The Fujifilm X10 is a 2/3 sensor digital compact camera announced by

Fujifilm , trading as Fujifilm, or simply Fuji, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, operating in the realms of photography, optics, office and medical electronics, biotechnology, and chemicals. The offerings from th ...

on September 1, 2011. At the time of its release, it competed most closely with the

Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX5 The Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX5, or LX5, is a high-end compact "point and shoot" camera launched by Panasonic in 2010 to succeed the LX3. The camera is also sold by Leica under the name D-Lux 5 (which has its own exterior design and firmware implem ...

, Olympus XZ-1, Canon PowerShot G1 X and

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-RX100 The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-RX100 series is a high-end compact camera series. It started with the DSC-RX100, announced on 6 June 2012, and is part of the Cyber-shot RX line of digital cameras made by Sony. Seven annual generations have been released ...

, and was subsequently named a 2013 iF product design award recipient. The X10 was noted for its 2/3 inch type sensor, "twice as large as those used in almost all traditional compacts" at the time, and its EXR colour filter layout, allowing either greater

dynamic range Dynamic range (abbreviated DR, DNR, or DYR) is the ratio between the largest and smallest values that a certain quantity can assume. It is often used in the context of signals, like sound and light. It is measured either as a ratio or as a base-1 ...

or lower

noise Noise is unwanted sound considered unpleasant, loud or disruptive to hearing. From a physics standpoint, there is no distinction between noise and desired sound, as both are vibrations through a medium, such as air or water. The difference arise ...

to be recorded in an image of reduced resolution, as well as a conventional full resolution image. The X10's optical tunnel

viewfinder In photography, a viewfinder is what the photographer looks through to compose, and, in many cases, to focus the picture. Most viewfinders are separate, and suffer parallax, while the single-lens reflex camera lets the viewfinder use the main ...

zooms in synchrony with the 28-112mm equivalent, f/2.0 to f/2.8 maximum aperture zoom lens that was described as "impressively bright". The X10 was the first of a new line of compact cameras from Fujifilm, with the letter X and two digits in the product name. Its immediate successor was the

Fujifilm X20 The Fujifilm X20 is a digital compact camera announced by Fujifilm on January 7, 2013. It is the successor to the Fujifilm X10, with which it shares its lens. However, instead of an EXR colour filter pattern as in the X10, the X20 uses an X-Trans ...

in January 2013.

Construction

The X10 has magnesium alloy top and bottom plates, and a mechanical zoom ring. According to Fujifilm, the fact that 1mm rather than 0.8mm aluminium sheets were chosen for the front and rear makes the camera "nearly twice as rigid as ordinary cameras". Besides controlling zoom, the zoom ring is also used to power on the camera.

General reception

Imaging-Resource noted that "the zoom lens obscures the lower right quadrant of the optical viewfinder", from about 45mm equivalent focal length to 28mm wide angle. Additionally, the user's index finger may appear in the viewfinder while zooming. In spite of this, Imaging-Resource expressed a preference for the zoom ring experience, and TechCrunch referred to the viewfinder shading as "more quaint than problematic".

PC Magazine ''PC Magazine'' (shortened as ''PCMag'') is an American computer magazine published by Ziff Davis. A print edition was published from 1982 to January 2009. Publication of online editions started in late 1994 and have continued to the present d ...

bemoaned the absence of visual focus confirmation, and lack of an ability to have auditory focus confirmation without also playing an artificial shutter sound clip. However, they also wrote that the camera "nailed the focus quickly and consistently", and rated the camera 4.0 out of 5.

Conditional product recall: the "white orbs"

At least some early-release X10 specimens had a flaw that could make "white orbs" appear in images. As a first response, in early February 2012, Fujifilm released a firmware update to mitigate the issue, but this was not successful. Fujifilm then also modified the sensor and in early March announced a sensor replacement program for any cameras affected by the issue. Tech publication DPReview judged the replacement to successfully address the problem, and Fujifilm reported that complaints quickly diminished after the free replacement program was launched.

References

{{Fujifilm X series digital cameras X10 Live-preview digital cameras Cameras introduced in 2011