The Olympus XZ-1 is a marvel of technology. From the blazing fast Zuiko lens to the quick and slick menu interface, to the conservative beauty of the design, this camera means business. Shooting with the XZ-1 is an effortless joy, and it works so well and so intuitively at times that you almost forget you're using a camera at all. I've read in other reviews that the rear control ring is finicky and annoying, but that is not my experience. I find it to work quite well, with the right amount of tactile feedback.
The same is true of the front ring around the lens, used to control various settings based on the mode you are in. Sure, there's not a dedicated button for ISO, but it's so easy to set the ISO from the menu that I'm not quite sure what the issue is. The lack of an AFL/AEL button is a bit of a letdown, but I don't find it to be a dealbreaker by any means.
The art filters range from quaint novelty effects that I will rarely use to things like the Dynamic Tone filter, which (though the effect is a bit hit or miss) can be incredibly striking.
As far as all the other modes go, it's pretty much your standard fare, with the addition of the 'low light' mode. But I wouldn't go too crazy with that mode, as the noise at higher ISOs from the XZ-1 is pretty pronounced. And that leads me to image quality.
HOWEVER doing a ton of side by side pics vs my LX5 or even JUST looking
at the output of the XZ-1, jpeg pictures at default setting look
"somewhat" soft, if you use the default Natural setting(With no
adjustments as to sharpness, contrast etc.)! I mean even at iso100 my
pictures look..too soft, airbrushed looking SLIGHTLY. In camera somewhat
aggressive Noise reduction is that one exception I listed in the title.
