hello everyone hope you all are doing good. Today would like to talk about how my Fujifilm x100v has aged with use I would like to share as to how this camera has held up body wise and how my shooting experience has evolved after having made more than 10,000 plus shots using this camera.
Long story short I’m starting to love the x100v even more and I’m kind of getting what this camera is aiming to shoot at.
Link to the video
Specs of the X100V
First I would like to highlight the quickly going over the specs of this camera. The x100v has a 26 megapixel X-trans sensor what is new in this camera is a redesigned 23mm f2 pancake lens (version II). It also has a built-in 4-stop ND filter and what is also new compared to the previous generation is a tilting touchscreen LCD panel the EVF has also been updated on this camera with a 3.69 million dot OLED evf and also the optics on the OVF have been redesigned.
The x100v can also shoot video and it can shoot 4k 30 frames per second also it has Eterna film simulation baked in and it can shoot f-log internal but only 8-bit. The camera is also kind of weather sealed but you need a certain adapters to make it completely weather sealed. The camera has only a single SD card slot the battery life is rated for around 350 shots using the electronic viewfinder and around 420 shots using the optical viewfinder.
How the camera has held up
Now let’s move to the next section where I will discuss how the material and the build of this camera has actually held up. The design of the x100v with the sharp edges on the top aluminum plates really grows on you with time. This is an aesthetic beauty.
Since I do a lot of street photography I was initially planning on getting the black model but then when I took a look at the x100v in silver I really went for it because it really had a classic look to it and I have not been disappointed with the camera. I feel the black model now feels a bit boring. The x100v in silver really adds that retro look and it’s one camera that I really like to carry around with me. I feel the designers have carefully crafted this camera without doing much of a radical departure from the predecessor models.
On the x100v I feel the grip is a little bit more beefier than the x100f. So as I mentioned in the intro section I have extensively shot with this camera so I’m happy to report that this camera body has held up pretty well. Also I’ve always housed my camera in a half leather case from day one and apart from that i have not found any scuffs on the top plates at all. Not that I baby my camera too much but just from regular use from carrying it in my backpack with no special case I’m surprised that the material has held up pretty well with no scratches or no scuffs
Shooting experience
So now let’s move to the more interesting part of this video which is the shooting experience with this camera over a period of 6 months or so. Usually for street photography i like to set the aperture to f8 and I like to control the shutter speed and ISO using the front and back dials. I like to control the exposure triangle apart from that I just set my aperture to f8 and I shoot and just focus on my compositions. Sometimes i also shoot at f2 especially while doing family portraits or taking photos of my daughter especially when I’m indoors with not much light i really shoot only at f2. And boy this camera really shines at f2 super sharp images are produced at f2 the micro contrast and the bokeh is just amazing. This 23mm f2 lens has the same characteristics that you find on other Fuji prime lens which have that micro contrast punch and sharpness at f2. So this lens alone is one of the biggest reasons you should upgrade if you’re thinking of getting the x 100 v over the x100f or if you want to get into the Fuji system with this lens this camera feels like a worthy upgrade to me.
So this camera has an optical viewfinder and an electronic viewfinder. I’ve shot with a lot of mirrorless cameras and I enjoy shooting with the electronic viewfinder but on this camera I’ve been forcing myself to shoot with the optical viewfinder. I really feel that my compositions are really getting a bit more better while shooting with the optical viewfinder rather than the electronic viewfinder, but these days you know when I have to wear a mask and shoot either with the evf or my ovf it really fogs up and it’s pretty annoying. If anyone knows a solution how to avoid this let me know in the comment section below. I’m really looking forward to a solution for this but when i cannot do this I fall back to one of the amazing other feature that is present on the x100v which is the tillable LCD screen. It’s just amazing if you’re shooting from your hip and if you want to take candid shots this tillable LCD screen on the x100v and the way in which fuji have implemented this is just beautiful. The LCD screen just sits flush when it’s pushed back in and the lcd just falls back down pretty quickly. I also like the way that they implemented this tillable lcd feature on the x pro 3. As i mentioned before that I’ve been trying to shoot more with the optical viewfinder and while shooting with the optical viewfinder i feel the battery life is a bit better so i get 50 or 60 shots more compared to the electronic viewfinder. So coming back to the battery life I think it’s it’s good enough for this camera this camera is rated for 300 plus shots with the evf and 400 shots with the OVF I think it’s pretty good so if you’re doing street photography i don’t think you’re going to make more than 300 shots in one go. I don’t think you’re going to shoot more than a couple of hours on the street and if you do there are always cheaper batteries available I have an xt3 for which this battery also works. So I have some batteries lying around from my xt3 so I can mix and match batteries and I can keep going. I don’t like to shoot at long stretches of time so for me the battery life is pretty okay and I also feel that if you are into street photography and if you want to really improve I feel having a smaller battery life or something like a smaller SD card, like a 8gb card or imposing constraints on the way you should really really helps you in making better photographs. That’s what I’ve learned over a period of time. I think for street photography this camera is just amazing been really enjoying shooting with the x100v so far so for street photography or for any other regular photography this camera is just amazing.
Video performance
Also I’ve seen a lot of people talk about this camera to be a good uh photo camera I’ve seen a lot of reviews of this camera being very good for photography. I also feel that this camera has excellent video capabilities built in the autofocus with the 23mm f2 lens on on the x100v is one of the best I think it’s as good as canon’s dual pixel autofocus. I have not seen any issues like what you have with the xt4 in which I think the software algorithm really needs to work well with the type of lens and that’s where the xt4 kind of screws up the video shooting experience with autofocus but with this 23 millimeter f2 lens the software really works very well there is autofocus tracking and there is very less breathing it’s not hunting and I really like to use my Fujifilm x100v sometimes for handheld video work as well. Of course this camera doesn’t have ibis so the footage is going to look a bit jerky or there’s going to be a bit of wobble and jerk that is coming from the hand movements but I think if you mount this camera onto a gimble it’s going to be a very light setup and I think the video just looks amazing. So I just shoot with just with classic chrome I don’t shoot f log and I don’t want to edit my video that much so with the x100v with this 23mm f2 I think the video experience is just amazing and give it a try and I think you will really like it.
Closing thoughts
Finally moving to the last section of the video where I would like to summarize the things that i really like about this camera and also the things that I do not enjoy so much on this camera.
So the things that I really enjoy about this camera is the image quality and the shooting experience the images are just amazing i really like the Fuji colors so classic room for life I’m also trying to shoot more with classic negative film simulation i feel that with classic neck it really works only in certain situations where there is a lot of light classic chrome kind of works very well for most of the situations i also am experimenting with capture one these days i think the images look really nice when processed with capture one versus Lightroom but I’m kind of lazy to move everything to capture one but I’m still testing it out so I will let you know in a future video how i like capture one also i like the design of this camera it’s just beautiful beautiful camera and i also like the weight of the camera it’s not so pocketable as the Ricoh gr3 but that’s okay the battery life is also fantastic and f2 lens is just amazing so what are the things that i’m not a fan of i feel the evf could be a bit better I really feel the EVF magnification is not so high but since there is an optical viewfinder that’s okay i also feel that the implementation of the touchscreen on this camera is mediocre i really hope that the next iteration of the x100 series really nails this aspect i see canon Panasonic and now even Sony have really really listened to the consumers and have improved this user experience I also feel that the cost is kind of a bit expensive or steep but compared to a Leica I still feel this is okay not a big fan of the weather sealing how it has been implemented i don’t want to buy a filter I want this camera to be weather sealed out of the box even if the lens element becomes a bit bigger i wouldn’t mind the camera is not pocketable either so that’s about it in this videos i really really love this camera and uh i would highly recommend the x100v to anyone who’s looking for a small compact camera who’s looking to shoot with some flair and also get some beautiful images right straight out of the box with the less post-processing because the Fuji jpegs really look amazing.
