yet another weird x100 problem!

[rbelyell]

so my X just came back from repair of the dreaded 'sticky aperture' problem. i took it out today to test it in the very bright sunshine. the camera properly closes the blades at high apertures, and properly changes shutter speed in auto aperture setting as i close the aperture. so far so good.

but no. now, as i photo the same scene going from f8 at each aperture to f2, shutter speed properly increases about one stop from f8-f4, but NOT at f2.8 or 2.0!! real example: lets say this leaves us properly metered at 1/2000 at f4. going to f2.8 instead of going to f4000, the shutter speed goes to 1/1300! further opening the aperture to f2 then yields shutter speed of 1/1000!!! in fact, at auto aperture, i cant get a faster shutter speed than 1/1000 at f2 no matter what i do, including pointing at the sun!

as i'm doing this the meter on the left side of the vf is registering severe overexposure, but the auto shutter mechanism isnt registering it when it sets the speed! so in review, all apertures but 2.8 and 2.0 work fine, but auto shutter will not shoot fast enough to match the exposure needs at these apertures!

any ideas that i could be doing something wrong???

 

[tsblo]

Thats normal. The max shutter speed at f2 is 1/1000. One of the ways around this is to use the built in ND filter.

 

[f16sunshine]

If you read the manual you will find the camera can not use the higher speeds with larger aperture openings. Leaf shutters traditionally did not ever go to very high shutter speeds.
If I'm not mistakes the x100 is the first leaf shutter camera I have had that even goes to 1/4000 at all.
So what you are running into is the camera limiting the sync able speed with larger apertures. Not a fault but rather an engineering effort to allow higher speeds than otherwise attainable.

 

[rbelyell]

i totally understand both your points, and i greatly appreciate your replying. however, i can manually shoot at 1/4000 at f2. in fact, i took a photo on auto ap at f2 in bright sun. camera allowed only 1/1000, picture came way overexposed. then i took same scene at f2 but manually set 1/4000, scene came out perfectly. info on the resulting photo said f2, shutter 1/4000. so is it that the auto function will not allow faster than 1000 SS, but i can force it manually above that? that doesnt seem logical to me....
tony

 

[f16sunshine]

i totally understand both your points, and i greatly appreciate your replying. however, i can manually shoot at 1/4000 at f2. in fact, i took a photo on auto ap at f2 in bright sun. camera allowed only 1/1000, picture came way overexposed. then i took same scene at f2 but manually set 1/4000, scene came out perfectly. info on the resulting photo said f2, shutter 1/4000. so is it that the auto function will not allow faster than 1000 SS, but i can force it manually above that? that doesnt seem logical to me....
tony

No, The camera simply can not physically do that. If you look at the shutter speed number in the VF it will be in RED when the aperture is set manually to f2 or and either 1/2000 or 1/4000 . If you got a good exposure it was for other reasons than the shutter speed going higher than 1/1000 at f2 🙂

Like this:
f8 1/4000 or slower
f5.6 1/2000 or slower
f4 1/2000 or slower
f2.8 1/1000 or slower
f2 1/1000 or slower

 

[rbelyell]

andy i totally understand what youre saying. is there a reason why, if the cam cannot shoot f2at1/4000, the metadata would say it did? does metadat automatically record what i set manually vs what the camera actually did?

 

[certifiable]

Still seems weird, why would 1/4000th be possible at f8 and not at f2? How would a change in aparture change the fastest possible shutter speed? Either a shutter can shoot that fast or not.

Not trying to be clever, just trying to understand how things work. (I don't even have an x100)

 

[Moriturii]

Because the diameter of an aperture at f8 is vastly smaller then f2? Shorter distance to travel = able to shoot at higher speed. Just get a Hexar RF will ya 😉

 

[f16sunshine]

@ Tony
It is set to record EXIF where you have set the controls.
This may be a fault or it may be a way to help one learn based on the camera saying ..."hey! You set me here but it's still not working see?..."

 

[rbelyell]

andy thanks very much for walking me through this. btw, in auto ap mode at f2.8 the fastest seems to be 1/1300, not 1/1000.

 

[willie_901]

i totally understand both your points, and i greatly appreciate your replying. however, i can manually shoot at 1/4000 at f2. in fact, i took a photo on auto ap at f2 in bright sun. camera allowed only 1/1000, picture came way overexposed. then i took same scene at f2 but manually set 1/4000, scene came out perfectly. info on the resulting photo said f2, shutter 1/4000. so is it that the auto function will not allow faster than 1000 SS, but i can force it manually above that? that doesnt seem logical to me....
tony

As Andy said, it is possible to take a photograph. But close inspection will reveal artifacts because aperture opening and the shutter speed are mechanically incompatible. This is why the X100 has a built in ND filter.

In auto aperture the firmware protects you from this problem while in full manual mode Fuji assumes you are aware of the limitation and provides no protection.

 

[certifiable]

Because the diameter of an aperture at f8 is vastly smaller then f2? Shorter distance to travel = able to shoot at higher speed. Just get a Hexar RF will ya 😉

Ah ok so this camera starts at f22 or so an opens up when shooting and not like a slr starting at f2 and closing down to f22?

Just an example

 

[f16sunshine]

andy thanks very much for walking me through this. btw, in auto ap mode at f2.8 the fastest seems to be 1/1300, not 1/1000.

Yes and the corresponding fastest for other apertures is faster as well.
But we were talking about manual setting.
When in doubt look at the shutter speed displayed whether in AE or Manual.
If the camera can not achieve the speed selected it will be colored RED in manual.
In AE it will be RED and flashing indicating the need to stop down, decrease iso, turn on ND filter, or all three in some combination.

 

[crispy12]

If you try 1/4000 f2 in manual mode, the shutter speed will show up in red and automatically limit to 1/1000 or1/2000, cant remember which one. This is because the leaf shutter can't close down fast enoug at such large aperture.

Try checking the shutter speed of your normally exposed photo, what does it say?
EDIT: sorry I completely missed the latest posts. Good to see you got it all settled!