New toy: Fuji X100
by Janne Jääskeläinen
So, I finally bought a new toy.
I have some nice cameras (namely Canon EOS 400D and iPhone), but because my wife nicked my compact Canon S95 (which is still a pretty darn good), there has been some sort of void in my life. EOS 400D is way too bulky for every day use, and iPhone is… well, a phone with a camera.
At first I drooled over some Leica’s (M9 and X1), but M9 was way out of my price range, and X1 didn’t have optical viewfinder. True, you can get reasonable priced M9 chassis under 5000 €, but you would still need to buy some proper lenses too. So, ouch. Maybe in the future.
After doing some research, I found Fuji X100. Professionals seemed to call it “a poor man’s Leica.” I don’t know about that, but Fuji X100 is definitely awesome piece of work. There are some weird quirky stuff going on in the camera (like no automatic switching to a macro mode), but so far, I love the manual controls and the optical viewfinder. Picture quality is also pretty awesome. More about it later.
Check these out:
- Laroquephoto.com
- Fujifilm FinePix X100: Where the Hell Did THIS Come From?
- X100Photo UK (closed, but plenty of nice blog posts)
- zackarias.com: Fuji x100 :: Review (Warning! This was the sole reason that finally made me purchase the camera)
- Digital rev: Fujifilm Finepix X100 Hands-on Review
Nor does your S95 or 400d without a specific macro lens. To enable macro on the X100 without selecting the macro mode button on the back of the camera, use manual focus and ae/af to focus. As a caveat, the focus area is the default large. For macro, I find using the efv and small focus area to be better. So once you set the focus area size for the evf (it will hold even after a restart), there’s a macro button on the back of the camera.
Thanks for the comment Ray, and welcome to the blog!
And whoa, nice trick. I have to test it. Thanks!
Do you think x100 can produce image quiality of 400d?
Yes, with a good lens 400D has no problems (in my eye) beating Fuji X100. On the other hand, I have nearly stopped using my Canon because of Fuji X100. Its just so much more fun to use and easier to carry around.