Fujifilm X-M1 Compact System 16MP Digital Camera Kit with 16-50mm Lens and 3-Inch LCD Screen (Black)

Oddly, I've become a bit of a Fujifilm lover. Not sure why. First camera ever was a Canon fTB-n 35mm brick. got so tired of carrying that 6 pound monster (with 35-105 Hoya zoom) that I gave up SLR's and bought an early Ricoh point and shoot and loved it. When the digital revolution arrived I started with a 1 mp Sony Mavica with a floppy disk! Moved up to a fantastic 2 megapixel Toshiba....then bought a series of Fuji's just by chance. Back in 2007 when I was flush and wanted a real legacy camera I went into my local dealer and said give me a Leica....and they asked me a few questions and I walked out with a Fuji F30 point and shoot, 6mp. Took it to Croatia and it is still some of the very best pictures I've ever taken and they compared very well with my Nikon D40. Fantastic battery life, fantastic low light, tiny, what pictures. Still have it, still take it with me on trips. I currently have an Olympus OM-D EM-5 which was the treat I gave myself, and i love it. Weather sealed, the whole deal. Very complex and even a couple years later I still have trouble using all its features. But something happened a few years ago...I saw the Fuji X10. And I said, I have to have one of those. I bought one as a closeout after the white orb fiasco was fixed. And I have to tell you, that's probably the best camera I have ever owned (and that includes the D40, Lumix bridge camera, a bunch of Fujifilms including the F30, F40fd, F100 exr, e550, Canon S95, Canon G10 and a few others). Then I bought my wife an X20 which I think is even better. STarted coveting an X20 but then the X30 came out and I started pricing it. But in reality, it didn't offer much I wanted beyond an X20, and the X20 is arguably incrementally better than the X10....and while I was researching that I hit on a few reviews of the XM-1 that said it took...oh...extraordinary....exceptional....DSLR quality....pics. APS-C sensor. Not just good images, or acceptable....but extraordinary. It has cool lines. And then I found an open box brand new XM-1 for $417 with the 16-50 lens. It took me a couple days to get its features down and OK, yes, it doesn't have panorama, which I like but I'll have the other two cameras with me....and it doesn't have a viewfinder, but you know? Neither did my S 95 and my F30....and I don't use the viewfinder THAT much anyway; i mean, hardly ever on my G10,....but I wish it had pro low light. Level? Never use it. It is funny to me (I'm 59) to hear people talk about disappointing it is that it is plastic....horrors! Sit down kids and let gramps tell you a story....back in the 70's great cameras were things like the Nikon F, the Nikkormat, the Canon fTB-n, the Canon F1, Canon EF and Canon A-1, the Pentax K1000....all solid steel, designed to go to the moon and survive a nuclear blast. Then, around the early 70's two things happened. First olympus came out with the OM-1 which sort of blew the whole idea that an SLR had to be "big" out of the water...then Canon came out with the AE-1. Small, light, and....horrors...plastic....But it changed the whole ballgame, friends, and the beauty of the XM-1 is that it is solid and light. Yes, the lens isn't as solid as my Olympus 14-150 but it moves smoothly, is razor sharp, and does the job. The whole package is a bit remarkable. It took a bit of getting used to to set it up so it focused properly, learn how to use MF, but the versatility in general is there. This isn't my everything camera; that's my EM-5, but I bought this because I wanted a sensor that wouldn't leave anything to chance for spectacular pictures. I'm planning on taking this to Europe in a few weeks and will put it through its paces; i'm looking for reliability, fantastic pics (I shoot jpg), looking forward to trying the wi fi and wireless transfer to my Ipad. It has enough filters and enough modes to keep me happy. Yes, Fuji, if you can put the same advanced options like pro low light and panorama in the next upgrade I'll be thrilled, but for now this camera has everything - very compact, lightweight, solid feel, good kit zoom, initial pictures I've taken are razor sharp, fast focus, fast start up, built in flash, and I like the tilting screen. Very minimalist and as you can tell from my opening sentences I am leaning toward simple. The joy in photography for me is taking the picture and enjoying it rather than sweating out over which setting to use and this fits the bill. It's got enough user settings to keep me happy and it will be very interesting to see whether I continue to use my EM-5 as much, although when the weather's lousy or I need my 2X digital zoom and 14-150 zoom lens It'll be with me...oh yeah, that's the one other thing my XM-1 lacks - the digital zoom. And as far as lenses go, invariably once I put a wide-tele zoom on my camera - 14-150, or 12-50 on my EM-5 or the 24-112 on my X10.....that's all I ever use. I never remove it. Carrying more than one lens is what killed my interest with my fTB-n. So, 1-2 month update. As I said, i bought this because I am an X10 user and fan; my "high end" camera is an Olympus OM-d EM-5 and you can see from prior reviews that I've owned Canon, Nikon, Lumix, and a bunch of Fujifilm. For some reason I like fujifilm. Not that I don't like my G10, or D40....anyway. I bought this because I wanted an X30 but found this open box XM-1 with the 16-50 lens for $400 on Amazon. It has an APS-C sensor and I thought it was time to see what the big deal about sensor envy is about. I just used this in France and stopped using it after one day for two reasons - one, there was a spot of dust on the sensor (as an open box camera this came - I am not kidding - with the body in a plastic sandwich bag. Once I found the spot and got rid of it - that disappeared. The other problem, and I wasn't sure why - was that many of my pics looked seriously over exposed on the monitor. I had to fiddle with the exposure control to make them look decent. It turns out this was related to my settings and the actual pictures on a PC or my Ipad were perfect. But for a day or two I was kind of concerned. battery life is great. I have found that low light is kind of tough to shoot with any setting except auto. Those are terrific. I find the Olympus is more customizable and that leads me to my conclusion that this camera is sort of a compact interchangeable mirrorless "bridge" camera, in that it is best suited for snapshots, travel, etc with some versatility. It is very lightweight, the 16-50 lens is tack sharp; yes, it doesn't feel like a metal camera but it is very solid and well made. I do wish it had digital telezoom and panorama function. I am confused why they'd leave those off. So it isn't as customizable as an em-5 but it doesn't purport to be. If you understand what this camera is, and that it takes, as DP Review said "astounding" pictures, you should be happy. I have learned that I am a fair photographer; i am not going to win awards, I love good travel pictures and put them in Blurb albums, I love color and love re-living my overseas trips, and occasionally I find a picture is really artsy. So for professional versatility and delusional fooling myself that I am really creative I love my Olympus; for amazing retro looks, feel, size, and complete versatility I am completely sold on the X10/X20 (and look forward to seeing what the consensus is on the X30) but if I was just going out on a trip and wanted superb jpg in a great package I'd happily take the XM-1. I guess there is aftermarket panorama software but I like the panorama function on the X10. Oh, and another oversight - no voice memo on the XM-1. Deal killer? No. Would I downgrade? Not unless I felt I was misled by Fujifilm, and it was all right there in front of me when I ordered. If I wanted to spend more on a Fuji with those features I could have. if I want those features, I'll schlep my EM-5 along.

To begin with I am a canon DSLR owner on my third DSLR 60d with a couple of prime lenses(50mm, 85mm) and a nice L lenses. I bought this specifically for a European trip with the kids because I did not want to lug my DSLR around. Overall I have to say this camera produced the some of the best ever pictures we have ever taken. Here is my summary: Lens: Sharp throughout its range, I could not detect any defects in the images. The quality was on par with a L lens. Since this is a f3.5 the brokeh was not as nice as a 85mm, but it still produced very nice brokeh, the colors were nice and was almost as sharp as a 50mm prime throughout its range. Camera: Amazing pictures, and I loved the pop produced by the Velvia effect. Amazing jpegs, and I can use 90% of the images produced without editing. The noise level was on par or even better than a DSLR. I also loved the usability and most of the layout of the menus. I was able to figure out most of the features,however I would recommend reading the manual because there are some weird quirks. I used this with aperture primary mode with face detection. Focus was mostly quick and accurate. Not as quick as a DSLR, but then again since this is not using a viewfinder having a similar level of accuracy is probably not possible. I initially thought that I would regret not getting the model with the EVF, but not so. I found that having the tilting LCD allowed me to compose quick, and take pictures at unusual angles at very crowded locations in Paris and Italy. An other advantage is that when you ask somebody to take a picture there is no explanation needed :D. Cons: Its easy to accidentally change settings. Make sure you check the aperture, exposure etc before taking a picture. Its good practice to do so anyway. If you select silent mode or any bracketing mode it will turn off the flash, the flash will not fire even if it is popped up. Focus and flash cycling is slower than a DSLR. But then again I am comparing this with a DSLR which it is not, so keep that in mind. In AV mode during daylight I have to set meter + a few notches if not the images appear a bit darker. Note that when there is a lot of light the preview appears a lot darker than reality, so keep that in mind and don't overexpose too much because of that. The wifi app works(tried on android) but it is a bit basic and has its own quirks. For example when you browse, view and image and go back it does not remember the location, which is quite annoying when there are 100+ images. The only other con is the lenses are super expensive. Unlike Canon there are not $100 primes , etc, but judging by the quality of the kit lens, one is probably paying $$$ for some very good glass. Summary: Hands down this is the best ever camera I have ever owned. Produces vivid, and stunning images straight out of the camera. I am almost considering selling my canon gear, because images out of this little thing is so good. Seriously looking at the x-t1 as the next camera.

After using this camera for an entire day at my brothers wedding here is my review: (Note I used a Fujifilm XF 27mm F2.8 Compact Prime Lens the whole time.) (I am not a pro, most of my pictures are taken in automatic) Pros: Photo quality, tilt flash, great lenses available, very cool filters built in, Fn and Q buttons, start up speed. Cons: Occasional focus issues, grip does not feel very secure, repetitive menus, This camera feels really well built, it feels like you have something great in your hand. The grip on this camera is not all that great, the camera just does not feel secure when you are holding it. I would like to get the additional grip handle but I do not want to increase the size of this camera. Speaking of size, even with my compact lens, don't expect to put this in any kind of pocket. I wish this camera was a little smaller. The battery on this camera lasted me most of the day, around 300 pictures. I really like the flash on this camera, you can tilt the flash up or down, so you can get very cool effects. The screen is good enough to use outdoors, and the tilt feature is great for taking overhead shots. The camera starts up quick and takes pictures very quickly as well. The pictures, when the camera manages to focus, are beautiful! I am absolutely in love with the picture quality. Well worth having compared to the drawbacks. Update : October 5 -- So I have been shooting with this camera for a few weeks now, mainly with the 27mm lens, and I realized a few things. Why I'm gonna keep it: 1. I love the quality of pictures, they are insanely wonderful. 2. Love some of the features - burst mode is good, Adv mode is super cool for shooting with selected colors, Q button and Fn buttons are great for switching and adjusting on the fly. 3. Wireless (once you figure it out) is cool, at a party I took a few shots and was able to send the pictures to my buddy in only a few minutes. He posted them on Facebook in no time. 4. Looks I get complements on the style of the camera and I like the look and feel now. Why I can't wait for the XM2 or XE2: 1. No view finder is a huge issue for me, especially since the cameras focus is terrible. I tried all focus modes and they still miss the mark. Manual mode with magnification tries really hard to correct the issue but the human eye is probably best for making sure a picture is sharp. I missed some good shots and will continue to miss shots, I'm sure.

Update 2 : The auto focus on the videos is awful. Furthermore its has poor autofocus on close objects, even in macro mode. I took away 2 stars from my initial review. Update 1: The wifi to phone link has proven too much of a headache and I'm getting a Eyefi Mobi to get around this issue. I like the camera but I won't be a repeat Fujifilm camera buyer. Pros: Camera itself looks attractive. Impressive picture quality. Solid build quality Cons: 1) The wifi-connection to transfer to a phone is buggy as heck. Not ready for prime-time. The key to making it work for me is to hit the transfer button on the camera, wait 5-10 sec, then hit the receive button on my phone fuji app. I'll wait to see if I can tolerate this or just get an eyefi. 2) Occasionally and transiently gets out of focus when taking movies with continuous focus mode on. 3) Menus can be streamlined a bit

I was really looking forward to putting this camera through its paces, and the image quality of the photographs the Fujifilm X-M1 captures is stunning. The X-M1 has the same sensor as the XE-1 and X-Pro1 and thus the same image quality. The colors are vibrant on the JPEGs the camera produces and the RAW files process nicely through Lightroom. I used the camera up to ISO 1600 and have been very impressed with how well this camera controls noise at those higher ISOs. Another thing that Fuji gets right on all of its camera is the "Q" menu, which gives the user direct, easy, and quick access to the settings that most photographers will use regularly... ISO, Auto Focus settings, Dynamic Range, Noise Reduction, crop format, file format, film look emulation, anti-shake and more. The standard menu system is organized well enough, but could use a little more tiding up. The LCD screen is bright and sharp and allows for different views with more or less information on it (and a custom option as well, which is nice). The biggest surprise on this camera is the kit lens - the consumer-oriented 16-50mm lens. Though it is a bit plasticy and the zoom ring and focus ring are too close, the lens really does take very nice images. The other plus is the focus ring is smooth and stiff enough as to prevent it from creeping. Overall, the build quality of the camera body is very nice and solid, but the camera has two major issues for me that brings the rating down to three stars. These may not be a big deal for some users and thus not be a detractor, but for others, I think that many will have the same issues. The first issue is the lack of any kind of viewfinder; for me, that is a major negative on a camera of this caliber. when not on a tripod, I find it impossible to properly compose a photograph holding the camera out at arms' length. Plus, vibration reduction or not, a camera can not be stabilized in such a manner. The other issue, and this one is a major one if you use this camera on a tripod as all cameras should be whenever possible, is that the Tripod socket is right next to the battery door... I mean 1/8 inch close. There is not a tripod quick release plate made that will allow the battery door to be opened when a quick release plate is attached. Frankly, that is down right asinine. It is these two issues that should leave this camera off the wish list of any professional or serious amateur photographer; instead consider the X-E2 or the X-Pro1. If you never plan to use a tripod and you don't mind holding the camera out to see the LCD screen, then otherwise this is a very nice option.

So, after saving for a long time, and having done extensive research on cameras and photography, I decided to purchase The Fujifilm X-M1 camera. I liked it because it was black, looked pretty, and seemed as though it would be easy to hold and not too heavy. However, imagine my disappointment when my camera arrived and much to my dismay my FujiFILM camera does not take film! Instead, you have to purchase very small computer chips to insert in the camera. These chips are small, fragile, and can be easily lost. My disappointment was doubled because I had pre-ordered 100 rolls of Fuji 400iso 35mm film which are ABSOLUTELY USELESS in this camera. I am giving this review one-star because the camera does have the merits of being compact, lightweight, and black, which means it's a professional camera. But I will be returning my FujiFILM camera and finding one that actually shoots film as advertised.

I wanted a camera smaller than my bulky DSLR for vacation pics, but I insist on excellent quality images. The XE1 felt like an awkward brick in my smallish hands so I took a chance on the new Fuji XM1. Is has the same sensor as it's bigger brothers so the pics are very good. I especially love being able to use Fuji Velvia film simulation in a digital camera. I also love that the camera has more dials for quick manual control. I hate having to delve into menus. That's why I gave up on the Sony Nex line. This little Fuji is a hidden gem. It's good for beginners and usable for very experienced camera users as well. Makes a great second camera to have when you don't want to luge the big DSLR around. it won't do everything - macro, and very low light. Wish Fuji would come out with a full frame model like Sony has. I really like this camera.

I was considering a Canon G7 as a hiking and backpacking camera. But the sale price and reviews sold me on this camera. Adaptors will let me use my Nikon lenses on this camera. The finding of a Samyang 8mm fisheye with Fujifilm X lens was a plus for me, as I shoot 360x180 spherical panos. So far the color, contrast and sharpness is great, I shoot only RAW and sensor has no anti-aliasing filter for better sharpness. All the color modes are not important to me since I shoot RAW. Some of the WiFi features I did not get to work with my iPhone, I did get the GPS coordinates transferred from my phone to the camera, it is somewhat unreliable and slow to get them to sync. It was easier to just take a shot with my iPhone for the GPS co-ordinates and transfer them to the files in post (Lightroom) or saved tracks from my GPS. I was worried about not having a viewfinder, but the daylight mode for the TFT LCD works well for composing (not for evaluating your shot), you will need to hit the preview button to see the shots histogram. The tripod screw is off centered from the lens, not good for panoramic photography. I got a Really Right Stuff L-bracket to use with my tripod and pano-head that use Arca Swiss standards. The APS sensor is a good compromise to my full frame DSLRs for backpacking. The 16mm-50mm kit lens is sharp and light. The 16mm is wider than many other kit lens equal to the full frame 24mm prime I usually use. Some of the other reviews said the body seem light and plastic. I have not found it a problem, lighter the better for me where every ounce counts. I have downsized my 20 lb.DSLR backpacking gear bag by more than half because I don't need the heaver tripod, lenses and heads. Controls for some functions are a little hard to get to, as I am changing from all manual to automatic shooting often. High ISO shooting is clean and white balance seem cooler than on my Nikons when shooting the night sky. Finding the hyper focal distance was not a problem for the kit lens, you can see a digital display of acceptable sharpness when manually focusing.

Quick delivery, both the picture quality and the built quality of the camera are excellent... love it!