Beating the Dead Horse: Fuji X100s Impressions

Frankly, I always knew this was a matter of time.

Less than a year ago, I purchased a Fujifilm X20 in lovely, lovely flat black. It's a terrific camera. It focuses fast, it reproduces the trademark colors of Fuji's most famous film stocks, and it's quieter than felt touching cotton.

However, something wasn't quite right. While the rest of the camera works very well, the sensor is ultimately the problem. While images look good initially, any post processing often drags copious amounts of grain into a photo -- even it it was shot in RAW format and is only being pushed by a single stop in Lightroom. Even when images weren't that altered, the dime-sized sensor reared its ugly head with excess noise and dramatic detail falloff in some situations. It was so nearly the camera I wanted it to be -- and thus, I kept leering amorously at the X100s, the "big brother" to the X20, wondering when I would take the plunge and grab it for myself.