Fujifilm has just announced a companion camera to its X10 high-end compact, the Fufilm X-S1. It features the same 2/3 EXR CMOS sensor and a 24-624mm (35mm equivalent) lens with a f/2.8 maximum aperture at the wide-angle setting. Although many will lament the use of a small-sized sensor, Fujifilm more than makes up for it with the optics. The lens is made up of 17 glass elements, including four aspherical and two ED lenses. The lens offers and equivalent 26x zoom and can focus down to an incredible 1cm in super macro mode.
As is usual now for a Fujifilm X-series shooter, the X-S1 bridge camera features controls aplenty. There is a mode dial, of course, and a new command dial. The camera has a rubberized coating, but both dials are metallic. You also get a large variety of button controls, donning the top and the back of the camera, while the lens offers manual focus and zoom rings.
Fujifilm is claiming a shutter lag of just 0.01sec and 7fps continuous shooting in full resolution (JPEG) or 10fps at 6-megapixels. The X-S1 can shoot in RAW and full HD video at 30ftps in H.264.
Unlike the X100 which offers a hybrid optical/electronic viewfinder and X10 which has an optical one, the X-S1 features electronic viewfinder (EVF) featuring 1.44 million pixels. The back is dominated by the 460,000 pixel 3-inch tiltable LCD screen. The X-S1 will be available in Japan on December 7th for a suggested price of ¥80,000 (around $1,000), in the US in January for $800 and the UK in February for £600, a rather hefty sum for a bridge camera. I think we’ll hold off until the rumored X-series interchangeable lens camera finally appears.
Quick specs
- Fujinon 26x optical zoom covering 24-624mm (35mm equivalent) with Intelligent Digital Zoom boosting to 52x zoom
- 12-megapixel EXR CMOS sensor
- ISO 100-3,200 and up to 12,800 in small JPEG format only
- Up to 10fps shooting, 7fps at full resolution.
- EVF with 1.44 million pixels
- Tiltable three-inch 460,000 pixel rear LCD with Sunny Day mode
- Optical image stabilisation
- Full HD video 1920×1080 30fps in H.264
- PASM modes
- Raw file format
- Macro focusing down to 1cm
- Up to 500 shots per charge
- Rubberised coating and metal dials
