X100 sample images (updated)

Fujifilm has posted sample images from the eagerly-awaited rangefinder-like semi-compact X100 camera.
(To download full size, see the link in the pop-up.)

The picture quality is really nice, well done Fuji. If one camera yet says "big quality in a small (ish) camera", I think this is it. Sharp and smooth as silk. I don't think I've ever seen images looking as good as these at 100% on screen.

It's funny about noise (of various kinds), you often only notice it when it's gone. 

I don't think the price has been announced yet, but it won't be a cheap camera. 

Some say around $1200. 

And already pre-selling like hotcakes despite that solid price. Just shows to go ya that there's a demand for quality, not just low prices. 

Of course quality is much, much harder to do than to make cheap junk. 

(This portrait shows off the nice bokeh of the lens and sensor.)

Oh, by the way, it's clear that they are targeting this camera at the advanced user, one indication is how they have not touched these image files at all, no sharpening or improvement of contrast or anything, even though many of them would look much more appealing to most viewers if polished a little. They know that their audience wants the pure data, and they trust their audience to know something about how a picture can be optimized later. 

Update: here is a good interview with Kawahara from Fuji. 

I disagree, by the way, with observers saying that this is Fuji's come-back into the professional arena. The X100 is not a professional camera. It's too good for that. It's an enthusiast camera. A professional does not care about the size of the camera as much as he cares about flexibility, and he does not care so much about ultimate quality (of camera and images) as he cares about speed of operation and ruggedness. Only an enthusiast wants this kind of uncompromising, inflexible (only one lens) machine, he wants it for the love of it. 

A few pros might certainly get this camera, but they would buy it as enthusiasts, not as pros.