Just Bought an X100s. SD Card Question

[GaryLH]

Go for something in GB, never in MB. I'd go for anything bigger than 4GB. Say... if you can swing two, get a couple of 8GB cards. That'll keep you happy (and the storage capacity is nice too).

I got a Fuji X100 (no S) last year. I like it enough to not feel envious of not having an M9. It does the trick, it's cute and retro-looking. Also, expect some quirks (like with mine, not shooting wide open with the ISO at 100, on aperture priority, on a sunny day. Why? The shutter won't go beyond 1/500th on A. That's it.)... otherwise, it's an enjoyable camera.

Basic leaf shutter related issue.. If your shooting wide open, basic physics related, can't make the leaf shutter open and close fast enough at f2.. Eventually as u stop down, u will finally get to an f stop combination which will allow higher shutter speeds. I remember reading about this someplace, right now can't remember where.

Gary

 

[tedwhite]

Interesting, but a moot point for me as I never use ISO 100. Once in a while, depending on what I'm looking at, ISO 200. Mostly I use ISO 400 and up (you would think I lived in London or Pittsburgh rather than the sunny southwest). I'm not exactly sure why this works for me; possibly because at the higher ISO the shutter speeds increase (in bright light) and eliminate the possibility of camera movement? Or perhaps it's because I spent 30 years shooting TriX and have become accustomed to the touch of ISO400?

And yes, I understand Francisco when he says ISO100 at 1/500th doesn't work.

 

[SolaresLarrave]

Basic leaf shutter related issue.. If your shooting wide open, basic physics related, can't make the leaf shutter open and close fast enough at f2.. Eventually as u stop down, u will finally get to an f stop combination which will allow higher shutter speeds. I remember reading about this someplace, right now can't remember where.

Gary

Thanks a big lot, Gary. I keep forgetting the type of shutter this camera has. It can be fast, though. The shutterspeed dial shows speeds over 1/1000th of a second. However, like Ted, I rarely use any ISO lower than 400... because that's the film I chose when I started shooting meterless cameras and had to memorize exposures and light levels.

How's the X100S adventure going, Ted?

 

[tedwhite]

Hasn't arrived yet, Francisco (supposed to be tomorrow via FedX). For some reason, perhaps buried deep in my subconscious, I have rarely been so pumped over a camera I've never seen nor handled. Maybe it's the retro look, a comforting image of all the cameras with which I've spent most of my life. I'm not sure. One thing I'm sure of though, is the need for an OVF and AF. My aging eyes don't deal any longer with rangefinder focusing or, for that matter, manual focusing in an SLR. And my pocketable Canon S95, a truly amazing camera for indoor/low light work, is near useless in bright desert sunlight because I can't see the screen well enough to frame.

 

[GaryLH]

Yeah.. My eyes have had it too.. I still occasionally use an rf camera..but it ain't the same any longer.. But still better than trying to use ground glass w/o any magnification aids 🙁. Now a days it's just about always af or zone focus.

Gary

 

[tedwhite]

It arrived and I'm not so pumped anymore. I found the manual seriously intimidating and difficult to use. One comment I might make about not only the X100s but many new smaller cameras introduced in the last few years: They are jam-packed with menus, a large portion of this mind-boggling list of options and configurations many users would have no use for, depending on their inclinations. Which, on reflection, suggests that user feedback about inclinations may have engendered the menus?

So I spent last evening reading the manual and occasionally glancing at this cute shrunken Leica-look-alike, reading until my eyes rebelled.

Today, after charging the battery, I inserted it, then my new super SD card, then spent a few minutes with the manual figuring out how to format it, formatted it, then (gasp!) turned on the bloody camera. Disappointed immediately with the dim viewfinder and screen. Until, once again perusing the menus, discovered that the brightness setting for both was at -2. Big reward there. Danced around the study.

Then took a couple of pictures of, well, anything I saw around the house or in the garage. Removed the card, inserted into computer (the manual insists you must hook up the camera to the computer to do this; seems way too fiddly), not impressed. Didn't seem as sharp as images from my Canon S95. Then I figured out the OVF needed focusing. Duh. Took a few more pictures. Better. Ho-hum pictures but they're now much sharper: In photoshop zoomed in to have a look and the detail in the ivy BEHIND the subject (a young tree I'm going to plant next week) is amazing.

The kit is supposed to come with a tool to enable easy insertion of the triangle-shaped steel clips that you must first install on the camera's eyelets. No tool. Never having had such a marvelous device in my previous life with film cameras, I soldiered on.

I have the camera set at what I hope is aperture preferred: shutter speed dial at 'A' and rotate the aperture ring as desired. Is that the proper setting?

Sorry about carrying on so long.

 

[GaryLH]

Shutter on A and lens ring on any fstop = aperture priority
Lens ring on A and shutter dial on any shutter speed = shutter priority
Both shutter and lens ring on A = program mode

Gary

 

[GaryLH]

A source for helpful videos - google utube

Here is a sample search I used to find some info about x100s for u

"utube fuji x100s instructions"

Gary

 

[tedwhite]

Thanks, Gary.

I watched a few; some where quite helpful, some not so much. Anyway, getting it sorted, slow but sure. A few days after I got it I went to a once-a-month coffee gathering at a friend's house. After I shot 32 frames the screen's message: "Internal memory full. Please insert an SD card." Duh. I had left the SD card in the computer the night before and had obviously spaced it.

Apparently the X100s has a prodigious internal memory! All my other digicams would have told me at the outset: No card, no dice.

This is one taken with internal memory. I think IM limits files to 750kb.

 

[GaryLH]

Glad u are getting on w/ it. There are other w/ internal memory. The Fuji x camera default congurstions uses I believe medium size jpg files. It is up to u to set something higher or use raw or raw+jpg.

Gary

 

[tedwhite]

I've now taken it for a stroll through old Bisbee. Slowly getting to know more. One or two good images, the rest no doubt cockpit error. One disconcerting problem: I don't know what I press inadvertently but sometimes the LED screen comes on when I absolutely do not want it on and then, when I look through the OVF it's DARK. You can barely see what you might like to take a picture of so I missed several shots that would no doubt have redefined the parameters of superb street photography. But there's always tomorrow.

Does this recurrent and apparently random scenario have anything to do with the fact that the camera knows when I put my eye up to the viewfinder? What happens if I figure out how to disable that item? (I think the NSA may have installed it).

 

[Richard G]

I've now taken it for a stroll through old Bisbee. Slowly getting to know more. One or two good images, the rest no doubt cockpit error. One disconcerting problem: I don't know what I press inadvertently but sometimes the LED screen comes on when I absolutely do not want it on and then, when I look through the OVF it's DARK. You can barely see what you might like to take a picture of so I missed several shots that would no doubt have redefined the parameters of superb street photography. But there's always tomorrow.

Does this recurrent and apparently random scenario have anything to do with the fact that the camera knows when I put my eye up to the viewfinder? What happens if I figure out how to disable that item? (I think the NSA may have installed it).

Yes. Have patience. It is a good camera. I do suggest you take a very relaxed look through the manual again. I'm 53 and bought my first digital when I was 44. I bought the X100 when i was 50. I have had three complex digitals and I needed to read the whole manual more than once. I didn't have to read much of the M9 manual, and I haven't read the Monochrom manual at all. Every now and then the X100 seems like it is doing something unexpected, but it is just being its clever self. Don't give up. It's a gem.

 

[akptc]

Lots of good, useful info in quickly-digestible format here:
http://www.fujirumors.com/using-the-x100s/
http://photomadd.com/fujifilm-x100s-hints-tips/

 

[GaryLH]

The ovf cannot go so dark as not to c well unless the scene itself is that dark since it is a optical viewfinder w/ a electronic info overlay. However, the same cannot be said about the evf which u can activate by using the lever front and below the shutter release. It sounds like maybe u ended up in evf mode by accident and the evf brightness is pretty low. Just my guess..

The brightness is controlled via the q menu. When u are not using the viewfinder, the LCD brightness is controlled by the q menu. The brightness of the evf cannot be changed unless u are using the evf. While in evf mode, hit q menu and adjust the brightness.

There one other possibility, but this one I am not sure, don't have a x100 in front of me at the moment and I cannot remember if the x100s is different here. But if I remember correctly, there is an option for evf where it reflects exactly the look of the scene according to fstop and shutter info. If u are using to high of a setup, then the evf could look dark as well. It is a menu option.

Good luck
Gary

 

[tedwhite]

Thanks, Andy. I read it all. (how much stuck is another issue).

 

[tedwhite]

Gary, again I thank you. You've been most helpful. The darkened but not completely black OVF only occurs when the screen on the camera's back comes on. Perhaps Fuji designers felt that if the screen was on you probably weren't looking at the viewfinder anyway?