Fuji X100 is here!!! Woohoo!!!

Armanius

Bring Jack back!
Location
Houston, Texas
Name
Jack
UPS just delivered my X100 from Amazon. Haven't fired it up yet. I just opened the box.

My first impression is ... wow ... Fuji is really aiming straight at the Leica X1. Other than the name of the camera X100 (Fuji's subliminal message that its camera is perhaps 100X better than the X1), the box looks like the X1's box. I never owned a X. But I recall seeing a couple of box opening videos in Youtube for the X1.

Ok, better go fire it up now!
 
LOL! Thanks guys! The battery appears to be charged. Maybe it was a return? Or someone at Fuji was just being very nice!

The menu system in this camera is very non-standard. It's taking a while to figure out how to use this. I haven't even found the auto-ISO setting yet. Is it even possible to use the rear LCD to frame the photo? Looks like I may have to read the manual ...
 
Frustration with the X100 already ...

Using the OVF, the X100 doesn't seem to AF all the time, particularly at closer distances. AF seems to be much more reliable with the EVF. Aaargh.
 
Armando, take a deep breath and go into the settings WITH the manual. If you're focussing closer than I think 4 feet you should go into the little flower Macro mode... I honestly haven't used it yet. You must make sure which options you want to see both in the optical viewfinder, the EVF and the LCD. There are a bunch of different set up controls that will allow you to fine tune what you see where, whether or not you need want the LCD on until you lift it to your eye, et cetera. Fret not, you will find your way, grasshopper.;)


Oh yeah, congratulations!!!!!:yahoo:
 
Eventually you'll want to check which firmware it has, too. It should be 1.01 but when mine came from Amazon it was 1.00 I am still using the manual to remember and learn some things but once you get the basics down, it's pretty straightforward. I promise.
 
Yes, you can use the LCD to frame and take the picture...and the Auto ISO is available via page 83:tongue: Hint: it's in the Set Up menu - see the wrench. Listen, I only tried Auto ISO yesterday and forgot where it was...so when I was taking a couple pix in our garden I was completely confused why the ISO was up to 3200 when I thought I'd set it at 200...and then :doh: right on the viewfinder there it was Auto ISO.:rolleyes:
 
The separation of Auto ISO from the other ISO choices on separate menus was my biggest complaint with the organization of this camera. I still don't think it makes any sense and they should fix it in firmware. BUT, after using the camera for a while, I tend to just leave it in auto ISO nearly always, with a low of 200 and a high of 3200 and a target minimum shutter speed of 1/60 or something (which, of course, is over-ridden if you go into shutter priority mode and I THINK if there just isn't enough light even at 3200). I'm just doing my thing and letting the camera do its thing and it all seems to work more than well enough for my needs. So now, even though I still think its a stupid menu design, I don't really care. Or at least not often.

-Ray
 
Thanks for the tips everyone. Feeling better about the AF on the X100 now. Also have familiarized myself with the controls a bit more. Talk about counter-intuitive set of controls and menus. Now I need to take some photos!!
 
Frustration with the X100 already ...

Using the OVF, the X100 doesn't seem to AF all the time, particularly at closer distances. AF seems to be much more reliable with the EVF. Aaargh.

You really shouldn't use the OVF inside of about 3 feet unless you know how its focussing and where to aim the focus box. Some people see this as a bug, but its really just that the EVF is a huge FEATURE because pretty much all cameras with offset OVF's have the same issue, but most don't have an EVF to let you overcome it. The OVF is offset about an inch and a half above and to the left of the lens - and the FOCUS target will also actually be offset by about an inch and a half. When you're inside of a couple of feet, there's NO overlap between the focus box you see with the OVF and the actual focus area the sensor is focussing on. Once you're at about 5-6 feet, there's about 80-90% overlap, so its almost a non-issue, and beyond that you can't see the difference enough to even have to think about it. Do an experiment to illustrate this to yourself. Put the camera in OVF mode and line up the upper left corner of the focus box with a picture frame, computer monitor, TV set - anything with a hard corner. Start off about 10 feet away. Hold it as steady as you can and switch over to EVF and you'll barely see ANY difference in the location of the focus box relative to the corner of the picture frame. And any small difference there is will be wiped out by any small amount of camera shake while you're holding the camera. Then get progressively closer to the frame and keep switching between the OVF and the EVF and you'll see that the focus box moves slightly down and to the right with the EVF. At about 5 feet it will be obvious, but you'll see there's still so much overlap its almost never gonna be an issue in real world use - if you have a really small focal point in real world use, just try to line it up somewhere other than the extreme upper left hand corner of the focus box. But as you get closer and closer from five feet down to the 2-3 foot range, you'll see the box jump by larger and larger increments to the point where its covering a completely different area in the OVF than the EVF - down somewhere in that range, you're just gonna be better off using the EVF to know that you're focussing on the right point. Or just get very good at estimating where the actual box is from doing this experiment if you insist on using the OVF up close. I personally use the OVF about 95% of the time - only using the EVF if I'm pretty close or if its REALLY dark, at which point the OVF shows just how dark it is but the EVF gains up quite a bit. You'll be amazed at how little light you need to get a decent photograph with this camera.

The macro thing varies. Its technically supposed to be used for anything inside of about 80cm, which is about 2.5 feet, but you can often focus a good deal closer than that just using the evf in standard mode - I think it depends on the contrast and lighting and stuff. But, yeah, there's a point at which you have to go into macro mode to focus properly. I didn't buy this camera for close up photography (I do almost none of it to begin with and would use my LX5 for it I think - that thing'll focus CRAZY close) and have only used the macro once or twice just to see where it kicks in. There's a shortcut (I'm not sure how short it is) to get to macro mode - flip the focus switch to MF and then hit the AEL/AFL button and it should focus down in the macro range. Which is handy if you use MF a lot anyway. If you don't, I don't see that this is any shorter of a cut than just hitting the macro button on the left side of the four way controller twice and then half pressing the shutter button to get it to kick in.

This camera takes a little learning, but once you get your head around it, its an awful lot of fun to shoot with.

-Ray
 
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