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There's never exactly been a great deal of love lost between me and mirror-less cameras. When it comes down to it, I'm just far too attached to my optical viewfinder to be prepared to sacrifice it at the altar of size reduction in favour of an electronic viewfinder. So maybe it'll be down to Fujifilm, and the hybrid viewfinder technology that they've slotted into their brand new and shiny X-Pro1, announced at CES today, to convince me to think otherwise. Or at least reconsider my stance.

It's the same technology that debuted in the drool-worthy X100: a viewfinder that can switch between optical, without nasty shutter-lag, and electronic, which affords you the luxury of focus confirmation and depth-of-field information. And it only takes the flick of a switch to change between the two. Not only that, but the image magnification is adjusted automatically, depending on the focal length of the lens being used.

Speaking of lenses, the X-Pro1 is built around the brand new X-mount, that's been designed to maximise the advantage of the camera being mirror-less. So far, there are three X-mount lenses on offer: XF18mmF2 R, XF 35mmF1.4 R and XF60mmF2.4 R Macro. Yep, at the moment they're all primes, but I'm sure that there are some zooms winging their way through the R&D process as I type.

Fujifilm has developed a brand new sensor for the X-Pro1: the 16 megapixel X-Trans CMOS sensor, supported by the new X-Trans sensor is the EXR Processor Pro. It reckons it's that good it can hold its own against, or even exceed the performance of, a full-frame sensor, with a new colour filter array and no optical low-pass filter, allowing for reduced colour aberrations and moire. That's fighting talk.

All those Hipster-types might be attached to their toy cameras with their multiple exposures, but anything a cheap Russian camera can do, Fuji can do better. Multiple exposures are possible at the touch of a button and Fuji's taken it even further. There's a range of options that allows for the simulation of film effects. Want it to look as if you've shot portraits on Fuji Astia? How about make colours really vibrant with Velvia? How about add a red filter? Or a sepia one? All possible!

This is, most certainly, the first mirror-less camera about which I've found myself getting in the slightest excited. I'll be very interested to lay my paws on one sometime in March. There's no price as yet, but the rumours are suggesting £1000 for the body and between £450 and £500 for a lens.

More recent news...

1. Bring out the Canons (9 January 2012)
2. Potential law suits left, right, and centre at Olympus (9 January 2012)
3. The weekly round-up (6 January 2012)
4. Two exciting opportunities for young photographers from IdeasTap (6 January 2012)
5. A photo competition for January! (5 January 2012)

© Daniela Bowker. This article has been licensed for use on Pixiq only. Please do not reproduce wholly or in part without a licence.