Fuji continues to release pieces of information on the X100 camera:
"For the X100, spherical lens elements are used as much as possible, and one double-sided aspheric lens made by a glass moulding process has been adopted as the most effective element for delivering maximum performance.
The sensor has been specially customised just for this lens. Unlike film, the sensors of most digital cameras require incoming light to strike the sensor surface at an angle that is as perpendicular to the sensor surface as possible. Because this is difficult to achieve with a slim lens, the positioning of the microlens on the sensor of the X100 has been customised to allow the capture of light rays with up to a 20° angle of incidence.
In order to capture images with a beautiful "bokeh" effect with the background softly out of focus, a 9-blade aperture diaphragm has been adopted for the X100. The 4-blade shutter achieves a maximum shutter speed of 1/4000s. Because the X100 uses a lens shutter system, the camera is capable of high-speed flash synchronisation.
A sheet-type ND filter which can be switched on/off is built into the lens system. When switched off, the filter is retracted. The ND filter is the equivalent of an f-stop reduction of 3 stops or a reduction of light volume to about 1/8.
However, when shooting macro shots with an open aperture in the neighborhood of F2, spherical aberration tends to occur. It is therefore recommended that an aperture value of F4 is selected for macro applications."
Related posts:
12 Comments
wow,
that’s really amazing, we just have to wait for a while for real world image samples and field use… however very very good, at least theoretically…
p.s.
maybe this solutions – as latest Nikon’s of an interchangeable sensor, might be the way to go in the future: making one-piece lens-sensor blocks to swap into the camera body… Difficult? Yes. Effective? Yes as well, or at least oriented toward the utmost lens-sensor image quality achievement.. let’s see.
Um, that’s called the Ricoh GXR, and they’ve done precisely that.
dino just tried to re-invent the wheel
Did the 4 blade shutter imply a leaf shutter? So we can expect flash sync in 1/1000?
For the time being, the lens specs are good :
f/2 is enough to create bokeh and control depth of field (f/2 is very common on rangefinder camera).
I have some concerns with the MTF showing loss of peripheral details at full aperture. Yet the sagittal and meridional lines are close together, which means that the bokeh will be homogeneous. This could be thanks to the low number of asymmetric elements, which induces reduced sharpness…. so everything is connected.
My (big) question-mark is about the viewfinder (90% coverage, x0.5 zoom), and how it accomodates with manual focus.
And what about noise?
In EVF mode the coverage will be 100% and I agree with your concern regarding manual focus as that is very important to me also.
In OVF mode the coverage will be well in excess of 100%. It is the projected frame line that will be 90%. I expect that the only aid to manual focusing with OVF will be a distance scale. Not accurate like my old rangerfinders but it will still have some utility for a ‘wide-normal’ lens such as this.
Noise aside, I don’t have any clue yet about the iso capabilities.. is there any reference about that ? I didn’t see anything in the specs so far
Basic ISO is 200-6400, in extended mode it becomes 100-12800
if it will get usable, even B&W, ISO6400, it is all i need from it.
also keep in mind that rangefinders are much easier to handhold in lower shutterspeeds. does not help to stop motion, but…
i will break my bank to get this if its THAT good.