Fuji Fuji X-70 - First and (maybe NOT!) Last Impressions

Well Ray you most certainly gave the X70 an excellent workout. Kudos to you. I'm still working through the uniquenesses of the camera. Impulse buys, aka GAS attacks, are an issue for me too as I will be fully retired as of June 1st. More time for photography, (and family), less money for toys, so I hear you loud and clear on the impulse buying thing.
Thanks for your input on the X70, your thoughts, as always, are greatly appreciated.
. . . David
We're in similar places. When I first got into this about six years ago, I was semi-retired but working part time for myself with a consulting operation that kept a decent $$ coming in. Then a couple years later I stopped but we still had decent toy money. But my wife is getting ready to join me in retirement later this year and we're gonna have a few years of relative austerity until all of our benefits kick in. So, plenty of time to enjoy, but we're gonna have to find reasonably inexpensive ways to enjoy it for a while...

28mm is kind of a sweet spot of mine so I wouldn't have had any trouble adjusting to it, other than not being able to move from general shooting to a street setup quite as quickly as I'm used to. I could have easily adapted to that. But in the end it doesn't really add anything to my Coolpix A except for a couple of different bells and whistles and that's the kind of thing I really have to stop buying!

I'd love to have kept it, but didn't even slightly need it. Enjoy yours!

-Ray
 
Thanks for your thoughtful review, Ray. Much better than most reviews! While you may focus on the functionality you need, you give others - with other needs - the information they need as well.

The x70 won't be for me but I thoroughly enjoyed your review.

I will probably also sell the X100T with TCL and WCL, so the search for a new, little camera will begin shortly.


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Ray - thanks for the review! Did I read one of your update posts somewhere else (DPR?) on the X70 saying that the Auto ISO minimum shutter speed could be set to 1/500?

Any differences on the LCD performance in sunlight vs the A?
 
Ray - thanks for the review! Did I read one of your update posts somewhere else (DPR?) on the X70 saying that the Auto ISO minimum shutter speed could be set to 1/500?

Any differences on the LCD performance in sunlight vs the A?
Yeah, the auto-ISO can be set with a max ISO up to 6400 and a minimum shutter speed up to 1/500. And the ISO menu has three auto ISO setup "slots" so you can have three different ones set up and switch between them pretty quickly once you pull up that menu. The LCD seemed fine in sunlight, about the same as the Coolpix A - I didn't notice a difference either way but didn't really compare them back to back. But I was happy with both. The only visibility issue I had I mentioned above - it's really tough to see the distance scale and where your focus point is on the focus scale in bright light. The Coolpix is really easy in this regard, but the X70 is only OK most of the time and really bad in bright light. Which is not the fault of the screen, but just of how they have the distance scale set up...

I think I could have gotten past that and a couple of other little niggles, but I given the tradeoffs involved I couldn't find a reason to spend $700 to basically replace something I'm already extremely happy with. But it's a really nice camera. For non-street applications I'd say I'd slightly prefer the X70. But for street and transitioning between street and non-street, the A is better, at least for me... And since that's a big part of how I'd ever use a camera like this, that's a pretty big thing for me.

-Ray
 
Thanks for confirming that, Ray!

I think I am going to end up buying it. For how I would use the camera, the quick AF (with face detection) and tilt screen would be nice. Also, I would feel more confident with the Fuji on the sensor staying clean (fixed lens).
 
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