More Thoughts on the X100
Oct 1 (commentary) --Some people have taken me to task for my condemnation of the Fujifilm X100 user interface. After all, it has dials, right?
Sure, but are they the right ones? For example, how do you set ISO? Oh, wait, there isn't even a dedicated button for that on the thirteen button back of the camera! Indeed, why are there even 14 buttons and two extra dials (other than aperture, shutter speed, and EC) on a "retro" design camera? The overall design doesn't seem consistent, focused, or operating under one single design concept. Instead, it seems like a kludge of "what we do with digital compacts" and "what we did with film cameras when we didn't have to set much." Out of such compromises comes user nuisance, in my opinion.
What the X100 looks like is a pet side project that got far enough along that someone okayed it to go public as a test. If that's the case, Fujifilm should go back and create a common design goal that's fully retro and fully photographer centric.
Beyond the obvious Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde personality of the design, I also wonder about the holding position. Cameras with far left viewfinders have always been a bit of a problem. Left-eyed folk end up with their nose jammed into the center of the camera and the camera angled off to their left. Right-eyed folk end up with the camera not being supported against their face during shooting. This makes the right-hand grip hold very important, but the X100 doesn't really have one, a common compact camera design flaw. What happens is that you start to brace your wrist into the back right side of the camera and there's all those buttons sitting there, which get pressed randomly when you're not paying attention. That's one of the big flaws of the Olympus m4/3 models, for instance, and I suspect it will be with the X100, too.
And exactly what is the command dial for? If Fujifilm is really going to include it, they need to look at the Panasonic and Ricoh implementations of push-and-dial (e.g. push to bring up commonly set items, dial to choose one). Even the Coolpix P7000's implementation seems better chosen.
As I've already noted, the offset hot shoe and tripod mount are no-no's, too. All in all, it seems like a kludge of old and new in the simplest possible way to put together.
Finally, one should note that Fujifilm's marketing materials are decidedly subtle in wording. The camera doesn't even use a Fujifilm sensor, apparently ("EXR Processor newly developed" not "EXR sensor"). (By the way, what does "more responsive reproduction of the image" mean?) Nor does the camera have Fujifilm's phase detect AF implementation, and Fujifilm seems to have skipped over telling any of us how we're going to focus it manually (that, after all, is part of the joy of "retro").
The niftiest feature of the X100 is the viewfinder display, which nicely melds optical with electronic. Funny how no one else figured out the correct combination previously (the technique for overlaying electronics with optical has existed for years, and is used in most Nikon DSLRs). Fortunately, the Japanese are great copiers, so if the X100's viewfinder really turns out as good as it seems in the prototype on display at Photokina, other makers will emulate it quickly enough.
I want to like the X100 very much. After all, I've been asking for a good large sensor compact for quite some time. But I'm not feeling it from the X100 so far. Too many missed points in the design decisions for me. Let's hope Fujifilm addresses them before the camera is set in stone.
http://www.bythom.com/
fotophool
http://www.flickr.com/photos/7131002@N05/
I don't have a dawg in this hunt.
Oct 1 (commentary) --Some people have taken me to task for my condemnation of the Fujifilm X100 user interface. After all, it has dials, right?
Sure, but are they the right ones? For example, how do you set ISO? Oh, wait, there isn't even a dedicated button for that on the thirteen button back of the camera! Indeed, why are there even 14 buttons and two extra dials (other than aperture, shutter speed, and EC) on a "retro" design camera? The overall design doesn't seem consistent, focused, or operating under one single design concept. Instead, it seems like a kludge of "what we do with digital compacts" and "what we did with film cameras when we didn't have to set much." Out of such compromises comes user nuisance, in my opinion.
What the X100 looks like is a pet side project that got far enough along that someone okayed it to go public as a test. If that's the case, Fujifilm should go back and create a common design goal that's fully retro and fully photographer centric.
Beyond the obvious Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde personality of the design, I also wonder about the holding position. Cameras with far left viewfinders have always been a bit of a problem. Left-eyed folk end up with their nose jammed into the center of the camera and the camera angled off to their left. Right-eyed folk end up with the camera not being supported against their face during shooting. This makes the right-hand grip hold very important, but the X100 doesn't really have one, a common compact camera design flaw. What happens is that you start to brace your wrist into the back right side of the camera and there's all those buttons sitting there, which get pressed randomly when you're not paying attention. That's one of the big flaws of the Olympus m4/3 models, for instance, and I suspect it will be with the X100, too.
And exactly what is the command dial for? If Fujifilm is really going to include it, they need to look at the Panasonic and Ricoh implementations of push-and-dial (e.g. push to bring up commonly set items, dial to choose one). Even the Coolpix P7000's implementation seems better chosen.
As I've already noted, the offset hot shoe and tripod mount are no-no's, too. All in all, it seems like a kludge of old and new in the simplest possible way to put together.
Finally, one should note that Fujifilm's marketing materials are decidedly subtle in wording. The camera doesn't even use a Fujifilm sensor, apparently ("EXR Processor newly developed" not "EXR sensor"). (By the way, what does "more responsive reproduction of the image" mean?) Nor does the camera have Fujifilm's phase detect AF implementation, and Fujifilm seems to have skipped over telling any of us how we're going to focus it manually (that, after all, is part of the joy of "retro").
The niftiest feature of the X100 is the viewfinder display, which nicely melds optical with electronic. Funny how no one else figured out the correct combination previously (the technique for overlaying electronics with optical has existed for years, and is used in most Nikon DSLRs). Fortunately, the Japanese are great copiers, so if the X100's viewfinder really turns out as good as it seems in the prototype on display at Photokina, other makers will emulate it quickly enough.
I want to like the X100 very much. After all, I've been asking for a good large sensor compact for quite some time. But I'm not feeling it from the X100 so far. Too many missed points in the design decisions for me. Let's hope Fujifilm addresses them before the camera is set in stone.
http://www.bythom.com/
fotophool
http://www.flickr.com/photos/7131002@N05/
I don't have a dawg in this hunt.
