Revisiting X100S

ean10775

All-Pro
Location
Cleveland, Ohio
Name
Eric
I've been without a Fuji for approximately 4 months (it feels like a lot longer than that) having sold my X100S. My reasons for selling were that I was never really happy with what I was seeing out of the X-Trans sensor, there were some issues with the camera's operation that bothered me based on the way I tend to shoot (which have now been remedied for the most part via firmware), and ultimately the camera was quite expensive if I wasn't thrilled with either of those two things. So I took a look around my house at the photos that I printed or that I shared with family and friends on social media and realized the vast majority of them came from my 5DII. There was just something I wasn't getting out the the X100S photos. The foliage smearing was certainly something that bothered me (as I didn't want to have to mess with various RAW converters) and many of the images I took simply didn't look like photographs (I felt they rather looked like illustrations)

Lately I've been reconsidering the X100S as I really do miss the experience of shooting with it. I also miss the high ISO performance in such a small camera (my E-PL1 just doesn't cut it as a second camera for the lighting conditions I tend to shoot in). I've looked at all the various options in terms of a smaller companion camera to my 5DII and am realizing I'm not wanting to get into another system camera, so I'm considering picking up another X100S. As an exercise I went back through my X100S library and reprocessed some of the photos I wasn't quite happy with in hopes that I might come to terms with the look that I feel the X-Trans sensored cameras tend to give. Here are the results. Thanks for indulging me.

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Great images... I for one think the X100S suits you just fine. ;)

That's a bit eerie - I just navigated back here from your Flickr photostream. I'm always impressed with your processing and the skin tones you seem to get out of the X100S and every time I reconsider the camera I tend to look at your stream as testament to what can be achieved from a color and tonality perspective (not to mention subject, lighting, composition, expression and all the things that matter much more than the camera does). They look so natural with just enough texture whereas I sometimes (often) struggle to keep things from looking plasticky.

Thanks for the compliment on the images - I take that as high praise coming from you.
 
I don't see any issues with these Eric (obviously this is based on viewing faily small JPEG's).

I upgraded my X100 to the X100s and find the images are quite a bit sharper and have not seen any evidence of the "plastic skin effect" or issues with sharpness that some have mentioned.

I have been using Lightroom as my first stage editor but have recently downloaded the Silkypix Raw File Converter EX as I read that it sharpens without causing the changes that some have mentioned.

For me, the X100s is a superb small, light, well made tactile camera that reminds me so much of the Leica M3 and handles well - the upgrades to sensor, AF and software have certainly elevated the IQ into the same field as the XPro-1 so I am very happy.

I love the leaf shutter and have recently tried using the EF-X20 flash hand held and fired from the camera using in camera flash commander mode - I have been very happy with the results and they have again convinced me the X100s is a great camera to own, use and always have with you.

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Thanks all for the encouragement. Here is one more in B&W are a few in color (even though this is under the B&W heading). Some of these will look familiar as they are simply reprocessed versions of photos I've posted on this forum before.

I'm starting to feel like while still not my favorite, I could live with the X-trans sensor seeing as there is nothing else out there quite like the X100S (yes I realize there is the X100, but the high ISO performance of the X100S is a must for me, as is the better AF and MF performance)

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A few more and an update that I've decided to give it another go - I placed an order for a black X100S this afternoon. Thanks for looking, the kind words and encouragement. Its nice to have online communities like this one to share images with, ask questions of, bounce ideas off, and garner feedback from.

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