness--Canadian or German.)

True the lenses used by Olympus digital cameras, Panasonic digital cameras (including the Leica branded P&Ses) and the Leica S2 have optics suited to the flat sensor plane. So yes, Leica, Olympus and Panasonic probably shared some engineering, but that wasn't your original point.

Thank you for stating that you should not have called Panasonic the "mother company" of Leica.

You can easily use those Contax G lenses on NEX cameras. I do.

I think Fuji has gotten their act together. They're just doing it in a different way. They're taking risks that the likes of Canon, Nikon... just won't take. I own an X100 and it's clearly not without issues, but in many ways it delivers like no other camera on the market. Canon & Nikon have been fiddling around the Rangefinder-esque cameras for awhile but never pushed them past the levels of an advanced P&S. Fuji finally did.

Too small sensor ...

"YOU" .... I hope ....... and I didn't say everyone should shut up ..... just belay the negative comments until test results are in ..... who knows you just might love the camera.

if this brings the price down of the x100, then, i've been also waiting for this. hehe.

@Neodp, there is no way that $500 would be profitable. You honestly think that these people just pull a number out of the hat and charge it. Look dude why on earth would the people who developed this camera in the first place have spent their own money and risked so much unless there was the hope of a future pay off. This is business and we all are rewarded with innovation and technology because of the hope of a pay off for hard work and risk investment. And what of LEICA and the $7000 price tag. This camera could possibly be even better and at 1/4 the price. If this camera is even half as good it turns out to be a BARGAIN!

Easy. Everyone will chose a Canon dSLR or g1x.

The NEX 7 is just as expensive, once you factor in the cost of Zeiss branded E-mount prime lenses (a least based on the single existing example). The best Fuji optics are right up there with Zeiss - let's hope those made for this system are among them.

mr moonlight:

Only the lag factor is superior with an OVF.

All else is better with an EVF imho.

The photo you get will be a representation of what the lens and sensor see anyway.

Someone must have missed the news DPreview posted Jan 27:
"French manufacturer MicroOLED has announced a 5 million dot OLED suitable for use as an electronic viewfinder - far beyond the resolution of the current best units used in recent Sony cameras. The 5.2M effective dots mean it can display 1280x1024 pixel resolution in color, assuming a four-dots-per-pixel layout. Imaging Resource has written an article in which they suggest it could spell the end of the optical viewfinder"
READ AGAIN:"it could spell the end of the optical viewfinder"

a very good summary of the mirrorless arena

That new tech is not available yet

> That in a near future will see super oled EVF much better than optical
Yeah, we are seeing in "near future" large OLED TVs - and for how many years already?

> Only the lag factor is superior with an OVF.
Unfortunately it is the only thing that matters if you need to frame a shot quickly.

The only OLED EVF camera I have played with is the Sony SLT Alpha 77. That OLED EVF looked pretty much the same to me as any one of the better LCD-based EVFs, including Sony's. So, I am not getting what the big deal is with OLED EVFs.

The Fujifilm X100 and X-Pro 1 have optical + electronic hybrid VFs, the same head-up display that the jet pilots and some cars use. Nobody else has that, AFAIK.

mr. moonlight: "An optical viewfinder shows you exactly the scene that you have in front of you..." - right, but not really what the electronic sensor will record, and a well designed EVF ( like Sony's AMOLED? ) is an electronic device showing an image much closer to what the sensor will capture!

Aw why not buy it anyway just for fun. What's a couple grand?

We'll see once we get some solid reviews of production models. If it lives up to all the specs, than the price is really quite good. If build quality is along the lines of the X100, then it will be a cut above the lower end Pro DSLR's. If the sensor acts like the claims with it's more randomized looking pattern and lack of an anti aliasing filter, then it will definitely be worth it's price and image quality will be better than the likes of all the current DSLR's out there with APS-C sensors.

Where I see the real value is in the lenses. If the lenses perform as I'd expect from Fuji, then you'll have outstanding quality glass with professional build quality at pretty rock bottom prices.

All our answers will come once we see the production models.

I saw someone further below talking about this and weather sealing and comparing with 7D and such again.

Which reminded me about the new Pentax camera. Same sensor as K5 but the price was supposed to be like 750 dollars or so? I don't think the uhm.. "fitting" for the lenses was a good idea but the price is obviously better. That one lacks both OVF and EVF but whatever.

A 7D is $1440 at B and H, sorry alquis, your wrong.

This is a very different camera to Leica's M8 and M9. It has a far more modern sensor, live view and auto focus capabilities. The hybrid viewfinder is very different than that in a rangefinder (we'll have to see how good it is for manual focusing) - it will also be useable with longer and wider lenses than are practical on a Leica - as well as with zoom lenses.

The design also has far more in common with a Contax G2 or Fuji's own TX2 (both loved by many users) than it does with a Leica - so people should stop calling it a "Leica clone".