DMD: The Decisive Moment Digital

Hundreds, if not thousands, of articles can be found on the Web about the “perfect” digital camera, articles like “ ’DMD’: The Digital Camera I’d Like to own”, by Mike Johnston at http://www.luminous-landscape.com/columns/DMD.shtml. The perfect digital camera is a matter of personal opinion. My DMD would be somewhat different than Mike’s, of course. But earlier this week on September 19, 2010, information began to trickle onto the Web about a camera that appears to be the DMD of dreams for thousands of photo enthusiasts: The Fujifilm FinePix X100. For more information, see http://www.fujifilm.com/news/n100920.html and http://www.dpreview.com/news/1009/10091910fujifilmx100.asp. Or do a search on this camera to turn up a week’s worth of reading. Photos of the FujiFilm FinePix X100 are shown below. The photos are from the FujiFilm site.

I have to admit that the X100 is damn close to my DMD. There are only minor things I would change about it. I’d like a wider lens, a 28mm equivalent and/or interchangeable lens capability. I would also be happy to see Fuji drop the video capability in order to lower the price of the camera. I don’t think that video is something that should be crammed into a machine made for still photography. Particularly when it raises the price of said still photo machine. People who are serious about shooting video buy video cams, so there’s no need to burden the rest of us with that capability and the attendant price.

I often check Ken Rockwell’s site at http://www.kenrockwell.com for information about photo equipment, both new and old. Oddly, there’s nothing of value in his comments on the X100. To quote: “Do I care? Not really. If everything tries to imitate the greatness of the LEICA M3, then why not just shoot the real thing? You can buy a real LEICA M3 for the same price as a D90, and you have no idea how nice is the real thing until you've shot with it. The M3 is much nicer than today’s LEICA M9.” And that’s all you’ll get from his site, which is the “odd” part. I believe that Ken is comparing apples to plums. The Leica M3 is a 35mm Rangefinder, a film camera. The Fuji X100 is a Digital camera. But I understand that Ken is being a snob about this, and that is fine with me, given the deep pile of other useful information on his site. After all, I have friends who are wine snobs, motorcycle snobs, computer brand snobs, and rock and roll snobs, and I don’t have to agree with their every pronouncement to appreciate what they bring to the table in general.