It's well known for its quality compacts, but the XlOO is something rather different for Fujifilm. This fixed (ie: non- interchangeable) lens camera is in the same market as the Leica Xl: a very high-end, stylish, expensive compact. At its heart is a custom made APS-C sized CMOS sensor of the kind traditionally used in digital SLRs. The is fantastic if you like shooting in low light and snapping portraits with a shallow depth of field There's no zoom, but looking on the bright side, that lack of convenience also forces you into taking a more considered approach to framing.


The rangefinder-style top plate controls are almost identical to the Leica Xl's. Squeezed into a narrow gap between the two is a springy shutter release button, encircled by the power switch. Unusually, the X100 optical and electronic viewfinder occupy the same space. There's also an excellent 2.8-inch, 460,000-pixel backplate LCD. With so many features a period of familiarisation is required, but the automatic mode lets you point and shoot to your heart's content with impressive consistency.

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The X100 is excellent in low light. Below ISO 12800 images are virtually free of noise and even at top ISO results are very palatable. $ome purple fringing is visible between areas of high contrast. with occasional lens flare and burnt-out highlight details. These issues affect most digital compacts to a degree, but at this price we did rather expect something closer to perfection. Overall, though, Fuji's retro-Iuxe compact is a big hit. It's not quite a match for the Leica Xl's richness of colour and detail, but it's cheaper, takes great low-light images and is built like a rather handsome tank.