The Unattainable: We Review the Fujifilm X100V

The X100V has been on the wishlist of many. So many in fact, the waiting period to even get their hands on one can exceed six months. But why? What is the hype all about? What makes the camera so unique? Is it truly as good as everyone says? Is it worth the wait?

Where to Even Begin?

The Fujifilm X100V could be classified as a premium compact camera. The dimensions are very manageable as well as the low weight of 478 grams including the battery and the SD card. The design is a modern-yet-vintage take on a rangefinder-style camera not dissimilar to a Contax or a Leica M but at the same time unique in its own beautiful way. A sleek magnesium alloy body combined with the leatherette wrapping around the front and back give it a beautiful feel in hand. Once you pick it up you know you’ve got a quality piece of gear in your hand. 

The front of the body is dominated by the newly-designed 23mm f/2 lens surrounded by a tactile aperture ring along a manual focus one. The corner of the body is home to Fujifilm’s unique hybrid viewfinder allowing you to either look directly at your photographed scene through the body with all the necessary information projected into it or, at the flick of a switch, use a bright electronic viewfinder of decent resolution and framerate.

The top of the camera is decorated with mechanical-feeling, clicky, and well-made metal dials allowing you to see your entire exposure settings at a glance even when the camera is switched off. The shutter speed dial doubles as an ISO value dial which can be adjusted by simply lifting it up. Unlike the previous iterations of this design in the likes of X-Pro2, X-Pro3, or X100F, the dial now stays up. This makes choosing your ISO value much more comfortable. Last but not least is the exposure compensation dial on the right side of the body. Easy to reach with just your thumb, much harder to accidentally turn unlike in the older generations.

The back of the body offers a small selection of buttons, a focus point joystick, and a tilting touchscreen. I was never a fan of tilting screens until I actually started actively using one and now I can’t imagine working without one. The X100V’s tilt mechanism is simple. 90 degrees up, approximately 40 degrees down yet the options compared to the predecessor are suddenly significantly expanded.

The Star of the Show

The camera is powered by a sensor many of us know well. The fourth generation APS-C X-Trans BSI CMOS sensor has been with us since the X-T3 through the X-Pro3, X-T4 all the way to the recently released X-S20. It offers 26 megapixels of resolution without the presence of an optical low-pass filter. The X-Trans sensors have their fair share of critics but it has significantly more fans. And rightfully so. The image files produced by the camera are gorgeous. Especially to analog lovers. 

You see, I can never really say what the reason is, whether it is the X-Trans color matrix or the processor doing the demosaicing in the background, but whenever I shoot Fujifilm cameras at higher ISO values the artifacts I get much more resemble film grain instead of the traditional digital noise. The fact that the noise is mainly luminance and no random spots of color helps the fact tremendously. I always say it's not really a photograph unless it's on paper and Fujifilm X100V files just beg to be printed. Once on a nice baryta paper, the images come to life looking film-like.

This is the reason I often just set my camera to automatic ISO with the limits from the lowest (160) to the highest (12,800) and I do not care which value the camera picks. I know I’ll get usable files anyway.

A Joy to Use

I’ve sold many X100 series cameras to many happy customers in my time working in various camera stores in London and Prague and I have met even more photographers adoring their own X100V cameras. There is one thing they all had in common. The camera simply makes them want to photograph. It forces them to carry it everywhere and capture whatever catches their interest. The small size and low weight take away any excuses to leave it laying on a shelf at home. The simple yet intuitive controls make it a joy to use and the resulting files speak for themselves. Many of the aforementioned photographers had their DSLRs beforehand but barely touched them. The cameras just gathered dust at home losing value throughout the years. Once they went for the small Fujifilm wonder, they just fell in love with photography all over again.

It’s the little things that also add to the entire experience. For example, the leaf shutter built into the lens not only allows for faster shutter speeds whilst using flash, but it is near silent regardless of the situation. Sometimes it is so silent you need to confirm you actually took the shot. You will not be disturbing anyone with this shutter sound. Or the fact that the NP-W126S battery can last for a solid while before giving out. Officially it is rated to be able to take roughly 420 images. If I am trying to conserve power I can stretch it past 1,000. The trick is to set the power mode to boost giving us the fastest startup times and switching the camera off when not in use. That way it is on and ready before it’s up to my eye.

The Few “Flaws”

The autofocus is by no means slow. I used the X100V for weddings, corporate team-building events, family vacations, and anything in between. The AF-S mode snaps to focus pretty fast. I rarely ever missed an opportunity to slow or inaccurate autofocus system. The only issue is with the subject tracking mode. It just does not track reliably when you want it to. The subject detection AF frame jumps all over the place and often even misses the subject completely. This camera was not made for tracking. Especially compared to a newer X-T5 or even X-T4. However, as I’ve already mentioned, using the camera in AF single mode works fine and does not hold you back.

The aforementioned weddings and corporate events are often well-paid gigs. But you really should not gamble on losing any files. I use 32GB cards so if I get a card failure I can never lose all of my images at once since I swap cards mid-event. But it would be really nice to have two card slots. I have had cards fail on me in the past so this feature would take a lot of anxiety away from using the camera professionally.

Built for Any Weather

The biggest improvement in my opinion is the option to seal the camera against rain and dust by simply attaching a filter to the front of the lens. I love street photography in the rain. The scenes and compositions you can get are often beautiful and being able to shoot without the fear of killing your camera for good is a clear advantage. I’ve taken the camera to the Slovakian High Tatras for a family vacation and I was able to just shoot anything not caring about the ever-changing conditions. The fear of a shorted camera was gone. The only fear that stayed was the one of bears.

What I Love About the Camera

• Small size
• Low weight
• Beautiful image quality
• 23mm f/2 lens
• Great electronic viewfinder
• Clean optical viewfinder
• Decent AF-S performance
• Manageable grain at high ISO values
• Brilliant film simulations (Especially Classic Negative, Acros+R, and Classic Chrome)
• Comfortable handling
• Tilting screen
• Good battery life
• Weather sealing with a mounted filter
• Tactile analog dials
• USB-C charging

What I Don’t Like

• Tracking in AF-C is not reliable
• Only a single-card slot

If You Can Afford to, Get One

I’ve never owned an X100V or any previous X100 series camera. But I use them regularly due to being able to borrow one at work anytime I want. The main reasons for me to not get one were the lack of weather sealing and the single card slot. The former has been fixed with the X100V, but the latter still keeps me on edge whenever I’m shooting a wedding with the camera. But even then It is quite possibly one of the best photographic experiences and most enjoyable cameras I have ever shot with. 

I fully understand the hype and the backlog of orders worldwide. Even the used market has noticed. Second-hand X100Vs go for more than new ones nowadays. A colleague of mine managed to get his hands on a decently priced used unit a while back and was faster with his decision than I was and now I kind of regret it. It truly is a near-perfect camera. Hopefully, the successor will be considerably more attainable. And hopefully, it will offer either dual card slots or internal memory combined with one á-la Leica M11.

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