My X100 overexposed for no good reason?!

[btgc]

Depends on the particular country but if camera is less than 6 months old I'd expect replacement (or money back, if anything) not replacement of lens unit. Electronics either work from beginning or not and most people prefer stuff working from factory.

 

[NickTrop]

If it effected an entire production run - which it probably did, that production run should be recalled. Period.

 

[leicashot]

testing the same exposures in manual should tell you if you have a sticky aperture or not.

 

[Keith]

Tricky situation for Fuji IMO. If cameras that have been sold used to second owners start doing this on a fairly large scale it could get very messy!

 

[Keith]

I meant to add I just emailed a link to this thread to DCW here in Brisbane where I bought my X100. I'm sure they'll be interested!

 

[DavidX]

Funnily enough, now that I know I have the problem I like my camera more. When it was randomly overexposing I thought there was a limitation in the camera's metering that meant I could not rely on it. Now I know it was a fault that can be fixed I feel much better. Of course we'll see how the repair process goes. I'm taking it to the shop where I bought it on Monday, so I'll be sure to report on the experience! By reading this forum I knew to record a nice set of progressively overexposed images which I will submit on a disc.

 

[Jamie Pillers]

Thanks Vincent. The built-in ND filter is super useful during daylight hours, as I love to often keep the background blurred out, so its nice to be able to use f/2 - f/4 in bright sun.

 

[Vincent.G]

Thanks Vincent. The built-in ND filter is super useful during daylight hours, as I love to often keep the background blurred out, so its nice to be able to use f/2 - f/4 in bright sun.

It is a very smart and useful feature. Now anyone used that for long exposures to photograph say, a waterfall?

 

[Adanac]

Funnily enough, now that I know I have the problem I like my camera more. When it was randomly overexposing I thought there was a limitation in the camera's metering that meant I could not rely on it. Now I know it was a fault that can be fixed I feel much better.

Sometimes certainty delivers relief! I felt better too, once I'd diagnosed the problem and then discovered others - naturally - had gone before me.

As for repairs, at least in the instances I'm aware of, the camera gets sent - at Fujifilm's expense - to either the Fujifilm office/repair centre for that country or to an authorized repair agent. You should have a "who to call for support" notice in the materials that came with your camera.

I sent my camera in on Monday; it arrived thousands of km away at Fujifilm mid-day on Tuesday; it was shipped back to me overnight on Thursday and the courier attempted delivery Friday. Sadly I wasn't there, so it is locked up in some warehouse until Tuesday (thanks to the long weekend holiday here). That aside, the turnaround was pretty quick and the overall warranty repair process as painless as such things can be.

At this point I'm looking forward to putting it through the ringer and surely hope never to see the sticky aperture issue again.

 

[DavidX]

Once I established that this was the problem I did a quick search and found an X100forum thread (Hi Adanac!) where another Aussie had sent his in to Fuji Australia and had been waiting some weeks already.

I took mine to the shop where I bought it on Monday and it arrived with Fuji on Thurs. Wanting to avoid delays I made a pre-emptive call Monday. I get the feeling that Fuji Australia were a bit behind the game on this, with no parts in stock and seemingly unaware of the known issue. I must say though that all the people I've spoken with at Fuji have gone out of their way to be helpful.

I said to those I spoke with - trying to be helpful in turn - that this was a known issue, and people in Aust who experienced the problem would doubtless read the forums and expect levels of service similar to other countries; ie around one week turnaround, and that with a camera whose marketing was squarely "the professionals' choice" a professional level of service is also expected. I told them that I knew of one other guy whose camera was in with them waiting for parts, and I'd be disappointed if they'd only ordered one set of parts to fix his without anticipating that more would come in. I was told that multiple lens assemblies were on their way and would arrive soon.

I hope that Fuji are responding to this and the next lot will be fixed more quickly - we'll see!

 

[DavidX]

OK - had a call from Fuji Australia saying they'd fixed it and would now ship back. That only took them 2 days - I'm impressed.

 

[Adanac]

Great news David! I'm glad to see Fujifilm is working hard at this in all countries, it gives me hope this won't be a one hit wonder for them, and I do have plenty of hope there and some reason for optimism.

While they are picking up their socks down under, hopefully they'll fix their 1 year warranty in the UK and make it proper 2 year coverage like most/all the rest seem to have.

Mike
(adanaC is Canada reversed... there's a bike route along a street in town called Adanac and it was years before I realised that!)

 

[DavidX]

Camera back today with a note from Fuji saying the lens assembly had been replaced.
Good to have it back and it seems to work OK.
My observations of the experience are;

1: Initially EITHER Fuji Aust was not aware of the problem OR the front line reps had not been briefed. It was disconcerting to get the standard "this will take weeks and we can't tell you anything" response. It took all my communication skills and a reasonable effort to get through to the top level of support. Once that was done all was good - although on calling back I did still did get another front line rep whom I could I could charitably describe as terse and condescending.

2: Either they did listen to what I said or there was an awareness/ change of policy coming anyway - perhaps from another guy sending his in before mine - because the service I received was very good. Fast turn around and better than I had been led to expect. Well done Fuji Aust.


Final observation: when I was at the camera shop picking mine up I was reminded that camera shop people and presumably support people too spend a lot of time talking to annoying idiots, so perhaps we can cut them some slack. To combat their (understandable) prejudice I would need to say things like "I'm a professional photographer and..." which I would not normally do. The guy at the shop's attitude to me changed when I mentioned that I also had a D700. "The full framer?" he asked, as if to confirm that I actually knew either what a D700 was or what full frame meant. But this same guy was the one being very polite to a complete tool when I went to pick my X100, so I feel kindly towards him.

And finally finally - this forum has been a real help in getting knowledge that has helped in this process and in using my camera generally; so thanks guys!

 

[kermaier]

Got mine back from Fuji NJ, fast turnaround (a few days), problem solved. And they tightened up my AF mode selector switch (I asked them to), which had been hard to set at the middle position without overshooting. Good experience, start to finish.
Ari

 

[Steveh]

Looks like mine is suffering from this as well now so it's going back to the dealer tomorrow so they can send it to Fuji to sort it out. They said they'd sold a lot of cameras (they're in central London) and had only seen a couple with this problem but confirmed that those cameras had the lens assembly replaced.

I started getting erratic exposures at the weekend and the problem is obvious and visible at f16 looking at the lens from the front - a 1-2 stop variation between exposures judging from the histograms, and I've left some examples on the internal memory for the techs to have a look at. Fingers crossed they can fix it quickly.

 

[jasonhupe]

I should have responded sooner

I should have responded sooner

I posted in this thread earlier about the issue I was having with my x100 and it possibly not being covered under warranty since i was the second owner.
I sent the camera to Fuji and waited to hear what the verdict was.
Waited a week and finally got a call to confirm my address. Camera was shipped the next day overnight fed ex delivery all fixed. I was really impressed with Fuji for doing the right thing. Camera actually seems to be performing better that before, focus a bit snappier. Maybe just my optimism about the camera now. Anyway, the fix only takes a few days once they receive it. Good luck to anyone experience this issue.

 

[Pablito]

Not worried since the camera is still impossible to buy here in the USA without devoting half your life to finding some place that has it in stock. By the time most places have it in stock maybe they'll come "pre-fixed" from the factory.

 

[aquanta]

That's really good and hopeful news for the ones who are not the original owners, like myself. I hope that if/when I have the sticky blades problem with my X100 I will get the same positive resolution from Fuji US. Hopefully, all the Fuji centers in the US will be on that same page...

I posted in this thread earlier about the issue I was having with my x100 and it possibly not being covered under warranty since i was the second owner.
I sent the camera to Fuji and waited to hear what the verdict was.
Waited a week and finally got a call to confirm my address. Camera was shipped the next day overnight fed ex delivery all fixed. I was really impressed with Fuji for doing the right thing. Camera actually seems to be performing better that before, focus a bit snappier. Maybe just my optimism about the camera now. Anyway, the fix only takes a few days once they receive it. Good luck to anyone experience this issue.

 

[Michiel Fokkema]

I got mine back after 3 weeks. They've put in a new lens unit. The camera works as it should again. Very good service form Fui.

Cheers,

Michiel

 

[gavinlg]

My x100 just started with this whole sticky aperture blades thing at around 1000 exposures. Now it barely stops down at all. I absolutely love the camera, so I'm going to send it in to fujifilm and see how it goes.

SN: 13M

I would advise anyone with one of these cameras to use it as much as possible and test it out at smaller apertures routinely to see if it's developing the problem.