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X100 is a great camera, but it's fixed prime lens is a bit of a drawback for street photography. It is not always viable in the street to approach the subject too close, some zoom would be helpful. Luckily, there is X100's "little brother"- X10, but I would wait and get X20 - which took some of X100's features on board. As for me - it would be a great street camera. Small, inconspicuous, with fast lens and some useful zoom. Image quality, while not as great as with X100, is very decent and may be sufficient for street photography - where some noise creates the "feel" as well, especially in B&W.
Can't speak from personal experience but a (very experienced) friend bought one when they first came out (at £995 I think) and he speaks very highly of it.
Like the poster above, I might have felt that the fixed lens was a bit of a disadvantage but he thinks it adds more "authenticity" to street photography.
Now that the price is down to virtually half the launch price and a replacement has just been announced at around £1100, then I suspect that, if the camera suits you, snapping one up at around the £500 current street price might not be a bad deal.
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I have the X10 (carry about) and its a top camera I can only assume the X100 is even better, should get it for a decent price as the new X20 and X100s are coming soon.
I agree with the above comments................instead I purchased the more versatile PANASONIC LX5, the one with the extra bright Leica lens:
It has proved ideal for Street Photography because of its small size, ability to shoot in RAW....the limited zoom allows me to get closer to my subjects, whilst also having excellent wide shot ability.
An additional electronic viewfinder is available, at a price...............I haven't been tempted yet....it is a great pity Panasonic didn't include one in the build:
Can I suggest you put both cameras into a YouTube search....there are lots of excellent reviews including sample shots there:
It is the first place I go to when considering new equipment:
Hobbo
Hi Dazzaman!
Have a look here, test, photos (albeit with the dated firmware) and comparisson.
http://www.ephotozine.com/site-search/x100#
Great style camera, very much discussed.....
The X100 is a bit of a slower camera to use than the more point and shoot compact but when you do get it right the results are great. In fact its a really great camera that makes you think and you can really see the direct consequence of the choices of aperture, speed, ISO etc. It did take a while to start getting good pictures but there is a satisfaction factor I'd not really had since film and manual focus days. It's not perfect though, the manual focussing option is pretty useless and its not the fastest camera to use but the need to almost pre-think a situation does make using it more absorbing. I've got a camera phone, it has it's place, and SLR and even a few old film cameras but the X100 is the most rewarding to use in the right situation. I'd recommend it but realise not everyone will "click" with it.
The x100 is a great little camera, but coming from a Panasonic gx1 I think you will miss having a zoom with a fixed lens.
The x100 went through many firmware updates, the autofocus in good light is now pretty good.
There`s plenty of us on here using x10`s, another great little camera, the new x20 should be even better when its released.
The autofocus is okay it's the manual focus that has not been properly realised on the camera but users, at least on the X100 forums, quickly adapt and combined with the level of control over focal depth this camera gives can give stunning results. I tend to use the focus lock on the back of the camera, well placed for thumb use, to set the focus on whatever the subject is then recompose the scene. It's what most of us, I suspect, do on our SLRs with the half press of the shutter. Its not a camera for sports work however but its a joy otherwise. The electronic/optical viewfinder is a really great feature.
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