Body & Operation (continued)
Body Elements
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The X20's mechanical zoom ring doubles as the power switch, retracting the lens in the 'OFF' position as shown here. But this does mean that the X20 is relatively bulky to carry around compared its rivals which retract the lens right into the body. The included lens cap adds (slightly) to the camera's depth, too. |
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The X20 has built-in stereo microphones hidden behind small holes on the front. Below the right mic (i.e. on the left here) is a bright LED lamp to aid focusing in dark conditions. The AF illuminator can be turned off if you prefer. It can also be disabled, along with the flash and camera sounds, by pressing down the 'DISP' button for 2 seconds to enter 'Silent' mode for more discreet shooting. |
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The rear LCD has 460k dots (a bit low for its class) and offers vivid color and a nice refresh rate (assuming that you have the Power Management setting to 'High Performance').
The screen offers average visibility outdoors, and above average viewing in dim lighting. While Fuji claims 'approximately 100% coverage', we found it to be a bit less than that. |
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A three-position rotary switch on the front of the camera selects the focus mode. There's a choice of single-shot AF, continuous AF, and manual focus. |
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The upper rear dial is perfectly placed for operation by your right thumb. It can be clicked in to change its function in certain modes - for instance to switch between changing the shutter speed and aperture in manual exposure. Underneath is an autoexposure/ autofocus lock button, that can be customized to suit your preferences. |
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Below this is a second control dial that surrounds the 4-way controller and Menu/OK button. The buttons of the 4-way controller have dedicated functions in shooting mode - on the X20 the 'up' key is used to enter AF area selection mode. |
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The tiny little flash unit pops-up out of the top plate. It's not motorized, so won't activate automatically when the camera is in auto modes. Instead you have to release it using a sliding switch beside the viewfinder eyepiece.
Fuji lists the flash's effective range as 0.3 - 7.0 m at wide-angle and 0.5 - 5.0 m at telephoto at ISO 800. |
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There's a hotshoe on the top plate that has contacts for use with Fujifilm's dedicated external units. These range from the compact EF-20/EF-X20 to the large, powerful and fully-featured EF-42. |
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The X20's connectors lie under a small flap on the handgrip side of the camera. There's an HDMI port for playing back video, and above it a tiny USB/AV out socket.
The optional MIC-ST1 stereo microphone plugs into the USB/AV port. |
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The tripod socket is placed off-center from the lens, as is common with zoom compacts. It's well-separated from the base compartment, meaning you have a fighting chance of being able to change the battery or card with the camera on a tripod. The camera's small built-in speaker for movie playback can also be seen here, next to the base compartment door. |
