Fujifilm X-S1 First Impressions Review

Lens & Sensor

It looks like a DSLR, but the X-S1 is a fixed-lens camera—an f/2.8-5.6 26x (24-624mm equivalent) Fujinon zoom lens, to be exact. Zoom is controlled by a manual twist-barrel with a ridged, rubber grip.

Fujifilm built it using some of the same techniques they use in their professional broadcast-quality lenses, including a greased barrel. It's a very smooth operator, with a nice weighting and consistent resistance throughout the focal range. There's also a lens ring on the close side of the barrel for manual focus.

It's also a huge lens, in no small part because of the oversized sensor behind it. It's a 12-megapixel, 2/3-inch EXR CMOS chip, probably the same one that's used in the Fujifilm X10. That's about 50 percent larger than the sensor in a typical point-and-shoot, and slightly larger than the sensor in most advanced compacts, including the Canon S100 or Nikon P7100. It's also the largest sensor in any superzoom right now, by a fairly wide margin.

LCD & Viewfinder

A 3-inch, 460,000-pixel tilting LCD complements the EVF. Fuji's PR squad tells us that it's brighter than previous Fujis' screens (something implemented across the entire 2012 product lineup), but it's tough to tell how it'll actually perform in real-life shooting scenarios, rather than the bizarre mood lighting that was around the X-series stand on the CES 2012 showroom floor.

The X-S1 has a electronic viewfinder with 1.44 million pixels of resolution. That's a ton of resolution for an eyepiece screen, and it looked very sharp to us out on the showroom floor, in the wheelhouse of the great EVFs on Sony's A-series SLT system cameras, but based on our initial impressions, not quite in the same pay grade. The finder is also equipped with an eye-level sensor, as well as a diopter adjustment, tucked awkwardly behind the eyepiece.

Flash

The X-S1's pop-up flash articulates forward from its cavity just a little bit. It's effective out to 26.2 feet, according to the spec sheet Fuji provided, and it can also accept external flashes in its hot shoe.

Jacks, Ports & Plugs

The standard combo of USB 2.0 and mini-HDMI ports sit behind a rubber flap on the left side of the camera.

Battery

The X-S1 runs on a NP-95 rechargeable lithium-ion battery, located in a cavity within the grip, through a door on the bottom of the camera. Fuji claims that it lasts for about 500 shots per charge using the EVF or 460 shots using the LCD.

Memory

No surprise here, the X-S1 captures to SD/SDHC/SDXC media cards. The card compartment is on the right side of the camera.