Fuji X100S-Camera Review

The Fuji X100S is a newer version of the superb Fuji X100, which I bought back in 2011 and have used ever since as my primary camera when shooting family and candid photos in available light. No DSLR or LEICA can match the X100S' uncanny ability to match its built-in fill-flash to ambient light for natural results. The X100 also has better ability to pull great color, exposure and auto white balance out of any crazy lighting situation, and nail it all dead-on on the first shot with no twiddling, than any other camera I've used. 

The X100S is the same as the X100, which was already the world's best available-light camera, and adds more resolution to the electronic viewfinder, more pixels to the image sensor, faster electronics so everything works faster, a faster AF system and a stereo mic for you vidiots. The fast f/2 lens, is unchanged from the X100 — because it is already perfect.

A new "Q - Quick Menu" system from Fuji's other cameras helps makes settings faster.The AF mode switch is improved, since Fuji finally figured out to put the useless AF-C mode in the middle, so it's easy to slide all the way between M and AF-S in one stroke without taking your eye from the finder.Fuji claims cleaner high ISOs by one stop, and that seems about right — and the original X100 was already the cleanest 1.5x (DX) sensored camera I owned. The X100S now will let you set AUTO ISO to grab as high as ISO 6,400, which is more than enough for anything reasonable; heck, I can snap constellations in the night sky hand-held with the X100S.

Close-focus distance in the regular AF mode now gets a close as 0.21 meters, from 0.4 meters in the X100. This is another big little improvement; I often had to mess with setting the MACRO mode on my X100. This comes as a benefit of faster autofocus; the X100 and X100S limit the close-focus distance in the regular mode based on how long is reasonable for the camera to have to rack the lens all the way in and out between infinity and close-focus distance, so the X100S' faster autofocus allows a closer minimum autofocus distance in the regular AF modes.The X100S now adds stainless-steel inserts in the strap lugs.

The X100S' lens is fixed, never needing to extend or retract; it's always ready to shoot. 

Key features

• 12 megapixel APS-C sized CMOS sensor
• Fixed 23mm F2 lens (field of view equivalent to a 35mm lens on full frame)
• 2.8" LCD screen, 4:3 aspect ratio, 460,000 dots
• Hybrid optical / electronic viewfinder
• OVF with 0.5x magnification, projected framelines indicate approx 90% of field of view
• EVF with ca 0.5x magnification, 1,440,000 dots
• Traditional-style control dials for shutter speed, aperture and exposure compensation
• ISO 100 (L), 200-6400, 12800 (H)
• Flash hot shoe and built-in flash
• Built-in neutral density filter (3 stops)
• 1280x720 HD movie recording with stereo sound

Image Quality

One aspect of the X100 that's almost impossible to criticize is its image quality. It may not have the most modern sensor available, but it really does get the most out of its 12MP CMOS, providing highly detailed images at low ISOs and remarkably noise-free and colorful output at high ISOs. The dynamic range is already good at default settings, and judicious use of the cameras 'DR' modes can extend highlight range considerably when needed (although at the cost of working at higher ISOs). Overall the image quality is difficult to fault, either in JPEG or raw.

Overall conclusion

The X100 is without doubt one of the most highly-anticipated cameras of recent years, due to its combination of traditional, 'rangefinder-esque' design and the innovative technology of its hybrid optical / electronic viewfinder. The good news about the X100 is that in certain key respects - its basic operation, viewfinder, and image quality - it's excellent, and more than lives up to the pre-release hype. The bad news is that in some other regards - notably shot-to-shot speed and firmware design - it's decidedly flawed.

So let's look at the good points first. Perhaps most importantly, the X100's image quality is excellent; the sensor may not be the latest generation, but it still produces highly-detailed images at low ISOs, coupled with impressive colour rendition and low noise at high ISOs. This is complemented by a lens that is extremely sharp in most situations, with minimal distortion or chromatic aberration; it's only real weakness is when used wide open at short focus distances. Operation is completely silent, and the analogue controls are a joy to use and encourage the user to take creative control.

This all sounds great, but unfortunately the X100 also suffers from a number of operational oddities, quirks and firmware bugs that can rather get in the way of the user experience (although Firmware 1.1 is a real improvement over the original release). These are described in more detail throughout this review; suffice to say that while many are quite minor, and can be worked-around once you know about them, others are potentially more problematic. To Fujifilm's credit, many of the camera's initial eccentricities have been fixed in successive formware updates.