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"Fuji recently released the hotly anticipated FinePix X100, a $1,200 digital camera that combines the best elements of classic rangefinder cameras from the 1970s with today's digital sensors. \nBut if you like zooming in on your subjects, you're out of luck.\nFuji first showed off the X100 at September's Photokina trade show, and many gadget and camera lovers immediately fell in love with the retro stylings and promising internals. The camera was supposed to make its debut in March, and a few units did manage to get to customers. But the Japan earthquake temporarily stalled production. \n\n\n\n\nThere are a lot of cameras that have adopted the retro appearances of the Canon, Minolta and Leica setups from the 1970s. What makes the X100 stand out is the combination of a high-end full-sized SLR sensor inside a compact body, along with a fixed lens. \nLeica and Sigma have also entered the fixed-lens, large-sensor arena. But the X100 is less expensive than the Leica and has some very interesting features all its own.\nCase in point: the hybrid viewfinder. This not only gives photographers who love an optical viewfinder the direct view that they love, it also adds a high-resolution electronic viewfinder. There is even a mode that will fuse the two together.\nThe camera can also shoot high-definition video \u2014 one of the reasons why The New York Times' David Pogue describes it as \"a portrait-taking masterpiece, a nonzooming throwback, a brilliant combination of old and new.\"\nCNET gives the camera four out of five stars, but notes that the menu system is confusing and the battery life is less than optimal. Our favorite photo review site, DPreview, took an early look at a prototype X100 in January. The preliminary options looked good.\nThe camera might not fit the budget of every retro-loving photographer, but for rangefinder or fixed-lens enthusiasts, it might just fit the bill. \nI'm a big fan of the micro four-thirds lens system, but the camera geek inside of me yearns to handle an X100. What do you think of the fashion for making modern cameras look and feel more like the film cameras of the past? Let us know in the comments.\nPhoto courtesy of DPreview"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2011/04/22/fuji-x100/>