FujiFilm Finepix X100 front
As a photo nut I try to keep up with the rumors of exciting upcoming products from various manufacturers. Honestly, FujiFilm had mostly dropped off my radar. They’re completely stagnant in the DSLR arena, and despite a few innovative compact cameras they haven’t really put out anything earth-shattering in a long time. Welcome back to the top of the photo gear news chain, FujiFilm! Meet the FujiFilm Finepix X100.
Why is this so exciting? Because it’s that rarest of rare animals in today’s photo world–a compact sized camera with a large sensor and a fixed lens. The compact size is self-explanatory. The large sensor is APS-C sized, which is as large as or maybe even slightly larger than cameras such as the Canon T2i, 60D, 7D; Nikon D3100, D7000, D300s, etc. In other words it’s in very good company from an image quality standpoint, since rule of thumb says larger sensor = better image quality. Compact size + large sensor, and large sensor + fixed lens combos are both rare. But put compact size + large sensor + fixed lens together and you have a real rare breed. Throw in solid build quality with a metal top and baseplate and the retro styling, and the X100 takes some big strides to set itself apart from the pack.
Right off the top of my head I can only think of 3 others that match the X100′s 3 defining features of compact, large sensor, and fixed lens: the Sigma DP1 (and variants DP1s, DP1x, and DP2), the Leica X1, and the Ricoh GXR. The Sigma DP1 has various quirks that make it hard to use and image quality quirks pertaining to its sensor tech that can be positive or negative depending on how you shoot. The Leica X1 is a Leica and is priced accordingly. The Ricoh GXR is unique in that it has interchangeable lens-sensor combo modules (all fixed lenses), but only one of the available modules has a large sensor. If the X100 can beat the X1 in price and at least match the X1 in image quality and operation, it could be a huge hit. The Sigma and Ricoh haven’t really gotten much attention, and as such aren’t real contenders right now.
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Independent
Penelope can kinda sorta hold her own bottle while feeding. She can’t hold a bottle with a full portion for very long, and she’s still clumsy, but she’s getting that hand-eye coordination down. Honestly Denise mostly holds the bottle and sometimes lets Penelope try. Next step: change your own diaper.
Key card
Actual dates: October 21-24, 2008
We left Surabaya and headed to Yogyakarta to visit Borobudur Temple, Kraton Yogyakarta (palace), and the Malioboro street market. While we were there we stayed at the Grand Mercure Yogyakarta, which since then has apparently been rebranded as the Phoenix Hotel. I like Grand Mercure better myself–sounds more, well, grand, which really is an apt adjective for this fine hotel.
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Happy family
Actual date: October 19, 2008
Rewind is back! More specifically Indonesia Trip 2008 is back!
Happy Labor Day 2010, everybody. Denise has been nudging me to resume posting about our trip in 2008, so here I am doing some of that while enjoying Labor Day. I’ve decided to start putting the “Actual date” info in red so as to minimize confusion for future posts about the trip. Hopefully when you see the line of red text you’ll immediately know it’s a Rewind post, especially since I’ve also got some stuff from earlier this year that I’m behind on that will be making its way here soon. Rewind-splosion. No, we didn’t go to Indonesia again. Yes, this stuff is from 2 years ago. But it’s still way cool and I’m not gonna let good blogging material go to waste. Again, when reading this blog just ignore the accepted rules of time and space and go with the flow. Time travel is a common occurrence in the Pamudji-verse.
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Party time
Sofia turned 4, and we threw her her first honest-to-goodness birthday party. Actually mostly Denise threw the party, and I was basically along for the ride. We didn’t do anything big–inflatable pools, beach balls, sprinklers, party favors, cake and sherbert, lemonade, and a few of Sofia’s friends from church and the neighborhood. Even so, Sofia was a bit overwhelmed and kept mostly to herself while the party was still raucous. Oh, she had fun. It’s just that she mostly had fun by herself. We’ll have to work on that.
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