Fujifilm 12 Megapixels X-S1 26x SuperZoom Bridge Camera First Look Review by DCI

On November 24 2011, Fujifilm announced the X-S1, a new bridge camera with a 2/3-type 12 Megapixels EXR CMOS sensor and a 24-624mm (35mm equivalent) Fujinon optical zoom lens. The X-S1 is built in Japan to exacting standards, the body has a high-quality look and feel with metal dials, a rubberised coating and superior handling characteristics that will appeal to the discerning photo enthusiast. Here are the key features:

Optically, the lens comprises 17 glass elements, including four aspherical elements and two ED lenses, a nine-bladed diaphragm and a maximum aperture of f/2.8 at the wide end of the zoom range. In standard mode, the lens focuses down to 30cm, but by selecting Super Macro Mode, users can focus down to 1cm. Additionally, the Fujifilm X-S1 features the same 2/3-inch 12 megapixel EXR CMOS sensor as the X10, Coupled to the EXR CMOS sensor is the high speed EXR processor, which offers a minimal shutter lag of just 0.01sec and a high speed continuous shooting capability of 7fps at full resolution or 10fps at six-megapixel resolution. The 0.47-inch EVF features 1.44 million pixels for clarity and has a wide viewing area of 26 degrees to reduce eye strain. The camera also features a tiltable rear monitor, manual exposure controls and raw image capture. The Fujifilm X-S1 is listed for retail at $999.99. Check out the following video and the summary of first look review by DigitalCameraInfo:

"Superzooms are treated like overpowered point-and-shoots, the happy medium between pocket cameras and DSLRs in terms of price and target audience. But they don't make everybody happy. There are photo enthusiasts (not many, to be honest) who own a nice DSLR but would fork over the cash for a high-quality, all-in-one camera if they had the choice, rather than compromising for a glorified point-and-shoot with a big lens. Fujifilm thinks these folks are mostly nature photographers. The X-S1 aims to fill that (possibly narrow) niche by taking a step beyond the genre's self-imposed borders. It's built around an oversized sensor with one of the most solid, well-constructed chassis we've ever seen in the category. It maintains all of the native versatility and comfortable handling of a regular bridge camera, too. As long as the image quality is actually superior to models like the Panasonic FZ150 or Canon SX40HS (and with such a large sensor that worked well in the X10, there's no reason to think that it won't be), it'll be the only truly premium superzoom on the market. Like it's X-series siblings, it's a boutique camera, the only one quite like itself at the moment.

But as a boutique camera, it's pricey. At $799, it's the most expensive superzoom by a long shot, even more expensive than a lot of DSLRs and system cameras. It would take thousands of dollars of lenses to match the X-S1's massive focal range, but $800 for a non-system camera is a tough sell. Fuji cameras also always seem to have some sort of weird firmware-related bug-false overheating warnings (HS20EXR), wonky AF (X100), the dreaded white blob (X10)-so the odds are pretty good that we'll hear about something wacky with the X-S1. Of course, we'll have to get the X-S1 into our labs for proper testing before we can actually give a solid stamp of approval or a rejection sticker. It's dude out by the end of the month, so with any luck, we'll be writing about it very soon."