Fujifilm X100 - Leica X1 competitor?

[chylld83]

Originally Posted by MatterHorn

Competitive deal != $200 more than someone else down the road. How is the camera any less guaranteed by buying from someone else? Do Vanbar have some extra special exclusive agreement to get this camera first?

It's not rocket science to put together packages including all the usual items.

It's not rocket science, but it is a kind gesture. Vanbar made all the right business decisions at the time so it's unfair to fault them.

chilloutbuddy and Deftone2k are sticking up for Vanbar cos they've received great service from them before. I'm happy to go with DCW cos I've chatted to the guys in the shop and had great service from them too.

[Deftone2k]

Originally Posted by MatterHorn

Competitive deal != $200 more than someone else down the road. How is the camera any less guaranteed by buying from someone else? Do Vanbar have some extra special exclusive agreement to get this camera first?

It's not rocket science to put together packages including all the usual items.

All I can say is I hope he X100 is a fantastic camera, based on all the drooling going on in this thread

It was competitive up until what? 12 hours ago? Puh--lease... infact most people up until that point were VERY HAPPY with the Vanbar price for the x100. Vanbar even got on the horn and allowed pre-orders at a decent price much earlier than most. Risky? Perhaps, but more so giving people a chance to pre-order at a decent price competitive with the US market straight up (and it must have been a pretty good price based on the indication of the amount of preorders they received).

They also did this with the D7000 at a great price before the official RRP's were coming out and not to mention the great deal they gave OCAU with the Pentax K7 packages on release.

So many people get this rush to have the item the day it comes out... and companies know this. There are some that push the limits on their pre-allocated stock and find themselves short of fulfilling pre-orders.

Then there are others that are good/proven at delivering the numbers they say they can do on day 1 and at a good price...and everyone is happy.

It's a sign of service, I know this means very little to people nowadays but the continual support goes a long way to ensuring they keep looking after you on the next big ticket item that many people want (and perhaps they can do better than anyone else at that time).

[chylld83]

Originally Posted by Deftone2k

...

All great reasons for existing pre-orderers to stick with Vanbar. The question now is whether they will adjust their price for all orders from now on - new customers aren't going to have much difficulty choosing between $1100 and $1300.

As much as I like the camera, I don't need to have it on day 1. So I'm happy to give up my spot in the Vanbar queue to someone else (although it sounds like there's more than enough to go around anyway.)

[MatterHorn]

Originally Posted by crankinhaus

i do like the look of those sample images coming out ;-)

As do I I won't be buying on though, but it certainly looks like a nice bit of equipment

[chilloutbuddy]

There's really a few reasons I'm sticking with Vanbar. Early production sameras sometimes have annoying bugs, in which case I'd rather deal with the peeps at Vanbar that I know are good to deal with. The other reason is that I dont know the other shops you guys linked to and I'd rather spend something extra so I dont have to do the necessary research before I lay down >$1k. Last reason is I havent been down there for a while and I'm always looking for an excuse

Geez I'm getting old

[crankinhaus]

Originally Posted by MatterHorn

As do I I won't be buying on though, but it certainly looks like a nice bit of equipment

No I won't be buying one either, I just bought an E-PL1 actually... hehehe. Not really in the same league.

[crankinhaus]

Originally Posted by chylld83

All great reasons for existing pre-orderers to stick with Vanbar. The question now is whether they will adjust their price for all orders from now on - new customers aren't going to have much difficulty choosing between $1100 and $1300.

As much as I like the camera, I don't need to have it on day 1. So I'm happy to give up my spot in the Vanbar queue to someone else (although it sounds like there's more than enough to go around anyway.)

Yeah, I think they're going to go quickly so probably best sticking with it if you have a pre-order in.

[itsanobscureid]

Both positions make valid points.
While the service from Vanbar to this point has been nothing but excellent nothing is to say that the service from other vendors will not be of the same standard.

Importantly, $200 is a different amount of money to different people - for instance as a proportion of income. At the end of the day (I hate people who say this) it all comes down to how much one is prepared to AND fiscally capable of paying to reinforce those businesses which go out of their way to be accommodating.

Ideally Vanbar could in some way at least move towards the other prices - but just like you or me they may be not fiscally capable of doing so. Only time will tell.

Now less about $$$ - when do people think are we going to get to see a reputable review of this damn thing? (do they usually appear before official release?). You would think Fuji must be ready to pull the trigger soon if they do indeed have a great camera and want to capitalise on this momentum

[chylld83]

Originally Posted by itsanobscureid

when do people think are we going to get to see a reputable review of this damn thing? (do they usually appear before official release?). You would think Fuji must be ready to pull the trigger soon if they do indeed have a great camera and want to capitalise on this momentum

I usually see reviews before release, or if not, on release (that were obviously written before, but held offline due to an embargo.)

I'm not sure if it's all thanks to Fuji, but X100 previews and sample images have been leaking out at a very steady rate and all are very positive.

To be honest I'm not going to read most of the reviews since a) I'll have my own camera to play with, and b) I don't need the hybrid viewfinder explained to me for the 98,365,562nd time ffs

[indierokkr]

The only thing that disappointing to me is that the optical viewfinder doesnt show focus, only provides framing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RE9_K6NAxS8

[chylld83]

Originally Posted by indierokkr

The only thing that disappointing to me is that the optical viewfinder doesnt show focus, only provides framing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RE9_K6NAxS8

Actually the fujiguys recently tweeted that if you press the dial thingy while in OVF mode, it switches to EVF zoomed in to the selected AF box.

Mijonju is a funny guy and his videos are fun to watch, but he's quite the rangefinder afficionado... so his comments aren't really any worry

[indierokkr]

Ah okay, that doesn't sound too bad then.

[chylld83]

Originally Posted by indierokkr

Ah okay, that doesn't sound too bad then.

Well it was never too bad in the first place - you still have AF in OVF mode anyway. Only the RF nuts had a cry

[theDarkHorse]

Originally Posted by chilloutbuddy

There's really a few reasons I'm sticking with Vanbar. Early production sameras sometimes have annoying bugs, in which case I'd rather deal with the peeps at Vanbar that I know are good to deal with. The other reason is that I dont know the other shops you guys linked to and I'd rather spend something extra so I dont have to do the necessary research before I lay down >$1k. Last reason is I havent been down there for a while and I'm always looking for an excuse

Geez I'm getting old

I feel the same way buying from Georges, and that includes the old

EDIT: DCW's updated their webpage with what seems like a more realistic price of $1219: http://www.digitalcamerawarehouse.com.au/prod7248.htm

Which is why I'm glad I stuck with my preorder.

[chylld83]

Originally Posted by theDarkHorse

DCW's updated their webpage with what seems like a more realistic price of $1219: http://www.digitalcamerawarehouse.com.au/prod7248.htm

Which is why I'm glad I stuck with my preorder.

Wow. Glad I got in when it was $1099

Gerry Gibbs still has it for $1107, so I think it's more of a demand control method than a pricing error

edit: yep confirmed that my order is still for $1099. phew!