Fujifilm X100F 24.3 MP APS-C Digital Camera-Silver

I've been searching for a digital pocket camera for years. I used to have a little Casio Exilim which took sweet photos, but later models did not hold up. Panasonic Lumix had one good model before becoming hit or miss. Olympus TG series is ok but has already gone downhill. Canon SureShot was a joke despite rave reviews. I continued to be frustrated. I snagged this model without looking at the pricetag and asked myself, What did I just do? Often when I look at the first images from a pocket digital camera I gasp. With the Fuji X100F I gasped for an entirely different reason - the images are spectacular. Hopefully you can see the first image off my camera just messing around in low light of my desk light with the settings on auto-everything. Amazing DOF and color which I describe as romantic. The B&W mode allows me to pump up the shadow and/or highlights for a tailored response. The controls, again, I kept saying "wow." The shutter speed and sensitivity are old school film camera style. Focus modes are a switch on the side like a full DSLR. The lens has an aperture ring with plenty of range. Manual focus mimics a film camera's fine control with focus peaking or digital split image focusing. It is so easy to use this camera. I had to hunt for maybe 6 settings, asking, where did they put THIS one? But, the others were easy to find. Right on the top I can nudge the EV knob with my thumb to tweak in highlights without guessing. Is it perfect? What camera is perfect? Like, if I rest it on its back it rests right on the LCD display so I ordered a screen protector. The neck strap is perfect but no wrist strap was included. Autofocus options are way overkill and I turn off all that face and eye detection. Transferring photos to a Mac? Be prepared to be disappointed as it doesn't show up as a disk drive (even my GPS shows up as a disk drive)... but, you can import using "Photos" app - which is slooooow and painful. It has a real rangefinder viewer with electronic parallax framing aid. Brilliant. Pull your eye away and the LCD snaps back on for accurate composition. Watson appears to have the best third-party batteries if you don't enjoy the Fuji pricetag on batteries. Oh - and it's a fixed "street camera" wide angle lens. This was a big decision. For the money, you could upgrade and just get a mirrorless camera with exchangeable lenses. The "zoom" does zoom in to simulated 50mm and 70mm at the sacrifice of a bit of quality. I would consider those settings to be "toy" settings just for play. If you want a larger image walk closer to your subject. The small lens keeps the profile small for portability. The style of the body is sweet to look at - very retro and doesn't look like a big black brick. There are plenty of overpriced leather cases and half-cases for the model so go nuts.

I have now owned every iteration of the x100. This one is the best by a good margin. I do a little bit of every kind of photography, but mainly street. The x100 is a fantastic general purpose camera. It's fun, it's stylish, it's portable, it's discreet, it makes very good files AF: There is no doubt this is much better. It's on par with my micro 4/3 in speed and accuracy. It's held back somewhat by the older lens design and struggle some in REALLY low light. But this is the one area where the x100t still lagged a bit and i'm very pleased with the improvement. Lens: This lens is very good for the compromises that have been made to make it a pancake. Ergonomics: The x100 series all are great handlers. Unlike some I really like the iso dial integrated into the shutter speed dial. It operates smoothly. Much more so than the various film cameras i have fought with over the years. However I preferred the button layout on the T. The Q menu button is in a terrible location and it's hard to believe this passed any sort of user testing. As far as the joystick, many have raved about it, but i don't find it much more efficient than using the 4-way buttons as on the T. Also it's hard to manipulate the joystick during one handed operation. VF: The hybrid viewfinder is still a fun and useful novelty. In my early days of using the x100 i almost always used the ovf, but the evf has gotten so good that it is now my favorite method. The live preview is just too useful to pass up. IQ: I think the IQ of all the x100 models is special. Each has its own character but its hard to fault the detailed, punchy images produced by the new sensor. As for the acros simulation, yes all of the hype is justified. As a b&w film purist this is the first b&w digital simulation i've used that has genuine character. I was not going to upgrade any time soon, but my T suffered a fatal accident. In a way I'm almost glad because with the x100f the series has really reached its zenith and is fulfilling the original promise of this camera series. I owned a Leica Q for a few months, and honestly I prefer the x100f as it's more portable, almost as snappy, creates files of similar quality, is a better value, is less conspicuous, and has a more useful focal length (and can add 28mm as well with the wcl)

Fantastic camera all around. I’ve used DSLR’s for over 15 years now as an amateur photographer and always enjoyed the flexibility of being able to manually adjust aperture, shutter, iso, etc. But for me, at a certain point lugging around the camera and lenses to different locations becomes a pain if photography is not the sole purpose (i.e. family outing). When it was time to upgrade the Canon 7D, I started looking at something more compact and was initially going to go with a model in the Sony RX100 line. But, I couldn’t get past having to dive into menus to adjust settings that I had adjusted with a physical button for years. And that is where the Fuji comes into play. It has the smaller form factor of a point and shoot, physical buttons to adjust almost everything you would want to adjust on the fly, and functions more like a DSLR than a point and shoot. The picture profiles are beautiful and I find myself shooting in BW Acros more than color. Photo quality is good, not great, but that could be a separate review. I will say, most importantly to me, the skin tones are exceptionally pleasing. And it has internal ND filters!! The one HUGE caveat is the fixed 23mm lens. If you’re coming from digital zooms, this might be a bit much to handle. If you’re coming from DSLR’s, not so much. I know there are lenses to expand the range of this camera, but it kind of defeats the point of what it is. Personally, I don’t plan on ever doing that and it’s been an extremely fun challenge making the 23mm work in any situation. You’re not going to be able to capture the classic portrait shot that an 85mm would get you, but that’s the trade off you’re making for everything else the x100f gets you. All in all, very happy with this purchase and if you have a photography background, you’ll be extremely pleased. It excels as a family camera for us due to its form factor, but I still get to dial in manual settings for the perfect shot.

I bought this because I really love my X-Pro2 but it's a little big to carry around in a casual context, so what I was looking for in this camera is a smaller version of the X-Pro2 with a fixed 23mm prime and maybe less performance for action shooting but otherwise comparable in handling, image quality, build quality, and so on. I haven't spent a huge amount of time with it but a few minutes were enough to convince me that it's exactly what I was hoping for, with few downsides and a couple of significant upsides. The integrated flash will doubtless come in handy for casual shooting, and if you turn off the artificial shutter noise the shutter (a leaf shutter rather than the focal plane shutter used in the X-Pro* and X-T* cameras) is practically silent, which is great if you're trying to be unobtrusive. My biggest gripe with the X-Pro2 is that the exposure compensation dial juts out and is easily turned by mistake, but on this camera it sticks up from the top of the body and should be less susceptible to this issue. I've read some complaints about the AF being slow and loud, but it seems fine to me. Certainly fast enough for the style of shooting this camera is obviously designed for, and the support for manual shooting is great (as is the "hybrid viewfinder" in general, certainly not a gimmick). The only big downside I can name is the lack of weather sealing. Build quality feels completely on par with their higher-end interchangeable-lens X-series cameras (and, if you care, it says "Made in Japan" on the back), so I don't know why they skimped here. It's a disappointing omission on a camera that's otherwise the complete package. The X100V is supposed to come out soon. To be frank I think the X-Pro3 has crossed over into hipster gimmickry with its weird fold-down screen setup, and despite the spec bumps it's probably not a camera I'd buy. Whether or not the V follows a similar path, the F is everything I'd hoped it would be and I think it's a camera I'll be happy with for many years, provided it lasts.

Got this after considerable research and wait. I shoot with other full frame systems - mostly birds, nature and wildlife - so this is my second (and not a “backup”) camera. I have developed interest in street photography and also other spur of the moment, discreet clicks - a DSLR is too intrusive for such clicks. I am not a professional photographer nor do I shoot with any commercial interest. After a week of casual shooting with the X100F, I am most impressed with its output under different conditions - both built in presets as well as manual mode. Focus area choices are simply brilliant and quick to shuffle amongst and in crowded, fast-moving subjects the burst mode does not disappoint at all. Even indoor shots (family, portraits - although this isn’t a specialist camera for such purposes) are brilliant, crisp and rich in colour rendering. Low light AF performance is a tad slow but then for the type of shots I take, it’s not a problem for me - a couple of extra seconds wait is alright, besides playing around with focus modes gives better perspectives ultimately in what I end up clicking! Sharpness is great edge to edge, especially in wide area focus, even wide open aperture (my default is f4 and in bright sunlight outdoors in South India usually f8-11). At ISO between 400-1600 I hardly notice noise, in fact this range even at f2.8 in dusk/early evenings produces superbly clear and rich coloured pictures. Finally, the feel and looks - the best of retro and digital! Menu system isn’t the greatest in terms of intuitiveness but Q menu and function/custom buttons once set to most used parameters mitigate the main menu difficulties. Grip is great too (my palms are small size) and single-handed operation is a delight especially while riding or walking. Still early days but I am using this more than my main full frame systems these days!

Before we get into the review; I'll first provide you with a tip you'll probably overlook in the manual if you don't study every page. For maximum longevity, Fuji recommends keeping the batteries charged to a 50% level when in storage, NOT fully charged. Now, to set my review's perspective properly, I'll say that my primary camera is a Sony A9, and Canon 5D3 before becoming frustrated with the Canon ecosystem. I'd often carry the A9 with 35mm non-GM lens, but it's certainly not the lightest camera around and I'd been longing for something a bit easier to take in more casual or outdoor settings, especially ski trips. I debated this camera, the Sony RX1R II, and Leica Q. Obviously those latter two are dramatically more expensive, but cost was not really a consideration. I ultimately decided on the Fuji. The Sony is small, but you're basically paying for a great sensor in a piece of garbage that is six years out of date, has no battery life, and has never had a firmware update. The Leica checked all the boxes but had been out long enough I was worried a new version was on the horizon; two months after buying the Fuji the Q2 comes out, so guess I was right. I also didn't want to buy the Leica before seeing what the upcoming Zeiss Zx1 brings to market. Where this camera shines is having all the typical features, knobs, buttons, of a real camera, records in raw, can do bracketed shots (but won't merge them in camera), and has great picture quality for the price. The battery life is surprisingly good, even in the cold. My Sony A9 actually ground to a halt in sub-20F temps (shutter release began reacting with 1/2 second delay) while the Fuji kept going fine. The area where I'd call this camera average is the auto focus speed, particularly subject/eye tracking. If you're used to a Sony A7/A9 mirrorless, this is nowhere near that kind of speed, so just prepare yourself accordingly. Where this camera really pisses me off is the lack of GPS receiver for location, and the massively disappointing phone app in general. The missing GPS receiver would not bother me so much if their method of 'solving' that problem was not absolute garbage, but that's what it is. The way you get location to this camera is supposedly to install their phone app and enable location linking from your phone. On my iPhone, with background app refresh enabled, I'm lucky for the Fuji to successfully link and get a location perhaps a whopping 5% of the time, and that's being generous. I end up just hoping I get enough locations that I can use Lightroom to assign the rest after the fact; it's a time consuming exercise in frustration every time I start post processing on my pictures. Now the app in general is pretty horrible, even for simple tasks like transferring pictures. If you shoot raw, you can't transfer them LOL; so there's that. If you really want a raw picture out of the camera, you have to use the menu system to convert it to jpeg, then the app will allow you the privilege of transferring it, and that conversion is not a quick and easy process with all the clicking it requires. So anyway, fun camera, good pictures for the price, the software is horrible, you should just assume location data will never be recorded.

The Fuji X100F is a marvelous camera. I have owned the X100S and X100T. This camera is the best of the X100 series in my opinion. Focus is fast and consistent. Image quality is off the charts with the 24 MP resolution, a noticeable improvement over the X100T. The ability to digitally zoom is occasionally very handy and is like having another camera around your neck when you need it; another nice upgrade from the X100T. Facial recognition is very reliable, and the joystick is an ingenious upgrade in this camera for adjusting the focus point quickly while composing the image. This may be the best camera ever invented for taking photos of people. Fuji has the best skin tones of any color system and the fill flash has just the right poof of light to wipe away shadows while keeping your subjects looking great. The aperture ring has 1/3 stop adjustment. ISO can be adjusted using the front command dial, making the ISO dial on top of the camera unneeded, which is good because it's not very useful to begin with. Since buying this camera, I have all but stopped using my interchangeable lens camera; this camera does it all, even on vacation. The light weight and good looks are unbeatable. I would say the X100F is a major upgrade over the X100S; I would buy the X100F over the X100S every time. The X100F is a nice upgrade over the X100T, but not a runaway upgrade. In the long run, I think the X100F is a more feature rich, flexible, higher resolution camera than the X100T.

Having shot for the past 25 years I can honestly say that the FujiFilm X100 Series is my favorite camera of all time. When I look back at my portfolio I'm most proud of the photos from my X100S and X100F because they "just captured the moment." For me the fixed focal length forces me to prioritize the composition and think outside the box. I've shot with several systems, starting with Canon film in the 90s, then on to Canon DSLRs. I switched to the Micro 4/3 system about 10 years ago, which was a good transition into mirrorless but it wasn't up to par with the DSLRs at the time. About 5 years ago I purchased my first FujiFilm camera, the X100S. I immediately fell in love with it and ditched my Micro 4/3 system for the XT-1. Later replaced by the X-Pro2 and I also own an X-E3 as a back-up/travel camera. At some point I made the biggest mistake of my photographic career, I sold my X100S. Luckily, I realized my terrible mistake and purchased the X100F. It has the same soul of the original X100 cameras but with more attention to detail. The same "magic" in the lens & sensor combo is still there but with slightly faster auto focus and some extra bells and whistles to "tweak" the camera to your shooting style. The X100F has a tactile advantage over most of the cameras I've owned. I hardly ever need to dive into a menu. Buttons, knobs and switches all perfectly placed in an arrangement that becomes second nature. I never shot a lot with flash but the leaf shutter allows for some ridiculous flash sync speeds, allowing you to throw some additional light on a backlit subject with the onboard (or my hot shoe Nissin flash). I shoot more backlit subjects now because of this. I also LOVE LOVE LOVE the ND filter. With a simple click of an Fn button I can select the ND filter and shoot wide open (f/2) in broad daylight. Lastly, the size and design of this camera make it so easy to carry that it's with me everywhere I go. The FujiFilm X100F is a brilliant little camera with charm and soul. It's not a camera for all but it's perfect for me. Kudos Fujifilm! I'll take this camera to the grave.