Fujifilm XF1

The Fujifilm XF1 ($499.95 direct) is slim compact camera with a sexy retro design. Its chrome body is available with a tan, black, or red leatherette covering, and has a retractable lens with a manual zoom design. The 12-megapixel shooter's 2/3-inch CMOS image sensor is larger than those on competing cameras, and the photos show it. Image quality is not quite a match for our Editors' Choice high-end compact, the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-RX100, which features a huge 1-inch sensor. But if you're a fan of the XF1's looks, you'll be happy to know that it's a solid performer in its own right.

Design and Features
The pocket-friendly 7.9-ounce XF1 measures about 2.4 by 4.2 by 1.2 inches when its lens is collapsed. It's pretty similar in size to the enthusiast-focused Ricoh GR. The 2.4-by-4.6-by-1.4-inch, 8.6-ounce GR packs a bigger image sensor, but its wide-angle 28mm lens doesn't offer any zoom.

The XF1's lens is a 4x zoom design, covering a 25-100mm (35mm equivalent) field of view with a variable aperture that starts at f/1.8 when zoomed out, but dwindles to f/4.9 when zoomed all the way in. It's just a bit wider than the 28-112mm zoom of the Sony RX100, another lens that ranges from f/1.8-4.9. The small aperture when zoomed in is a bit disappointing, but is likely a compromise that is necessitated by the XF1's small design and big image sensor. The Olympus XZ-2 features a slightly smaller 1/1.7-inch image sensor and is a thicker camera, but its 4x (28-112mm) zoom lens manages an f/1.8-2.5 aperture; that means that it captures about four times the light as the XF1 when both are zoomed all the way in.

One concern to discreet shooters: The XF1's lens makes a good deal of noise when you turn the camera on or off. It's not loud enough to hear over background noise when shooting out on the street, but if you're trying to snap a quiet photo in a theater or gallery, it could be distracting.

It doesn't have as many physical control buttons and dials as you get on other enthusiast compacts, but the XF1 is no slouch. Up top you'll find a standard mode dial, the shutter release, and the programmable Function button. Around back, you'll find two control wheels, a Movie button, and dedicated controls to adjust exposure compensation, enable macro shooting, set the self-timer, and control the flash output. There's also the E-Fn button, which brings up an overlay menu on the rear display that assigns a new function to six of the rear control buttons. Each of these functions can be customized via the menu.

The rear LCD, which you'll need to use for image framing and review, is 3 inches and features a 460k-dot resolution. It's quite bright, but not as sharp as the 614k-dot OLED display found on the Samsung EX2F. It's still adequate, and will let you confirm focus, it's just not quite as impressive as a sharper screen would be.

You can't add an EVF like you can with the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX7. There's no hot shoe, so you can't add an external flash. If you're looking for a similar camera with more expansion options, consider the Canon PowerShot G15 or another X-series camera, like the Fujifilm X20; each features hot shoe expansion and a built-in optical viewfinder.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/YhKDZX9WZas/0,2817,2418078,00.asp

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