Fujifilm X100Vi First Impressions.
I have the hardest camera in the universe to get—people are taking out second mortgages, they're selling off their kids' possessions in order to get a hold of the Fujifilm X100VI.
Personally, these are just going to be my first impressions, and I am quite impressed with this little camera, but don't fall for the hype. That's why we have to start off with the film simulations—they're a lot of fun, they're cool, and I can see why people fall for them. I'm a sucker, so I fell for it too. As you become more mature with your photography, you want to do as little editing as possible, and the Fujifilm definitely caters to that.
However, I think where many of us can get lost is what we're seeing on the screen—perfectly edited, perfectly exposed images, straight-out-of-camera. Don't let yourself think that every single photo you're going to take is magically just going to be like "wow, it's like opening my third eye" sort of situation because you're going to have a lot of duds. You still got to know those fundamentals—the composition, the lighting, the way we're playing with that aesthetic.
The battery life, for the short amount of time that I had it, has lasted me about 2 to 3 days, and that's just shooting everyday stuff, which is very, very impressive. The old school buttons—they just add to that perception, to that feel of analog, and it's really, really fun. One of the things I am not a fan of though, is the ISO dial. I think it's a little sensitive, and I'm just worried about the wear and tear of the ISO ring as you have to pull it up to change the ISO.
Then going on from there, we have to talk about the tilt screen. I personally think you either make a flippy screen or not. The reason I say that is because as I pull out the tilt screen, there's a massive exposed opening and ribbion, so if you take this to the beach, I probably wouldn't recommend using the tilt screen just because sand can get in there. However, the screen is nice and bright, and if you look through the viewfinder, I mean, this is where a lot of those little nuggets that Fuji's willing to explore with really comes in. You can see a lot of the detail, your preview, highlights, shadows, film simulations, and I wish more camera manufacturers were doing that, it's easier for me to see the preview while not getting in the way.
The back of the camera is too minimal, it gets into Johnny Ive territory. Like, the d-pad would be nice here, a nice chunky d-pad, but instead its a little joystick. This little joystick I don't like. Give me a nice solid, d-pad so it can be actually useful. I have to dig in with my thumb every single time.
Now going on to the lens, just like everybody else, I was kind of debating, should I get the Pro-mist filter? Should I not? And I definitely think you should because we're trying to save ourselves some time in post-production. I really like that there is this nice softness to each image. By adding that and seeing just like a nice little bloom in the highlights, it adds to that soft-vibe feeling. But there is this little trick in case you can't afford the Pro-mist filter, which is you go into the settings, and anytime you shoot the JPEGs, the clarity will be bumped down by two. This is in case you want to see what it looks like, but don't want to shell out the cash. This camera has a leaf shutter, so it's absolutely quiet, and that's an aspect of the entire system that I really, really like. But I also was told that the leaf sound that it makes is actually synthetic, so you can go into the settings and modulate that, but it just adds to this really nice, stealthy camera that packs a really big punch.
The ND filter inside of this is also extremely useful, and as someone that just loves to shoot wide open, I mean, it could be like the middle of the day on a freaking desert, I would still try to shoot f/1.4. The ND filter in here, which is four stops, comes back to having less gear because everything's already packed in here. I don't need an ND filter to be on the side, so I really like that Fujifilm is doing that.
Personally, the price is a bit steep, definitely. I don't know what they super did inside of here that would ramp up the price, but I feel like when I was comparing the X100V to the Xi, definitely the IBIS was the only thing that a lot of people were excited about. So, I have like no bias because I'm a Canon user. I've used Canon for my entire everything. I just decided to experiment with the Fujifilm system, and for my first reviews, the thing that I really wanted was, was I having fun? Was the camera fun to use? Like, did it help me remove the idea of like, "I need an ND filter and I need the lighting to be like this, and I need to switch lenses"? And I can start to see that it's fulfilling that role.
I will give you my opinions in the vlogs coming soon, but let me know your thoughts, your opinion. Do you plan on grabbing it? I mean, it's such a difficult camera to get, but let me know what you think. There will be some affiliate links to the Pro-mist and the camera, but as always, thank you so much for your time and your attention.
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