Fujifilm Finepix X100 First Impressions Review
It’s been a while since I posted. We’ve been busy moving and getting settled in our new place. Finally made a decision to sell the Nikon D700 and all my lenses and get a Fujifilm Finepix X100. Although the D700 is a great camera, it is a huge chunk of metal and glass to carry everywhere. The Fuji has the distinction of being able to fit in my jacket pocket and still deliver images that are almost as good as the mighty D700.
It is very like in size to my Canon Canonet QL17 GIII. In fact it is slightly slimmer. The lens is a little shorter than the Canon and this makes it very easy to slip in a jacket pocket. Besides the size of the camera, it has very good image quality up to 3200 iso, a fast, sharp f=2.0 lens and a hybrid viewfinder that let’s me choose between using the LCD, an electronic viewfinder or a real optical viewfinder. The X100 was the only camera that had all of these things in a size that I can carry everywhere.
I considered the Sony Nex-7, it has a electronic viewfinder and similar small dimensions without a lens, but the 24mm f=1.8 lens is another $800 and it is much larger with the lens attached. I also considered all the Micro 4/3s cameras, but they didn’t have high iso image quality that I wanted or an eye-level viewfinder integrated into the design.
Also, I admit to just thinking the X100 is very cool. I love the retro, old-school styling. I like having the aperture setting on the lens and a real metal exposure compensation knob under my thumb.
The images are where the X100 really shines and I think that’s what decided me more than anything else:
The X100 lens will focus up to 4 inches. You can either use the fussy little control knob or just flip the AF selector to manual focus. Oddly, when in manual focus mode, you can use the rear AF-L/AE-L button to auto focus across the entire range of the camera’s lens. In autofocus mode, you can only go down to about 2 1/2 feet. Using the manual focus ring on the front is an exercise in futility, just use the rear button to autofocus it close.
Ergonomically, the camera is a little small for my hands, but the Fuji leather case makes it big enough to hold comfortably and the edges of the leather give my hands a bit of a grip. I decided to use a wrist strap to keep the entire package small. When I go hiking, I’ll use one of my longer padded neck straps to carry it. The little leather strap that came with the case is too short for me. I like the camera to carry at hip level when hiking, not bouncing at tummy level.
The flash is small, but very effective for fill. Fuji has really got the fill flash perfect on this camera:
I converted the image to black and white to mask the color temperature difference in the subject and the background. The Fuji keeps the iso high for the proper exposure but just adds a little light to brighten the subject. For indoor pictures, if you don’t change to b&w the background will be yellow and your subject will be in the neutral flash color. Good thing I prefer black and white. This is one area that the Fuji actually does a better job of than the D700. The D700 would default to the lowest iso setting possible when using the flash and auto iso. I would have to manually boost the iso to get a decent fill flash. Even then the D700 would not do as good of a job. The Fuji just seems smoother and better balanced.
On the down side, the auto focus is a little slow and hunts a bit some times in low light. But for the most part it does the job. I also have found a little shadow banding when pushing some of the raw files. The files don’t have the latitude of the D700, I’ll have to be more careful in getting my exposures right.
Overall, I’m very pleased with my choice. I like the portability and flexibility. Here’s a couple links to some sample shots:
Test Shots
Dinner with friends
At the range
Pushing Arista Premium (Kodak Tri-x) 400 to 1600
One of my goals for my photography is to present a more objective image rather than a subjective image. To my mind, b&w photography does that for me. I also want to be able to shoot candids in low light without the use of flash. Film to my eye has many more subtle gradations between black and white than digital. It has the look I’m trying to capture. But iso 400 isn’t fast enough to allow me to do the photography that I want in low light.
So I’ve started on a mission to find the right combination of camera, film and developing to give me the results I want in a small, easy-to-carry package. And I think I have the right film and developer now. Here’s a shot of a couple of friends in a dimly-lit restaurant. I used my Nikon N80 and a 50mm f=1.8 AF-D lens loaded with Arista Premium 400 pushed to 1600.
I developed the film in Kodak D-76 diluted 1+1 for 13:15 at 21 degrees. I’ve got good details, smooth gradations and the grain is under control. This is as dark as I would normally want to shoot and this combination has delivered the goods.
I love my N80, its compact, lightweight and has a ton of modern features that help me get the shots I want. I can select spot, matrix or center-weighted metering with my thumb without having to look away from the viewfinder. I can select any of 5 different focus points and the spot meter will meter off that point. In shooting candids in low light, a spot meter is your best bet because there are bound to be a lot of bright lights in the background trying to fool a meter.
Another great feature of the N80 is the 1/4000th shutter speed. Most of my old manual cameras have either a 1/500th or 1/1000th shutter speed. If I rate my film at 1600, that means I need to have at least a 1/2000th shutter speed to shoot that speed outdoors. The N80 gives me some flexibility to do just that.
I’ve started a gallery with sample shots of Arista Premium pushed to 1600, you can see all the shots here.
Read MoreMotorcycle Ice Racing
Went to the ice races on Saturday and took my new (used) Mamiya NC1000. The Mamiya is a compact 35mm SLR. It is not much bigger than a Canon Canonet rangefinder. It fits easily in my jacket pocket. It also has very big, bright viewfinder. I find that this is the easiest manually focused camera to use. It has a diagonal split prism that makes it easy to focus off a horizontal or vertical line. I love the size of rangefinders, but I have a difficult time getting them focused. My eyes are too old. SLRs are usually too bulky to take everywhere, but this Mamiya is very compact and lightweight.
Not only was I shooting a new camera, but I was also shooting a new film, Arista Premium 400, which is supposed to be Kodak Tri-X 400 repackaged and sold much cheaper than Kodak. I bought it from Freestyle Photo for $2.20 a roll. I shot it at 1600 asa to see if I could replace the now discontinued Fuji Neopan 1600.
And not only was I shooting a new film with a new camera, I decided to develop the film myself. Holy Cow! Talk about lot’s of opportunities for failure. Anyway, I managed to stave off disaster and ended up with real images on my film. I was pretty pleased with the way they turned out. Very gritty and vintage looking.
You can see all the pix here. I’ll have more on the Mamiya coming up.
Read MoreCanon Sure Shot Review
I got this Canon Sure Shot in a box of cameras that I picked up for $25. I found 5 cameras out of the box that I’ve enjoyed shooting. This is a pretty good one. It is auto exposure and auto focus, just point and shoot. It is very similar to the Canon Sure Shot Tele that I’ve already looked at, but it’s an earlier model, so you have to advance and rewind the film with a button instead of it happening automatically. Also you have to set the asa film speed manually, which you will see is something of an advantage.
It has a fast, semi-wide 38mm 2.8 lens. The lens is fairly sharp, but nothing amazing. It uses 2 AA batteries, instead of the expensive 2CR5 that the Tele uses. It is also smaller and lighter than the Tele. It auto advances the film between shots and does it in a pretty noisy fashion. The asa goes from 50 to 400 in 3rd of a stop increments and then jumps up to 1000 asa instead of 800 like a lot of other cameras. The Tele set the asa automatically using DX encoding up to 1600 asa.
The cool thing about having a manually set asa is that you can cheat a bit with some film. I wanted to try some Fuji Neopan 1600, but I didn’t really like the Fuji at the box speed of 1600, I wanted to try it a little slower. So I loaded it into the Sure Shot and rated it at 1000. I was very pleased with the results. Shot at 1600, the Fuji Neopan is too contrasty and doesn’t have enough mid-tones for my taste. Shooting at 1000, it still has good contrast, but the mid-tones are much more apparent and the grain is nice and not overwhelming.
This combo gave me a point and shoot with pretty decent low-light capabilities. So good in fact, that I never tested the flash. Unfortunately, Fuji has discontinued the Neopan 1600 film, so I only have 5 rolls left in the freezer and then it’s gone. I’m going to try shooting some Tri-X at 1000 and 1600 to see if I can use it as a replacement.
I took it to a New Year’s Eve party and took some snaps without a flash. It did a great job. Well exposed and in focus, easy to use, just the thing for a party camera.
The Sure Shot is a great, inexpensive way to take some snap shots, even in low-light with right film.
Read MoreThe true choice
We must decide if we are to be a people who love the use of force, or who use the force of love.
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