Fuji X100 - a rough diamond
I own the X100 for about a month now and it is a pretty amazing camera, but at the end it is a rough diamond. This not a review or anything like this, for this you rather read the one on luminous landscape or dpreview, or just do a google run, there are many of them.
This is just a list of good and bad points, just to have a clear view of what this camera can do and cannot do.
This is just a list of good and bad points, just to have a clear view of what this camera can do and cannot do.
Morning Sleep (ISO 200)
The Good
- The camera is small and light and therefor the ideal camera to always carry with you and this point alone makes it a very valuable camera, because what good is a camera if you do not carry it with you.
- It is a very solid built, very well made. Especially the fact that it does not have a retractable lens. This makes any camera a little bit fragile looking, like the X-1 from Leica
- The very good view finder. It is the only small camera with AF and this build style that has this style of view finder and it is essential for me and the way I shoot. I especially love electronic overlay inside it, I personally think this is one thing that will appear more in future DSLRs and I hope in future pure range finder cameras, eg Leica or lesser a future Epson one (personally very unlikely)
- A very big sensor, APC-S size and this is one essential thing, especially if you want to shoot at night, this cameras high ISO is really amazing. I haven’t seen any other camera that can take ISO 6400 images, in color, that are pretty much noise free. This is another thing that shows how much sensor technology has advanced nowadays and we will see ISO numbers as normal where the older (film) photographers have only dreamed about.
- The lens is very well made, even wide open it has a very good resolution. Furthermore there is just a little distortion, actually almost not visible. And there is no vignetting at all. At f2 it might be a bit soft with slight CA, but from f4 on there is really no problem at all.
- Silent leaf shutter. So this camera can take photos at almost no noise at all. Very nice thing. Plus you can flash sync at any speed, very nice thing.
- Old type cable release connector, so you do not need to buy some expensive extra remote trigger, you can use your normal cable release.
- A full hot shoe, that seems to be canon compatible with the pins, so you can use any canon trigger cable for a flash. If you use a Fuji flash it will automatically turn off the internal flash. If not, you need to activate the hot shoe, this is the dark part (I have not tried that yet as I am very happy with the Fuji Flash I have)
- You can shoot even if the AF couldn’t be set, this is an amazing feature and I really love it, especially because it sticks then at a certain distance (about 3m) and you know where the focus will be if there is no AF lock. Personally this is the first camera I know that does this, you have to get used to, but when you know it, it is really happy. Rather get lucky out of focus, than not getting anything at all.
Night crawler (ISO 6400)
The middle
- It has a Macro mode, but somehow I often have the biggest AF problems in there. And manual focusing is not fun with this camera. But at least there is a macro mode, because the closest normal focus is about one meter, which is normal for a rangefinder type camera.
- AF is pretty OK, but not stellar. On the other hand I might be a bit spoiled by using DSLR cameras all the time, where the AF, even if it is not so stellar like on the Canon 5D MkII, but still faster. You will get moments where you have to focus twice to get it, but most the time it works. Plus it has a lamp, that can help a lot (if it turns on, which falls in bugs or strange functionality)
At the bar (ISO 3200)
The bad
- The usage of the Jog dial is a disgrace. It is only used for some minor things, eg setting ISO when you are looking through the viewfinder, going to some info windows in the view mode, activating the close up for manual focus. But why is it not used for a custom menu like on the Ricoh GR?
- The select wheel and OK button. While the wheel is a nice idea, it it is just too flaky and to easy to press and then go from one setting to another. So is the OK button, with big fingers you will very often press the wheel instead of the OK button and then end up with different settings. Lucky some of the important settings can be OKed with the shutter button, for example the ISO selection.
- The manual focus is sort of a joke, I could life with the fact that is by wire and not direct, but it is so slow that it is actually unusable to use. The most you could do is focus with AF and then try to do some adjustments. I wished you could set it to a way faster speed or even better, if you move the ring faster it moves the focus much faster. Be prepared to a lot of hand movement when you want to focus from eg 5m down to 1m or less. A real lot. This is not a manual focus camera. Bear that in mind.
- The menu system is a bit of a mess. Why do I have to go into sub menus to change from normal AF (one point) to multi point AF. Why is the custom save points so useless with saving only a view things, mostly JPEG related. Why can’t I customize the drive menu or have a custom menu with often used settings. Why is there only one button assignable as a custom button. Most of the above written complaints could be solved with a big software update anyway
- Battery can be inserted the wrong way. I have no idea why they cannot design a battery like they do for SLRS, where you really can’t put it in the wrong way.
- Slow wake up from sleep. And another thing I really don’t understand why this still exists today. Every dirt cheap DSLR has instant wake up from sleep, but why can’t this camera. I really cannot explain this, what could need so much time to wake up? I hope the next Fuji one, the X-Pro 1 will be much better, because this is a major negative point for people who need quick turn on time, eg street shooters (who hate this camera, or at least I heard that)
- Lenscap cannot be used with the sunshade on. This is a big design miss a really big one, this shouldn’t be that way.
- Bugs or just strange things. Like why does the AF lamp no fire sometimes, does this depend on the light or not. No idea, but sometimes it doesn’t even thought it is quite dark and it can’t really get an AF lock. Also I had twice that the battery display disappeared from the back LCD, no idea why. Minor things, but I haven’t seen that on any other camera before.
- Design and position of the build in flash. While the flash is ok, its position is horrible. It sits right above the lens, so unless you remove the sun shade AND the additional mount ring for the sunshade, you will get nasty shadows. And additional flash on top is highly recommended. Also that you cannot control the time when the flash shoots, either when the shutter opens or closes is a bit weired, at the end this is just software that controls it.
- The position of the exposure compensation dial, it can easily happen that it moves to +1 or -1 and if you do not check before you shoot you will have an over or under exposed shot. Lucky no other buttons turn or change that easy.
At night, everything is bright (ISO 6400)
The Ugly
- RAW button. Why this button is there, why it exists and who really uses it are all mysteries that will never be solved. I do not know any photographer that changes between RAW and jpeg on a shot bases. Furthermore this button just changes the settings for the next shot. And why this is not an ISO button or cannot be custom set is another mystery.
The hard life (ISO 3200)
