(Leica X1; First day of work after the Chinese New Year holiday and it is still freezing at 8 degree centigrade)With the advent of cameras painted in different colours, the reason for the traditional black colour is almost lost. Just in the unlikely case that you don't know, it is to minimise the light reflected by the camera body onto especially the surface of a close-up subject. But the camera in black still has a special charm to most male photographers. Cameras targeted and supposedly made for serious photographers are unanimously black in colour; "supposedly" because there are the likes of the Fujifilm X10.
Some X10 users have complained that it is a camera targeted at serious photographers but probably does best on autopilot. The author has no first-hand experience on the camera except having tried out briefly for its viewfinder. It is a brilliant design that the VF is mechanically linked to the lens during zooming. But the VF is obviously more for ornamental purpose than for real use owing to the misalignment of its viewing angel -- or putting it more properly, the on-paper 85% coverage feels idiotic in action. If the main purpose of a VF is for framing, this one is not. The LCD screen is also too cluttered with shooting information, bars and icons -- which can be turned off. But the author has not came across a camera with the similarly messy arrangement of on-screen info. Together with the verdict of an old friend about the idiosyncrasies of the implementation of functions on the X100, it is not too foolhardy to sooth-say that the same could happen to the X Pro-1: everything is great on paper but feels not right in implementation. Just guessing.
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