After a year of owning an X100 series camera alongside an XT series camera, I’ve got a few feelings on this subject.
The release of the Fujifilm X100VI was hotly anticipated this year as a long-awaited update to the X100V. The hype for the X100V has steadily been snowballing thanks to social media, so the lucky, lucky development team at Fujifilm were basically guaranteed a product that would do well at pre-order and keep demand incredibly high.
Is Fujifilm’s latest iteration of the X100 series worth it and would I buy one? Let’s talk about it!
Fujifilm X100VI: What Makes It Special
There’s one main reason for anyone to buy the X100VI (or any other camera in this series) - it looks cool. Seriously.
No matter what anyone says about the specs, how the camera performs, whatever, the main reason that you want this camera is that it looks cool. A bit of a status symbol, if you will.
And don’t think I’m knocking you if you want one - I remember obsessing over the X100F (as the latest series was at the time) thanks to Samuel Streetlife and I pined over it for years. Fujifilm is the only company other than Leica that makes digital rangefinders if I’m not mistaken - and this type of camera has serious aesthetic appeal. Not to mention, it’s a little more affordable than a Leica!
But the X100VI has had a pretty high-tech refresh since that series - the biggest draw has to be the latest 40MP sensor, which is the same in the Fujifilm XT5 series. This means you can take some seriously high-quality images with a relatively small, compact body.
However, there are a few folks who reckon the built-in lets down this high-tech sensor, delivering images that aren’t up to the scratch they would expect. I’m not entirely sure how true this is, and to be fair, I am not the most tech-spec-focused when it comes to cameras. So this point might take a little more researching on your own part.
To sum up, the Fujifilm X100VI is a compact camera with a 35mm equivalent lens, a whopping 40-megapixel sensor, and finally, all the latest in Fujifilm’s film simulations.
These film simulations have, in my opinion, really driven the popularity of the X100 series (and possibly even Fujifilm as a whole). They’re quite unique to Fujifilm, and specific effects can be created with ‘film recipes’, applied to jpegs in-camera.
Depending on your stance, this might be a pro, a con, or even a feature that just don’t end up using (like me). Out of habit, I pretty much exclusively shoot RAW
X100 Series Cons (to Me)
There would have been a time when I would have been thrilled to have the latest X100 series camera, but now that I’ve had the X100S for a few months I know this for sure: I’m not a fan of the fixed lens on the camera.
I recently went on a road trip to the South Island of New Zealand and just found that of all the cameras I brought with me (3 of them!) the X100S was the one I pulled out the least. I just wasn’t loving the focal length and was so relieved that I hadn’t decided to bring only this camera.
Something else that kind of bothered me was that this camera was noisy af. Turning it on created a bit of aperture chatter, and not to mention the actual noise of the autofocus was distracting. It might be a pet peeve of mine, but I do find noisy autofocus to be a major downside to any lens.
Another thing that I didn’t really love about this camera was the simple fact that it was a rangefinder. My first camera was a DSLR, so when it comes to composition and framing, what I was seeing through the viewfinder is exactly what I got in the image. It’s not a major issue, but I just like the idea of composing something exactly how I see it.
You can obviously do this through the LCD screen on the back of the camera, but it’s one of those things where I don’t like having to remember to compose differently just for this one camera
At the end of the day, what the Fujifilm X100VI offers just isn’t what I’m looking for.
My Fujifilm Camera of Choice
So, what am I looking at instead of a X100 camera?
I got an XT-1 - purchased second hand - around the same time as the X100S, and for me, it’s been the perfect intro to the Fuji system. It originally came with an M42 adaptor and a vintage Fuji lens (which performs beautifully) but I’ve recently been using it with a 27mm lens.
I was drawn to this lens as makes the camera rather small. It has a slightly narrower field of view than the X100, which I’m starting to realise is what I prefer to shoot. It does remain to be seen if I keep it as it is similarly noisy, but luckily… It’s not permanently fixed to the camera!
I'll have a review of this lens up soon, if the low profile was worth the wider angle!
