Third time lucky

Not necessarily the best IQ I've ever had from a compact camera (that would be the Leica D Lux followed by Pentax MX-1) but the X30 is much more than 'good enough' in most situations and a really useful upgrade to the earlier X10/20 models. Last Summer it was my only camera for a two week trip of a lifetime through the Baltic ports to St Petersburg - I left all the interchangeable lens stuff at home and didn't regret it for a minute.

I prefer the new slightly larger body and find the EVF much more useful than the earlier OVF (good try but not as useful as I'd hoped). The X30 is so quick to use too - focussing is rapid and generally accurate, the zoom ring is of course much faster than fly by wire arrangements just like the previous models, the tilt screen a really useful addition for discrete street photography, and finally there's a decent size battery!

The X30 is a much more mature product than its predecessors and as a result, it's stayed with me for a lot longer, and I expect to keep it for many years. It's also so much faster and more fun to use than the Leica D Lux - the latter is now for sale due to under-use because I prefer the Fuji in almost every situation. Half a point deducted because there's only so much image quality you can squeeze out of a sensor this size, and the panorama function is very hit or miss - too many stitching errors to rely on in my experience but I don't mind doing those manually if the need arises.

PS - DPR automatically put this review under the X series forum but it probably ought to live with the compacts....