This is Not A Review but a record of anticipation...

For a camera that has been seeing good discussion even before it is out in the market. Better yet, it has even won an award even before any production began.

Yes the x100 from Fujifilm is the camera to beat and something of a Leica that is not a Leica.

One thing about a good car is that it should transport you from point A to B with 100% safety and in comfort. The issue is that most cars out there will and do provide such assurances while we drive.

So it is the same with cameras. All can take photos but somehow, certain things like controls, color rendition and the ability to do things quickly will allow a photographer to get the shot it wants. There are also subtle stuff such as the psychological effect on one's belief if the tool being used is deemed to be of great value and quality and that's why people have brands.

If I were to put a Lumix and a Leica together where essentially some models are the same, somehow the Leica would garner more positive vibes. Still, I am pretty sure that Leica has done something that the Lumix has not done well. So even if the model/product is the same, the innards has changed....or was it the brand effect?

Anyways, now that Fujifilm has come out with something that Leica has failed to produced after so many years of digital photography that can appeal to the middle class masses. Of course, one won't expect a Lamborghini to produce a Honda Jazz type of car but at least something that the masses can hope to get. If Leica has no such ambitions, it won't have to come out with the LuX-5 or the X-1 for that matter.

In any case, Leica has missed it. As all good photographer would know, a viewfinder is not a luxury but actually a necessity, more so when a digital camera sensor is not really sensitive to light and thus will create image shake. Leica, and so do the other brands has failed to provide a credible view finder (even if it is a hole in a camera) for its mass appeal cameras.

Mass appeal cameras need not be a point and shoot camera but it should be offer something that helps a noobie and one who wants nothing to do with photography, to adopt a good photography habits. Hence I would say now that the LCD on the camera's back is the greatest impediment to good photography since people use the LCD to frame their shots, introducing camera shake for the stupidest of reasons. Therefore, a potential winner such as the Olympus PEN has missed it amongst those who know how to shoot a camera.

I would also argue it this way: just before the mass introduction to digital photography, does camera shake feature badly in point and shoot film cameras? I guess it should be much lower than modern digital cameras. All because of one thing: view finder.

Put it this way. Forcing a user to use the viewfinder will ensure that one would not need IS, and it ensures that ISO need not to be so high and perhaps a lens that do not need F2 to get good photography at night. All the above will make a camera cheaper and easier to make.

So...the no. 1 reason why x100 will get cult status is because it has a viewfinder, and a very good one at that.

Secondly, the use of prime lens at F2 maximum is also letting light into the camera much easier than those super zooms. So what if one cannot change to 18-50mm lens? It is just an x3 lens that can be easily solved with some steps forward or back to frame the picture. Zoom just make people lazy for no reason.

Thirdly, the use of a big sensor from a DSLR = Bigger area for light capture = higher incidences of light capture = higher shutter speed.

So all the three above just makes it a photographer's idea of heaven.

And of course, getting rid of all those superfluous buttons and knobs and auto modes and focusing on the three main stuff Aperture, shutter and EV just makes us focus on what to change to take what we want.

IS fujifilm perfect? Not yet.

Judging from Ricoh GRDIII, the F2 lens can be even faster at F1.8 and the other glaring mistake, the inability to change ISO quickly through a knob on its own just isn't that forgiveable, especially when ISO settings is one of the de facto Manual photography settings we need to take note of.