SPLICED Magazine Issue 02 Dec/Jan 2014 | Page 20

SPLICED TECH / ISSUE 02 REVIEW / XXX by Pippa Tshabalala FUJIFILM XF1 CAMERA Should a camera be about looks or functionality, and can you have both? RRP / R4,999   ONLINE / www.fujifilm.co.za/products/digital_cameras/x/fujifilm_xf1/ T he Fujifilm XF1 falls somewhere in the realm of awesome design mixed with solid photo quality and performance, but don’t make the mistake of thinking this is anything other than a point-and-shoot camera. Design wise the XF1 is covered in synthetic leather, which adds a rather unique look to the body and sets it apart from other similarly classed cameras. The rest of the body is aluminium, which means it’s both light and fairly strong (although we wouldn’t recommend throwing it around!). It shoots in both JPEG and RAW, and has both manual and semimanual shooting modes. The picture quality is pretty good as this sports a 20 12-megapixel 2/3-inch EXR CMOS image sensor, which is larger than you would find in a typical camera of this class. It means you have some additional flexibility when it comes to using the ISO settings above ISO 200. If you make use of the f1.8 aperture however, you can shoot with less light without immediately needing a higher ISO, and the XF1 will surprisingly give you quite good low light results. The colours are bright and vivid with this camera although they can tend towards oversaturation at times, but if you’re prepared to play around with the settings or in post to get it right then this might not be an issue.