Fuji X100S

This is my Fuji X100S.

It has a 16 megapixel X-Trans CMOS II sensor with phase detect autofocus and no anti-aliasing filter, 28mm prime (full-frame equivalent: 35mm) f/2 lens, leaf shutter up to 1/4000s, with 1/1000s flash sync, and so on...

Anyway, I'm not here to talk about the image quality of this thing, even though it's fantastic.  That's been run into the ground already.

I'm here to talk about what it's like to take pictures with this thing.  It's definitely a unique experience.  The layout of the camera is that an old school rangefinder camera, like a Leica or a Voigtlander Bessa.  The X100S is not a rangefinder, though -- I'll go over rangefinders in a later post, when I bring out my Fuji GW690II.  The Fuji X100S is essentially a mirrorless camera with a magical viewfinder.


One of the biggest complaints about mirrorless cameras is that their viewfinders are electronic.

(Digital) single lens reflex cameras, or (D)SLRs, have optical viewfinders, or OVFs.  On a single lens reflex camera, you look through the viewfinder, which bounces down a pentaprism, off a mirror, and then out the front of the camera through the lens.  On a rangefinder, an OVF is just an optically corrected hole through the camera that runs parallel to the actual taking lens.  It's kind of more of a guess, like a rifle scope.  The problem with rangefinder cameras was parallax error -- the closer you got to your subject, the more the view through the OVF would change from what the actual taking lens would see.

An electronic viewfinder (EVF) on a mirrorless camera is basically a tiny LCD screen with a magnifying lens that you look into and pretend you're looking through an SLR lens.  However, because the camera has to process the information from the sensor and then pump it up to the LCD, there's a tiny lag that people find offputting.  It "disconnects" you from the scene.  Still, though, some people love it because it lets you see just what the photo you're about to take is going to look like, and it also tends to have a lot more information on the screen like your camera settings or your histogram.

The advantage of the rangefinder (and mirrorless cameras) is that you don't have to house a pentaprism and mirror assembly, which allowed for the camera to be smaller and lighter.  The shorter distance between the back of the lens and the film (or digital sensor) also allowed for the lens itself to be much smaller.  If you look at the photo of the X100S at the top of this post, that front element on the f/2 lens is about the size of a quarter.  An equivalent lens on an SLR would be at least twice the size.

And now we get to the X100S.  It's got both an OVF and an EVF.  You switch between them with the little lever by your index finger on the front of the camera.  Also, in OVF mode, the OVF has a digital overlay, pretty much like a fighter jet HUD.  This allows you to see all sorts of information without having to look too far away from your scene.

When you decide you want to look through the lens, which is good for more exact framing and for when you want to see exactly what your composition will be (let's say you're shooting through a hole in a wall, or through a chain link fence), you flick the switch and the transition to EVF mode is extremely quick.

The hybrid viewfinder makes shooting with this camera a ton of fun, even if you don't end up with keeper shots at the end of the day.  The retro styling belies the innovative technology Fuji has packed into this little camera.  Once you get past the faux leather and the clicky knobs and look through the hybrid viewfinder, you step right into the future, and this camera is ready to help you make some great photography happen.

Now, enough about the viewfinder.  Let's talk about exposure settings, the other part of the camera that is distinctly retro.  One thing that tends to get lost in the transition from old mechanical things to new digital things is tactility.  It was the reason people held onto their Blackberry keyboards for so long before giving in to iPhone touchscreens -- you could feel the buttons, and when you could feel the buttons, you didn't have to take your eye off of what was important.  Thankfully, smartphone keyboards and autocorrect have come a very long way.

Old cameras had shutter speed knobs and aperture rings, pretty much exactly like the Fuji X100S does (see above).  When a camera had aperture or shutter priority, you'd set either the aperture or the shutter dial to "A", and that value would be automated.  That is, if you were to set the aperture to f/4 and the shutter speed to "A", the camera would meter your scene and automatically decide what shutter speed to take the photo at.  This is known as "aperture priority".  Conversely, if you set the shutter speed to, say, 1/125s, the camera would decide what aperture to use.  This is "shutter priority."

If you set both settings to "A" the camera chooses both values, and you have "program mode"

Newer cameras did away with the hardware settings and added a P/A/S/M (program/aperture/shutter/manual) knob.  You would choose the mode, and then you would set the variables after that.

I prefer the older style.  If I want aperture priority, I just slam the shutter speed all the way to "A" and fire away.  And I'd already know what the aperture is because I can feel which aperture I'm shooting at.  (Also, the nice viewfinder on the X100S makes it extremely visible.)

The Nikon Df tried to do this, but it kind of got bogged down by, ironically, its own digital legacy.  The newer lenses didn't have aperture rings, so aperture still had to be set by other means, and in the end there was still the need for a P/A/S/M knob.  The camera just turned into a mess of knobs and buttons while the Fujis and Leicas and older film cameras only have a graceful few.

There are a multitude of reasons it's just not done anymore, but I still prefer the old way of setting exposure.  It's why I love shooting my old film cameras.  I just kind of wish Fuji hadn't styled the X100S as such.  I would definitely love to see what a modern take on the rangefinder style would look like if it were designed by anyone other than Leica.

But other than that, I am perfectly happy with my Fuji X100S, my favorite camera in the world.

Oh, and about the accessories in the first picture: the strap is from DSPTCH and the lens hood is from Vello.  The hood is still made of metal, fits great, and does what a hood is supposed to do (which is, keep rain off the lens and prevent flare), but costs about a third the price of the one from Fuji.

Also, there was an older model called the Fuji X100.  It basically works the exact same way as the X100S, but it had some dealbreaking flaws, like sluggish autofocus and some annoying menu designs.  The X100S also had some nice picture quality upgrades.  However, most of what I say in this post other than the specs will apply to the older X100.