My review of the RFF X100 ...the good and the not so good!

[Keith]

Can you get it to flare at normal ISO?

Could it be an artifact of the high ISO and ND settings?

Good point ... I'll do that test tomorrow from the same spot but at 200 or 400 ISO and no ND filter and post the results tomorrow evening. 🙂

 

[peripatetic]

Also are you using a filter at all?

And does it go away at f4?

 

[Jack Conrad]

Thanks for the review, Keith.
Now I don't feel so bad having blown my weekly discretionary income of $5 on one of these bad boys. 🙂

 

[AusDLK]

Question: regarding "Macro Mode: minimum F stop = 4"

Where is the menu system is this option?

 

[M4cr0s]

Keith: How do you find this tactic works: When in MF mode, using the AFL/AEL button (default setting) to gain approximate focus, then pressing the small tabbet dial to to get 100 % view and then fine-adjusting focus? The AFL/AEL "trick" also works in 100 % view by the way.


AusDLK: THere is no menu option. Simply press the macro button twice to get into macro mode and adjust aperture as you please. While F/4.0 is the recommended minimum aperture, you can still shoot wide open.

Mac

 

[Jamie Pillers]

Hi Keith,
I've only used the ND filter for about a half day recently. I didn't notice any flare problems. I'll try it again, and if possible, in the conditions you describe.

 

[Glenn2]

Keith, is there any chance the expose compensation dial got bumped to a different position when you were having exposure problems.

Why I ask is because I had something similar happen and this was the cause. I wear my X100 the same as a Leica, over shoulder under a light jacket. It keeps the camera protected and out of sight but still ready for instant use. I think what may have happened is that the dial got turned as the camera brushed against my hip. Lately I've gotten in the habit of checking compensation before shooting just to be sure it's correct. A half case may be a help in this regard. Does anyone shoot with a case on their X100?

Glenn

 

[kbg32]

Sorry Keith. And everyone thinks M9s are quirky.

 

[Richard G]

Keith, is there any chance the expose compensation dial got bumped to a different position when you were having exposure problems.

Why I ask is because I had something similar happen and this was the cause. I wear my X100 the same as a Leica, over shoulder under a light jacket. It keeps the camera protected and out of sight but still ready for instant use. I think what may have happened is that the dial got turned as the camera brushed against my hip. Lately I've gotten in the habit of checking compensation before shooting just to be sure it's correct. A half case may be a help in this regard. Does anyone shoot with a case on their X100?

Glenn

My son and I walked through Melbourne yesterday. He had the X100 over his shoulder and bumped the exposure compensation to minus 1 at least three times without realizing. I carried the M6 with a 35. And took only 3-4 shots. Until I discovered it had no film in it, revealed when the young man behind the counter in my son's favourite shop for model soldiers admired the cameras. Never done that before. So early X100 ownership can be unsettling.

 

[cosmonaut]

Great review Keith, I hope it isn't a growing trend for camera manufactures to produce cameras so complex they take away from it all. What was wrong with learning exposure?
I have had a couple of EVIL cameras and the art of manual exposure seems to be coming to an end.
I am currently playing with a NEX 3 and though it produces amazing IQ setting aperture is a two to three step process.
If someone would invent an EVIL camera as simple to work as my M6 I think they would own the micro market.
Learning exposure isn't rocket science.

 

[Richard G]

I think most readers are only getting the negative here. I view any problems (very few) as mainly my mistake. I do think the exposure compensation dial is too easily moved. But this is a fantastic little camera.

Like a Nokia phone I keep discovering its built in quickness. My Leica C Lux 2 requires scrolling a menu to select the flash mode whereas repeated presses of the flash button here gets you quickly to the desired option. The command dial is good for fine tuning manual focus. My Nikon Coolpix 4500 had manual focus but it was too tedious to remember how to do it, the controls buried in nested menus. There are many situations where reasonably fast and easily remembered access to manual focus is important, and this camera can be set like a Leica, hyper focal focus, manual exposure settings.

I hesitate to refer back to the other forum for once but look at this http://photo.net/leica-rangefinders-forum/00Ynox

 

[cosmonaut]

Well I don't want to be negative, but I do know the major camera companies surf these sites too. I think Olympus has lead the way so far in the EVIL market, they started it. The EP-1 to date to me is the easiest system to shoot manually, except for the X-100 maybe. But you are stuck with the lens, never an upgrade. Olympus is also producing new and better lenses for their systems while the others lag behind and play catch up.
A novice shooter isn't going to buy a $1500.00 camera. So if you are going to command a price that high your market should be the everyday shooter. The build quality and ergonomics should be targeted as such. IQ goes without saying.
I am sure there will be great improvments with the X-100 in fireware upgrades. What Fuji reads in sites like this will help them with what should be changed and fixed.

 

[j6ppc]

Keith thanks for your review. I'm going to replicate your setup and see If I can reproduce your exposure issue on my camera tomorrow.

 

[j6ppc]

Keith, is there any chance the expose compensation dial got bumped to a different position when you were having exposure problems.

Why I ask is because I had something similar happen and this was the cause. I wear my X100 the same as a Leica, over shoulder under a light jacket. It keeps the camera protected and out of sight but still ready for instant use. I think what may have happened is that the dial got turned as the camera brushed against my hip. Lately I've gotten in the habit of checking compensation before shooting just to be sure it's correct. A half case may be a help in this regard. Does anyone shoot with a case on their X100?

Glenn

Agreed the exposure compensation knob could be a little more positive than it is. I've had mine wander in my bag as well- now I'm in the habit of checking it to be sure it is where I want it before I shoot.

I don't think Keith's issue is related to that though in re-reading his description of it.

A couple of days ago the camera started doing some odd things. It was under exposing by three stops with the ND filter off and between five and six with it on. I noticed it when out of the blue, the camera suddenly selected around 1/60 sec in AE for a scene in open full sun at f16 when I was using an effective ISO of 400! (3200 with ND engaged) I turned the ND filter off, selected ISO 400 and took a photo in full sun at f16 and manually selected 1/500 shutter speed and got the same result ... very under exposed! I did a reset to return the camera to factory defaults and tried again and got exactly the same result. If I manually set the shutter speed three stops slower than what the light was telling me it was fine ... perfect exposure in fact! The interesting thing is that in AE the camera's metering is compensating for whatever is going on and giving a decent exposure but at a three stop slower shutter speed than it should ... so the problem is obviously ISO related and will have something to do with the ND filtering software for sure.

 

[Keith]

Also are you using a filter at all?

And does it go away at f4?

No ... not using an accessory filter but you are on to something with the built in ND filter theory.

This particular position and shooting angle in my loungeroom is the X100's 'kryptonite' zone it seems. From the same position I shot two images at f2, f4 and f8 ... one with ND off and one with it on. The lens definitely does flare and more so at f4 than f2 it would seem so Fuji definitely prioritised wide open shooting with this camera IMO and the ND filter definitely makes the flare worse and seems to spread it further through the image.

Another really interesting thing came to light while taking these pics and you can see it from the series of shots below ... the camera started to over expose progressively as I stopped the lens down. The shooting position was exactly the same for each aperture setting and the camera was in AE with multi pattern metering for all. At first I thought I'd done something to create this oddity but re-shot the lot again and got exactly the same result ... over exposure as I went to smaller apertures! Obviously the meter doesn't like this particular position in the room much either ... but maybe it's not just the metering because I discovered that if you get the X100 and meter it manually for a particular scene at f2 then go to f5.6 and correspondingly change your shutter speed three stops you get more exposure. Not as bad as what's shown below but still somewhat obvious!

It's a quirky little beast ... but I really like it and don't care too much to be truthful. Provided I learn and know what the camera is going to do at any given moment I don't see it as a real problem. The manual focus issue doesn't really concern me ... if I want to focus something maually I'll get my D700 out of the cupboard. The little Fuji's auto focus is pretty decent within it's design limitations IMO and I have no beef with it at all ... this pretty much applies to the rest of the camera, I never expected it to be perfect! 🙂

f2 ND off

f2 ND on

f4 ND off

f4 ND on

f8 ND off

f8 ND on

 

[Keith]

Agreed the exposure compensation knob could be a little more positive than it is. I've had mine wander in my bag as well- now I'm in the habit of checking it to be sure it is where I want it before I shoot.

I don't think Keith's issue is related to that though in re-reading his description of it.

No ... there was no chance of that. I carefully went through all the settings including exposure compensation each time the camera played up. Plus it was doing it when shooting totally in manual mode.

It still hasn't done it again ... but then again my M8 gave me a little software glitch grief when I first got it, then behaved perfectly for the next three years of use. It's obviously me that's the problem ... something in my DNA unsettles electronics! 😛

 

[AusDLK]

AusDLK: THere is no menu option. Simply press the macro button twice to get into macro mode and adjust aperture as you please. While F/4.0 is the recommended minimum aperture, you can still shoot wide open.

Mac -- Thanks. No wonder I didn't find it in the menus!

 

[Keith]

OK ... that's it! :bang:

The camera went completely feral again today and started over exposing in AE if you stop the lens down from f2. Take a shot at f2 in AE and it appears to be exposing correctly ... change the aperture to f5.6 and repeat the process and it gives a wild over exposure of close to three stops. The good thing is it now seems to be doing it constantly with no change so I can finally take the camera back to them tomorrow morning and tell them where they can put it! The other thing that's happened is it's no longer bringing up the auto flash symbol on the status screen when you select that option ... just an empty square but the other three all work and show their symbol in the appropriate box when selected!

I also emailed some images to them this afternoon so that they can't fob me off if it happens to 'not' be doing it when I get there tomorrow ... which historically seems quite possible! 😛


AE f2 ISO 3200

AE f5.6 ISO 3200

 

[Gid]

Keith,

What was the exposure at F2? If it was close to 1/1000th (the max at F2) then at F5.6 it should be close to 1/8000th. Note also that the max shutter speed at F5.6 is 1/2000th. See page 27 of the manual - max at F2 and F2.8 is 1/1000th, max at F4 and F5.6 is 1/2000th. 1/4000th is only available at F8 and above.

 

[Keith]

Keith,

What was the exposure at F2? If it was close to 1/1000th (the max at F2) then at F5.6 it should be close to 1/8000th. Note also that the max shutter speed at F5.6 is 1/2000th. See page 27 of the manual - max at F2 and F2.8 is 1/1000th, max at F4 and F5.6 is 1/2000th. 1/4000th is only available at F8 and above.

Yeah yeah ... I know all that stuff, I actually read the manual right through when I got it! 😀

Gid ... those two shots were taken in very low light ... the first (f2) was 1/30 sec and the second (f5.6) was 1/4 sec according to the exif data.

A shutter speed of 1/1000 at f2 would be 1/125 for the same scene at f5.6 ... you're travelling in the wrong direction! 😀