An Albatros, Kakapos and a Dodo, In the Museum II ( X100 )

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FUJIFILM FinePix X100 (23mm, f/2, 1/80 sec, ISO200)
 FinePix X100 (23mm, f/2, 1/60 sec, ISO800)
 FinePix X100 (23mm, f/2, 1/60 sec, ISO1000)

Almost one year after my first visit to the NHM Vienna with my new Fuji X100 I visited the place again. This time it was different. With more than 8.000 images taken with the camera and with all the firmware updates it was a completely different shooting experience.

FinePix X100 (23mm, f/2, 1/60 sec, ISO1000)
 FinePix X100 (23mm, f/2, 1/60 sec, ISO800)

Beside the fact that I got used to the camera I think a substantial part of the new experience comes from the enhanced autofocus. When I was in the museum the first time AF was slow and struggled a lot. Sometimes there was AF hunting. It was impossible to overlook that AF was several generations behind.

Today AF still is not blazing fast but it’s fast enough to get not in the way of the picture taking process. AF locked rather fast and there was no hunting even in very low light. And best of all there was not a single shot that was out of focus. I get these sometimes with my Sony NEX 5 but never had this issue with the X100. Take a look at the next shot. It was really dark inside. I shot at f2.0 and camera set ISO to 3200 ASA to get at 1/30s. This is really dark. No  problem for the AF.

FinePix X100 (23mm, f/2, 1/45 sec, ISO3200)

But one problem is still there: the camera still struggles to focus on closer subjects. There is still the need to enter Macro Mode even for subjects that are not so close to the camera and AF becomes really slow. Sometimes there is focus hunting too. Like in the image below. Subject not very close but I had to set camera in macro mode and AF needed a lot longer to focus.

FinePix X100 (23mm, f/2, 1/60 sec, ISO1250)

I really hope that this will be fixed in future generations of this camera. I do not expect that it’s possible to improve it via firmware update. Fuji has done an amazing job already with the firmware updates but I think they have done what’s possible now without changing the hardware.

FinePix X100 (23mm, f/2.8, 1/60 sec, ISO640)
 FinePix X100 (23mm, f/2, 1/60 sec, ISO1000)
 FinePix X100 (23mm, f/2, 1/60 sec, ISO2000)
 FinePix X100 (23mm, f/2, 1/60 sec, ISO2000)

What amazes me every time I shoot the X100:

  • the shooting experience, no other camera I owned ever came close
  • the white balance, the colors and the very consistent exposure meter
The way Fuji gets white balance and colors right is awesome. I never owned a camera that   comes close. It’s unbelievable! It even manages to get good skin tones under the most difficult artificial or mixed light.

We all get used to good things very fast. If you have a very good hifi system it’s hard to switch back and listen to equipment that is inferior. It’s the same with cars, computers and a lot of other things. It is also true for cameras. You get used to the good stuff so much that it feels normal not special. You just realize how good it was if you are using something else.

If you shoot a lesser camera you start to miss your good camera and you start to realize how good it is. Why I’m telling you this? I just got myself a Sony RX100 to have a real compact camera again. I already took it to the Art History Museum in Vienna ( the twin brother of the NHM ) to test it and immediately found a couple of things I don’t like. Somebody upgrading from a compact camera will never have a problem with the Sony RX100. It is a great camera. But if you are coming from a Fuji X100 it is different. The compromises are obvious and I’m not talking about image quality. I’m talking about usability and shooting experience. I would like Fuji to optimize the Sony RX100. It’s just a couple of simple things that would improve shooting the RX100 a lot but that will never happen. It’s more likely that Hasselblad makes it’s own version of the RX100 and we all know what that means. 😉

FinePix X100 (23mm, f/2, 1/60 sec, ISO1250)
 FinePix X100 (23mm, f/2, 1/60 sec, ISO640)
 FinePix X100 (23mm, f/2, 1/60 sec, ISO2500)

The shot above I have posted already in my traveling light article to show how high ISO performance has developed over the last years. A shot taken at 2500 ASA with the lens wide open . Crazy! It looks better than 400 ASA on my Nikon D1.

FinePix X100 (23mm, f/2, 1/50 sec, ISO3200)
 FinePix X100 (23mm, f/2.8, 1/60 sec, ISO500)

I almost missed to post the Dodo. Here it is: I like this image the most because it looks so sad. The last Dodo sitting all alone in his show case at the end of the room.

Final word on the Fuji X100. Today it’s my favorite and most used camera. It changed the way I take pictures. It has become my favorite camera of all times. Thank you Fuji for creating something completely different.

FinePix X100 (23mm, f/2, 1/60 sec, ISO320)