February 20, 2023 , Fuji released the digital side-axis camera X100 VI, priced at around 2,000 bucks. The discussion about whether the Fujifilm X100 VI is worth it or not, and whether it’s worth the price increase is also clamoring.
Considering the long history of Keyphoto Circle 1 comparisons of cameras of different frames have been drawn in this manner:
M43/APS-C vs. full frame: image quality only, other performance doesn’t matter.
M43/APS-C vs. full frame: image quality is not the only thing that counts, other performance doesn’t. Full frame vs. 4433 medium format: image quality is not the only thing that counts, body performance is also important.
Considering that some extreme readers may attack the author’s composition after the publication of this article, so at the beginning of the article, the author first stacked his armor to do a full range of three-dimensional defense.
“I am an APS-C user, a full-frame user, and a medium format user. I use Fuji, Sony, Nikon, digital film Polaroid three repair, is a complex composition of equipment stroking party, do not easily define me.”
So, we hope that everyone can put aside their prejudice against picture frames and take off their colored glasses when it comes to Fujifilm. Let’s take a fresh look at the X100 VI camera together.
To talk about the features of the X100 VI, you have to start with the features of Fuji cameras. In general, Fuji cameras are characterized by three things:
The unique photoelectric hybrid viewfinder, which is a key component of a side-axis camera;
The retro look, which makes it a good-looking accessory to carry on your back, even if you’re not taking pictures;
The original X-Trans sensor, which is fundamental to Fuji’s ability to dial in film filters.
The last two are very good to understand, the first for many users on the contrary is very strange, after all, have photoelectric hybrid viewfinder Fuji cameras are expensive, cost-effective, generally do not do as Fuji recommended volume of models, the natural understanding of the people are not much.
So this review of the X100 VI starts with this hybrid viewfinder.
Optical Hybrid Viewfinder
Fuji’s hybrid photoelectric viewfinder is a key component of Fuji’s side-axis cameras. If you want to make a side-axis camera, you can’t get away from Leica, which is credited with the popularization of camera miniaturization, and is famous for simply setting the standard for the 135-format.
Until the 1960s, the side-axis was the mainstream shooting equipment for photographers, and it wasn’t until the Nikon Big F was introduced in 1959 that the SLR replaced the side-axis as the strongest productive force in the photography industry. Leica side axis the reason for the decline, I think there are two reasons: one is the parallax of the side axis is relatively large, can not do what you see is what you get; the second is that Leica did not do out of the autofocus, although the macular focus is very interesting, but the efficiency and autofocus is still not comparable.
Of course, Leica’s decline does not mean the disappearance of the Leica brand, borrowing the glory of the past, today’s Leica has become a representative of the digital industry’s petty luxury.
Fuji do side axis camera, auto focus technology needless to say, the Japanese brand can handle, as for the parallax problem of the side axis, in theory, as long as the use of electronic viewfinder can be perfectly solved, which in the era of mirrorless to realize it is not a problem, Sony’s APS-C, as well as Fujifilm’s X-E series are the same.
A camera without a reflector can’t be called a DSLR, and a camera without an optical viewfinder likewise can’t be called a side-by-side, even though they are similar in appearance.
The Matsuden camera, on the other hand, is conceptually closer to a side-axis than the Fujifilm X-E4.
Fujifilm wants to learn from Leica’s high-end approach to make a true rangefinder camera, but they don’t want to fall into the same traps as Leica. As a result, they had to come up with a win-win solution——the electronic optical hybrid viewfinder.
The working principle of the optical hybrid viewfinder is simply that the optical viewfinder and the electronic viewfinder are combined into one, and can be switched at any time, so that you can be as realistic as you want to be, and as precise as you want to be, and there’s a hybrid mode to take into account both realism and precision.
Electronic viewfinder mode and the ordinary mirrorless camera few differences; optical viewfinder and digital SLR viewfinder, the same as the electronic digital display to assist; mixed mode will be in the lower right corner of the bottom corner of the small screen used to do focus confirmation.
This viewfinder is a Fuji exclusive, and it’s what gives the Fujifilm X100 and X-Pro series their pricing credentials. Of course, there will be people who will say that this is flowery and useless, but let’s imagine if Leica gets this technology, then the new M series it will dare to sell 100,000; Nikon has this technology, he will dare to make a full-frame Nikon SP digital side camera, and it will be a big seller.
Unlike Oba Nikon’s retro, which is a reproduction of their own classic models, Fuji doesn’t have many prototypes to reproduce, as Fuji was a second-tier brand in the film era, and did more fixed-lens cameras and fewer interchangeable-lens cameras, with only the TX series (the Hasselblad XPAN) being used as a prototype for the X-Pro series.
The other models are basically “original” retro, and you can see Contax Konica and Leica shadows on the X100, which is the ultimate stitching monster, in high intelligence terms, taking the best from each, and in low intelligence terms. However, no matter how to understand, does not affect the design is indeed stepped on the consumer aesthetic, in the digital age camera in pursuit of efficiency and durability in the appearance of the design tends to be homogenized, and the emergence of the Fuji camera does make a difference.
I have this one is the appearance of silver and black color scheme, is also currently the most popular models.
There are shutter, ISO 2-in-1 and exposure compensation dials at the top, and control dials at the front and back.
The shutter is a manual film camera shutter design that can be controlled using the shutter cable, but of course I prefer to use the shutter button.
The front grip is not very prominent, the bare camera grip is very general, using the official gift of the holster can slightly increase the feel of the grip.
Unlike other Fujifilm cameras, the focus mode switch is located on the left side of the camera. And the interface is set on the right side of the camera, as long as the line is plugged in, there is no way to hold, it happens to be X100 VI also does not support the side charging and use, the problem is not too big.
The back of the camera has a flip-up screen with a resolution of 1.62 million, which is still very fine. The EVF viewfinder has a resolution of 3.69 million.
The buttons are laid out like those on Fuji’s mid-range cameras, but they are much smaller, especially the quick menu button, which is ridiculously small.
In order to make the X100 VI a fully-fledged ready-to-use camera, Fuji has also built in a flash, with a flash index of 4, which can be set to adjust the power from 1-1/64, or TTL.
The battery compartment opens from the bottom, and uses the same old W126S battery, which is much less long-lasting than its predecessor due to the addition of anti-shake, but has the advantage of being a very cheap battery. The cover of the battery compartment also has an opening, which means that you can also use a fake battery to increase the battery life, but who would use this machine to shoot video for a long time?
The memory card slot is located in the battery compartment, and it’s the same old USH-I slot that only supports up to V30, allowing the X100 VI to shoot video at a maximum bitrate of only 200 Mbps, thanks to the high compression rate of the H265 encoding, which makes it possible to shoot at 4K 60p and 6K 30p.
The X100 VI uses the same lens as the X100V, with a 23mm focal length (35mm equivalent), f/2.0 aperture, an inter-mirror shutter, and a very soft sound. Due to the thinness of the lens, adjusting the aperture in the normal position after mounting the holster will get stuck in your hand, and you have to adjust it in a very strange position.
When it comes to this original complimentary holster, I have a lot of points to complain about.
First of all, it’s not a customized holster for the X100 VI, but rather for the X100V, which has the feeling of picking up the old clothes of an older sibling. Since the accessories of the fifth-generation model can be used on the sixth generation, it also proves that there is basically not much change in appearance, and the addition of an anti-shake is just a few dozens of grams more in weight.
Therefore, five generations of users for this holster trolling six generations of users will also be accepted in its entirety, for example, there is no opening on the right side of the cause can not be charged directly.
Another example is that there is no screw port at the bottom, so it can not be directly mounted on a tripod.
Although tightly fitted, there is no margin for the shutter button, making the shutter will always be in a state of compression.
Because of this this leather case is very unpopular in the seafood market, and can not be sold for a hundred dollars.
Good thing we have a third-party manufacturer of accessories, like Smog has launched the first time specifically for the X100 VI development of new accessories, including rabbit cages, over the film handle, leather holster and so on. I saw the pictures and felt that they are much better than the original ones, at least the design is in line with the user’s habits.
Although these accessories will not be available until after the 20th, the first X100 VI is only 4,000 units, many people may not be able to buy it until next month, so it’s not a big rush!
The X100 VI has 20 different film filters, including Real ACE filters (RA filters for short), as many as the medium-format GFX100 II released last year, and the same 40-megapixel sensor and five-generation processor as the X-T5 and X-H2, which means that the X100 VI has the highest number of megapixels of any APS-C, and the most filters of any other APS-C in the entire Fujifilm family. That means the X100 VI has the most pixels of any APS-C and the most filters in the entire Fujifilm family. It also has the most filters in the entire Fujifilm family. The X100 VI is the cheapest Fujifilm camera with the same number of pixels.
Man, that’s a lot of buffs.
From my experience, this RA filter is more of an everyday filter, not as recognizable as NC filters, the colors are more muted and less saturated, closer to what the human eye really sees, and more in line with its own description.
The fifth-generation sensor, in addition to the noticeable increase in pixels, also lowers the native minimum ISO to 125, making low-sensitivity image quality quite good.
However, as the ISO increases, image smearing starts to become more and more noticeable, which is a common problem with X-Trans sensors.
Of course, the only way to fix this is to turn up the in-camera sharpening parameter. Considering that many people who buy cameras nowadays don’t have computers, using in-camera adjustments and thus the original image straight out has become a necessity. Fujifilm has a wealth of parameters that can be adjusted in-camera, and people often share their ready-made parameters on social media platforms, so some of them can be used as a reference.
23mm lens equivalent 35mm, which is a classic focal length for humanistic photography, but the focus of humanistic photography is storytelling, which is not the author’s area of expertise, the author is better at shooting people.
Fuji has been criticized for its focusing problems, which are still not solved on the X100 VI, and face recognition is still prioritized over the focusing frame. Although the new AI chip can make face recognition more and more accurate, but the X100 VI’s lens itself focus performance is average, more often than not, “the brain keeps up, but the body can not keep up”.
The X100 VI’s performance in terms of anti-shake can be considered excellent, using a 1/2s shutter handheld shooting can also ensure clarity, combined with its 40 million pixels, using the thumbnail method to shoot night scenes, can obviously make up for the disadvantage of the APS-C camera in the high sensitivity.
The X100 VI has a mechanical shutter with a maximum speed of 1/4000s and an electronic shutter with a maximum speed of 180,000s, so you can shoot at full aperture in the middle of the day on a sunny day to ensure adequate bokeh. In addition, the X100 VI has a built-in ND filter that reduces the exposure by 4 stops for double insurance.
That’s all I have to say about the X100 VI, if you’re a previous Fuji user, you can easily get started with the X100 VI by familiarizing yourself with the buttons, but if you’ve never used a Fuji camera before, or never used one at all, you’ll need to read the manual carefully, which is very necessary.
Published by YooCare Editor & last updated on April 11, 2024 3:05 am
