Fujifilm X100 Original: a review 11 years overdue
You had me at hybrid viewfinder.
To save everyone’s time, I wish all camera gear reviews would kindly declare their context upfront: still photography or videography? This review is clearly on still photography as the subject has no video features to write home about. It can technically do some form of video; I remember turning on video mode by accident a couple of times in the 11 years I’ve had my Fujifilm FinePix X100 (“the X100 Classic”). But nobody looks at this initial implementation of the X100 with video production in mind.
It is unfortunate that Fujifilm did not have the courage to do to the X100 Classic what Nikon did with its highly hyped Df: remove video capabilities altogether and make the camera physically a stills-only machine. (Now that is character; anyone complaining about the Nikon Df’s lack of video functions is royally misguided.)
Touching on what the X100 Classic is not built for first and foremost is important because that illustrates how barebone this vintage digital body really is. Let me quickly jot down the things the X100 either lacks or is not intended to do, aside from video:
- No subject-detection autofocus
- No action-catching burst shots
- No image stabilisation in the body or the lens
- No zoom or crop-in to simulate focal lengths other than 35mm, that is, disregarding physical converter attachments
- No touchscreen, no touch controls, no touch-focus
- No flip-out/up/down screen
- No weather-sealing (although this video suggests otherwise)
- No USB charging
- No high-capacity battery
- No wireless connectivity
- No jaw-dropping array of “film simulations”
- No ergonomic grip
- No P/S/A/M mode dial
- No Fujifilm-branded 16, 24, 26, or 40-megamixel X-Trans sensor
- No shutter speeds beyond 1/4000s; even 1/2000s is mechanically unavailable under certain apertures
- No ISO capabilities to support handheld low-light photography
Still reading? OK, with all that out of the way, here are what the X100 Classic does feature:
- A leaf shutter that produces a beautiful whispering mechanical click when operating in silent mode
- A pleasingly sharp Fujinon 23mm F2 lens with a versatile 35mm-equivalent focal length; this very lens characterised four generations of the X100 series
- A built-in 3-stop ND filter that can be programmed for activation with a push of a custom function button
- An elegant rangefinder look complete with control dials and rings, in a world of photography equipment where aesthetic appeal is increasingly a rarity
- FinePix: the X100 Classic is the only iteration in the series that has “FinePix” in its model name and EXIF metadata; Fujifilm may have positioned this as a compact point & shoot
- A hybrid viewfinder that can toggle between electronic mode and optical mode with digital overlay for framing and focus
This combination, particularly the last point, is what made the X100 one of a kind when I bought it back in 2012. Surprisingly, that is what makes the X100 series unique even to this day.
I refer to the X100's hybrid viewfinder as an optical viewfinder. I simply keep it on optical and don’t bother flicking over to electronic unless I am forced to when shooting macro, which I seldom do on the X100 anyway.
As a still photography enthusiast, viewfinders are a topic I am deeply interested in. No review of the X100, any generation in the series, is complete without an in-depth observation of its viewfinder. That said, I am not some purist who maintains that all photographs are meant to be taken with one eye glued to the viewfinder. No, my reasons are entirely pragmatic: I want to see what I am putting inside my frame, all the time.
I have had my fair share of disappointments with mediocre electronic viewfinders and LCD screens performing poorly in sunlight. Sadly, my own X100's electronic viewfinder is one such low-resolution, dim, jittery VHS-grade experience. (I have yet to try out the “real-life” electronic viewfinders on the Nikon Z8 and Z9 mirrorless bodies.) As for back-of-device screens, the only one I can consistently rely on when shooting outdoors is the screen on the iPhone 14 Pro Max, which kindly boosts up to 2,000 nits of brightness when desired.
Yes, there is parallax in the X100's optical viewfinder, and that is the same with any rangefinder-style setup. Moreover, the bottom-right corner of the view is partly obstructed when a hood is attached to the lens. It does take training to frame the scene with reasonable precision on this user-unfriendly piece of equipment. But digital overlay 35mm frame lines are there to help, meaning I can see what is happening both inside and outside the frame. On top of that, half-pressing the shutter button presents the final frame lines adjusted for focus distance. I love using the bright, real-life optical viewfinder and will never understand X100 owners who say they use the electronic viewfinder exclusively. If you were to do that, there are clearly better alternatives, which are just about the entire mirrorless world.
Speaking of the mirrorless world, I find it unreservedly puzzling that, of all the digital full-frame and APS-C cameras out there, not counting DSLRs, very few come equipped with an integrated optical viewfinder. I can count them on one hand: the Fujifilm X100 series, the Fujifilm X-Pro series, the Leica M, and the Epson R-D1. Of these, the X100 is the only fixed-lens system.
Although I have not used the X-Pro, I suspect the appeal of its optical viewfinder is not as significant as that of the X100 because many of the big fat interchangeable lenses inevitably block the frame when looked through the optical window. Besides, I am not sure how the non-SLR optical experience accommodates varying focal lengths. The X-Pro’s built-in optical viewfinder, I’m thinking, may be more of a gimmick unless paired up with a pancake prime lens. I also note that, unlike the X100, both the X-Pro1 and the X-Pro2 are missing a dioptre adjustment dial; given that this can be a big deal for people wearing correctional lenses, I’d call such an omission a questionable design decision. Still, I appreciate that there is always a choice of optical vs. electronic on both the X-Pro and the X100. I applaud Fujifilm for offering what no other manufacturer has delivered.
Going on and on about the viewfinder may seem over the top, but my rant continues. I understand why mirrorless means all-electronic screens and that not everyone is a fan of traditional rangefinder form factors. The paradigm has shifted from not knowing how an image will turn out until it has been developed and printed, to being able to chimp immediately after taking a shot, to seeing the actual exposure in real time before pressing the shutter. I get it. But surely, creating a glass-covered hole with some basic bits of information sprinkled over is no more technologically challenging than cramming 3.7 million dots in an ultra-high-refresh-rate OLED screen smaller than a thumbnail? Camera manufacturers have evidently chosen to pursue the latter, a consequence of which will continue to limit my gear choices for some time to come. That said, I do look forward to seeing electronic viewfinders advance to a state where they are satisfyingly real-life.
Moving on from viewfinder talk, let me now describe how I operate my X100. Most of the time, I set it to manual focus and use back-button focusing with the AFL button. When in manual focus, the focus box in the middle of the frame is considerably larger than that of autofocus, but that does not get in the way or slow me down. Although focus-peaking and push-in focus-check electronic zoom are available, I use neither of them. For the type of photography I do, back-button focusing alone is usually sufficient.
Speaking of focus, single autofocus (AF-S) on the X100 Classic is not bad at all for what it is. As long as sufficient contrast is found, it rarely hunts or fails. Mine is on firmware version 2.11, and the camera manages to nail the focus in a fraction of a second, 98 percent of the time. Continuous autofocus (AF-C), however, is an entirely different story. As with video, AF-C is a feature I never use on the X100. One quirk on the X100 Classic is how its focus mode switch goes from MF to AF-S to AF-C. With AF-S positioned in the middle, switching to it is generally more difficult than switching to seldom-used AF-C. Enough people complained about this, and the subsequent iterations of the X100 have rectified it. I am not particularly fussed as I almost always find myself on MF and back-button focusing.
While the X100 has no shortage of manual control dials and rings, what goes on in my head is fairly straightforward:
- When sufficient light is present and I intentionally aim for a certain depth of field, I adjust the aperture ring and set shutter speed to auto.
- When in low light, I adjust the shutter-speed dial and set aperture to auto.
- In all other cases, which is approximately 66% of the time, I simply leave both aperture and shutter speed on auto. The only thing I ask myself is, does the brightness warrant the built-in ND filter? If so, it is available at the push of a button.
Exposure compensation is set to either 0 or -1/3 unless extraordinary circumstances are observed. Exposure is worked on in post-processing anyway. ISO is set to auto but configured to stay under ISO 1600 and above 1/60s when possible. With auto ISO, however, the camera almost never achieves its base ISO of 200 even in sufficiently bright conditions, which I don’t mind at all. Dynamic range is set to 400, the maximum available on the camera. Because I shoot in RAW, I don’t go into other granular image adjustments within the camera.
I guess I am one of the minority Fujifilm shooters who think film simulations are a gimmick. I suspect that’s because I don’t do video or JPEG or commercial work with my X100. Shooting in RAW means every image worth keeping is entitled to its own unique treatment carried out in an effort to reproduce what the photographer’s eyes saw, as opposed to slapping on some repeatable formula or recipe.
Even without any intentional film simulations, the non-X-Trans sensor on the X100 Classic often produces amazing creamy-dreamy colours.
While I do post-process every Instagram-worthy image originating from my X100, I don’t apply sophisticated techniques or much time and effort. To date, I have not been on an Adobe Creative Cloud subscription. The only software I currently use in my workflow is Apple’s stock Photos app running on my iPhone. This has replaced Aperture on my MacBook, which was my tool of choice back in the early-mid 2010's.
12.3 megapixels is plenty of resolution as long as I am happy with the composition. Understandably, cropping as an afterthought is often difficult compared to higher-resolution equipment, and that is one of my gripes with the X100 Classic.
As for the hardware side of things, I must mention the various accessories I have attached to my X100. When I purchased the camera, I also got the first-party lens hood and filter adapter. Since then, I have tried a few third-party lens hood-filter combinations. I have now settled with the original Fujifilm hood with a 49mm lens protector. The reasons I have these on are: a) to protect the fixed lens; and b) to be able to operate the camera without a lens cap.
I also use a half-case on the X100. It does improve the grip slightly, but its main purpose is to minimise wear and tear on the bottom plate, which is the only part of the camera body that feels rather delicate and fiddly. Any half-case is a neat solution to this.
Next, there is a thumb grip that slides into the cold shoe (cold to me because I don’t attach anything electronic to it). This is the accessory that actually improves the grip and lets me hold the camera comfortably. The model of the thumb grip that I got happens to extend out farther to wrap the rear half of the exposure compensation dial, which is super-helpful as it can easily get knocked out of position if left unattended and unprotected.
I am quite happy with the battery life I get on my X100 Classic. These days, I have two third-party NP-95 replacement batteries that I bought from Amazon. A full battery easily lasts a whole day and then some. I suspect that’s because I do still photography only and use the OVF almost all the time with autofocus turned off, the eye sensor activated, and the LCD screen set to camera settings display instead of live view. [Edit: I have since moved on to leaving the rear screen switched off while shooting, which kind of resembles how the X-Pro3 functions. The screen still turns on in playback mode.]
As the famous GxAce video stated, the X100 Classic can be described in one word: limitation. This camera slows me down and makes me take each shot with a cool head and a deep breath as opposed to rage clicks or a machine-gun burst and hoping for an A-cut somewhere in the deck of cards. That, combined with the undeniably unique hybrid viewfinder experience on a non-SLR digital body, explains the everlasting hype surrounding the Fujifilm X100 series. I have a feeling my next camera will be another X100, any generation including the original.
…or the Nikon Z fc, if I were to grow more open-minded about viewfinders. Even then, it will be a complement to the X100, not a replacement.
Follow-up to this story: Looking at the X100VI as an X100 (original) user
