Blimey, did I just buy a Fuji X100?

[Steve Waller]

Hi guys
I registered on here a while back, but to be honest photography had sort of taken a back seat for me as I struggled to be creative with a Nikon D70s and a 18-200 VR plus a few other lenses.
Nothing wrong with the kit and I felt that the way to go was one of the newer bodies (a few earlier posts to that effect).
Anyway...this week has seen me off in another direction altogether...and ending up with a Fuji X100.
I'm a bit embarrased to admit it onthis forum...but I didn't really know what I'd bought when I bought it on Wednesday.
I do now !!
So, via another forum...Hamish was encouraging me to wind him up on here...so here goes.
no apologies..but I'm just going to cut and paste from that other forum, of what yesterday and today have taught me ! (and it saves typing it all over again !)



Had no plans to buy this...in fact didn't even know it existed (sometimes obsessional, sometimes not!)
But...I had a few hours to spare in Woking..and wondered into Harpers there.
Now, I knew I wanted a smaller camera for this summer, and the taxman had been bloody thoughtful enough to give me an unexpected rebate a while back..and unlike me I hadn't blown it yet.
So, I was mulling over various options, particularly the Lumix G2s.
However, the guy in the shop wasn't even trying to sell me the X100, he just couldn't help his enthusiasm over this camera. Think I took him back a bit when I said I'd take it!
As soon as I held it and looked through the view finder, I knew I just had to have it. A little switch flicks from optical to electronic, and you can adjust everything without taking your eye away.
I've tried this with DSLR's, but never succeeded...I always end up farting about with reading glasses, and basically hoping for the best.

I have a load to learn with all the settings, and how to operate it...but these are the first quick snaps I took, without even playing around..
Hell of a toy.

S'funny...looks like Fuji have out Leica'd Leica with this one.
Sure, its an expensive camers..but imagine how much it would have been with a red dot on it?
Anyway..love the panoramic mode. Never had one before, and as we are off to Chicago and Michigan next month, I can see me prating around with this one.
This one is 120 degrees...you can also do 180 degress..but my garden isn't big enough !!

At least the cat kept still today..

I can't write as well as all the reviews I have read this mnorning, but basically I agree with 'em all !
Great manual controls, which are easy for me to get used to and experiment with.. I tried doing this with a Nikon SLR, but to be honest by the time you've been in and out of menus and on my old D70s, you can't really see on the screen whats going on, so you have to wait till you've uploaded it by which time I've forgotten what I was doing.
Looking though the viewfinder on the X100 is so intuitive to bring up iso, adjust, snap, look, adjust again etc etc.
Simples.

 

[Pete Askew]

Sometimes you just know when something is right for and it looks like you may have found it. Certainly your initial pictures look good and with nice depth. Look forward to seeing some stuff 'shot in anger' as it were.

I keep trying to resist this camera. You're not helping!!

 

[Larry Bolch]

Auto ISO works almost identically with my Nikon D700, and it is the best thing that has happened to photography since roll film a century back. It allows one to use ideal settings for shutter speed and aperture, responding with the sensitivity necessary to match the shooting circumstances.

I shoot aperture priority unless there is a compelling reason to do otherwise. This allows me to set the aperture to the sweet spot and maintain the highest possible shutter speed under any circumstances for maximum image quality.

I do the basic settings to roughly match the shooting environment. If I am walking out in daytime, I set the lens to f/5.6 which is probably its sharpest stop, which also provides reasonable depth of field if I need to nail the shot a moment or two before the subject is perfectly in focus. I may set the shutter speed at 1/125th if I am mostly doing candid shots of people. I let the ISO float between ISO200 AND 3200.

If I am in full sunlight, the shutter speed may be as high as 1/1000 or more, which is fine and the sensitivity will stay at ISO200.

If it clouds over and my subject steps into deep shadows, I still have my shutter speed and aperture, but the ISO rises to whatever is needed—all the way to ISO3200. However, it will not pick an ISO setting in excess of what is needed.

Inside in low light, it will peg the ISO on 3200, keep the aperture as set, but the shutter speed will necessarily drop—which you can see in the viewfinder. This is the time to evaluate whether you need to open the aperture, which will increase the shutter speed, but cut the depth of field and may not produce the same sharpness. Most lenses need to be stopped down to achieve maximum sharpness. In any case, it facilitates optimum settings under the widest possible range of circumstances.

I have not tested the camera in excess of ISO3200, but at ISO3200 it rivals my D700 in quality.

 

[Chris Dodkin]

Steve - welcome - we're all jealous of your X100 - you now join a very exclusive club which includes Larry, and soon Hamish (I think)

Interested in that pano mode - is that a single frame, or a multi-frame effort?

 

[Thomas brookes]

I'm getting one before Hamish ..... Just to annoy him!!! Steve your a lucky lucky man!!!!!!!

 

[Thomas brookes]

Oh sorry and welcome, really looking forward to seeing your shots on the x100

 

[Larry Bolch]

Interested in that pano mode - is that a single frame, or a multi-frame effort?

Camera can be either horizontal or vertical, pano can be either 120° or 180°. It takes a series of shots as the camera turns and stitching is done in camera.
• 180° Vertical - 7680 x 2160
• 180° Horizontal - 7680 x 1440
• 120° Vertical - 5120 x 2160
• 120° Horizontal - 5120 x 1440

 

[Hamish Gill]

I'll go the same and copy and paste what I said on AOS

Steve!!!! I hate you a little bit right now ... I have one on order ... I can't afford it at all, I have to have one despite it's reported foibles ... My eyes are green green green ... Damn you



Good luck with it mate, I hope it successfully re-seeds an interest in photography... I'm sure it will!

 

[Darren Turner]

I want one to but a new car is more important at the moment...........!!