I am speechless. No, not really because I am about to go on. Take a look at the upcoming Fujifilm FinePix x100 digital camera (expected release: early 2011). Wow. Did the designers get this right? Yes. They did. Even down to the screw hole in the trigger button that accepts an old school cable release! Amazing.

My second thought after “WOW!” was that of of disappointment in that it has a fixed 23mm (135 equivalent: 35mm) f2 prime lens meaning that you can’t zoom or change the lens. I am over that disappointment remembering that sometimes the limitations of some things is what makes them great. Everything else that they thought of will make up for that (and the lens sounds super anyway). Like a large CMOS sensor. Solid metal top controls. A hybrid viewfinder and a small built-in flash as well as a full TTL hot shoe. Fuji GETS IT.

I just bought a new Olympus Pen E-P2 and I really like it despite it is missing a couple of features that I am baffled that they left off (built-in flash and built-in viewfinder). I do love that I can use my Voigtlander lenses on it though. HOWEVER, if the fine people at Fuji would like me to be a tester for what I think could be the camera to watch in 2011, hey, it is the least I could do. SEND ME ONE! Pretty please? Seriously, anyone know anyone at Fuji? Anyone?

*tap tap* This thing on…?

Remember my post last week about Polaroid failing to understanding their market value and stopped making their self-developing film? Well it sure created a flurry of comments on this site the likes of which I have never seen before. Thank you to all of the commenters. (I would thank you all individually but I am a very busy man. Sorry.)

Anyway, there is hope yet…sort of. A group calling themselves Impossible b.v. has signed a 10 year lease agreement with Polaroid for the factory and all the equipment used in the Netherlands plant which made the now defunct film and film cartridges. Impossible b.v. plans to use the facility to make:

“… a new product with new characteristics, consisting of new optimised components, produced with a streamlined modern setup. An innovative and fresh analog material, sold under a new brand name that perfectly will match the global re-positioning of Integral Films.”

Whatever that means. Just give us back our wonderful grainy odd-colored auto-developing film, will ya? Does it have to be that complicated? Sheesh.

These wooden Mac laptop cases designed by for Rainer Spehl are oh-so impractical but for some reason, I really want one.

But now, Polariod has released PoGo, a camera that inklessly prints a 2X3 inch photo in about 60 seconds. You better have some extra batteries on hand as you can only print about 20 photos on one charge. And the thing is only 5 megapixels.

If you ask me, I think Polaroid’s instant film popularity wasn’t due to the on-the-fly results that you got with a Polaroid camera. It was the murky quality and physical properties that you could futz with during the developing process that made them so endearing. To me, it was the ‘non-instant’ developing speed of their  ‘instant film’ that I loved. It created in me a mysterious anticipation for what may appear on that plastic sheet that I waved back and forth in my hand (which may or may not have accelerated developing time – no one knows for sure).

Is it me or is Polaroid missing the point on this one?

Here is a save Polaroid site if anyone is interested in putting up a futile fight.

Got me one of them thar new iPhone jobs. This is the wall paper that I made for the thang. Right click on that mo-fo and save it if you want to use it too. Can’t remember where I found the image.