Looks like Fuji will sell this camera in Japan from mid April. I got to play with a production model for about 20min at the Camera & Photo Imaging Expo today. Good news is it was smaller/lighter than I thought it would be and it seems to focus very fast. And the fold-down LCD seems really nice too. Bad news is I am not sure this will be a good camera for birding.
First thing that disappointed me was the tiny/dim EVF. Very clausterphobic, but if you get on with the Panny FZ35/38 it is similar. And though the camera could burst off 10fps, the viewfinder went dark once the shutter is depressed and it took a good 4sec to write a 6 frame burst to the built-in memory. But none of the demo cameras had memory cards installed so perhaps my experience would not be typical. I did ask the rep about write speed and he thought it might even slower writing to an SD card. I despise cameras that make me wait between shots! Also, maybe my imagination but while the lens barrel is similar sized the actually lens glass looked to be several mm smaller in diameter than the one on my Canon SX1.
Anyway, it is hard to properly evaluate an unfamiliar camera during a show on a schedule. I'll wait for the reviews and look into it more once they make it into stores here.
Rick