DP Review confirms my worst suspicions.

DP Review, a subsidiary of Amazon, publishes the best equipment reviews on the web. OK, second best. If you want no punches pulled, tell it like it is, I-paid-for-the-hardware-with-my-own-money-and-accept-no-advertising real world use tests, you come here. And though you may not call DP Review’s photography memorable that hardly matters, for they know how to test gear. Thus DP Review will do, as you sure as heck will not be seeing a review of the X100 here.

So when they published their Fuji X100 review yesterday, my worst suspicions were confirmed. Here are their conclusions:

Click above to go to the DP Review of the Fuji X100

This is somewhat cold comfort for me, as I bought, and resold for a profit my X100 in its unopened box, after growing concern that the thing was deeply flawed, especially in the one area of most vital need for a street snapper. Fast focus. And DP review confirms that it is not good in that regard. For “…. mirrorless interchangeable lens cameras” in the ‘Cons’ above, you can read “…. the Panasonic G1”. And for “Autofocus not quite as fast as ….” you can read “It sucks compared to ….”.

Stated differently, this appears to be a camera with an excellent lens and sensor which is so flawed elsewhere as to be virtually unusable. Quite how something so unfinished ever made it past quality control and acceptance testing beats me. Fuji’s early web site attempts for this much hyped camera suggest that they need some photographers on staff. How else could this alpha test model ever have seen the light of day?

I’ll put my profit toward the price of the Panasonic G3 which I have on order.

Oops, I almost forgot. Yes, the X100 is ‘pretty’. That will really improve the pictures it takes while you wait the seven seconds for it to write your last snap to the card. How could I have overlooked that? It’s generally not fair to judge gear based on someone else’s review, but when the review source is credible and the review stinks, it makes sense to do so.