Trying to sum up our feelings about the Fujifilm XQ1 isn’t easy. It has a lot to recommend it. It has a good range of features, a simple and easy-to-use control interface and decent overall performance; it looks good and it’s certainly well made.

However it’s the final image quality that really counts, and it’s hard to avoid a sense of disappointment that the results just aren’t as good as they might be.

Fujifilm has a long history of experimentation and innovation in sensor design; the X-Trans sensor technology certainly looks promising on paper and may work well in larger formats, but in the XQ1 the promised quality just isn’t delivered.

The clever filter mask may eliminate Moire patterns, but it doesn’t avoid jagged diagonals, and the high-ISO noise is surprisingly bad for a camera with a larger-than-average sensor. Simply put, while it has some good ideas, you can get better image quality elsewhere for less money.