[Music] Hi I'm Dustin Abbott and I'm here today To give you my review of the camera that Pretty much broke the internet at least From a photography perspective the new Fujifilm X100 VI or the Mark 6 version Of this Series has really kind of taken The photography World by storm from the Moment it was announced there have been Issues with scalping and orders having To be cancelled Lottery systems in Different places to allow people to have A fairer process of acquiring one Instant sellouts and basically sitting At the top of sales charts in countries All around the world so what is it about Fuji's latest iteration of the X100 Series that has created so much Excitement now admittedly I'm new to the X100 Series so maybe some of you who Have owned past iterations of the camera Can answer that question question a Little better than myself but my Personal take after having spent time With the x 100 VI is that it offers a Lot of the vibe of a Leica M Rangefinder Body except for with a price tag of About $1,600 rather than $9,000 it has a very stylish retro Inspired body and control scheme it has A fixed 23 mm or essentially a 35mm Equivalent angle of view lens and is Perhaps the best embodiment of food 's
Fantastic color science but is the X100 VI all hype or does a solid camera hide Underneath all of the Hipster trappings That's what we're here to discover in Today's review right after a word from Our sponsor today's episode is brought To you by Phantom wallet the minimalist Modern wallet that is now even better With the new Phantom X that is crafted From aluminum right here in Canada it is 22% smaller and 35% lighter while still Making it easy to access your cards and Money when you need them thanks to their Unique Fanning mechanism you could even Customize your wallet due to its modular Design with accessories like a money Clip cash holder ID display and even Chipolo and air tag tracking integration Visit store. fanam wallet.com to check Out their unique sizes Styles and Finishes that span from aluminum to Wood To carbon fiber and use code Dustin 15 For 15% off when you're ready to check Out Now while this camera looks very very Similar to previous versions there are Some key upgrades underneath the hood so To speak we have the same you know basic Camera style same lens that we've seen Recently but we have upgraded to Fuji's 40 megapixel sensor it now for the first Time has mbody image stabilization six Stops worth it is they've added the Xpressor 5 which allows for the AI
Machine learning and ability to track Recognize and track track subjects there Are new film simulations that have been Added in here up to 20 total now Available and vastly improve video specs As well up to an including 6.2k video Capture and 4K at 60 frames per second So some key upgrades along with some Smaller upgrades along the way I found It interesting when I was reading Fuji's Marketing as I tried to get a sense for The camera that they use the word Indulgent as a part of their marketing That's not a word I often here camera Manufacturers use but it does refer to The fact that this is a camera that Oozes a lot of style and very obviously Desirability at this point it does have A very stylished machined aluminum body With very classic retro stylings along With that underneath that the black grip That looks so much like some of my Classic slrs that carries over to the Control scheme which uses a lot of Classic inspired dials as a part of the Overall Vibe of the camera and as we're Going to see that's for both good and Ill as a part of it you can get it in a More traditional black finish but I Vastly prefer this very stylish silver Finish that looks really really Fantastic so as mentioned I mean Obviously the goal here is to have not Quite a pocketable camera but as compact
A camera as possible and with that there Does come some compromises when it comes To the overall ergonomics here this is The kind of camera because the grip Itself is just a little bit of a bulge On the right side of it it it's a camera That I more pinch rather than able to Actually grip and wrap my hands around It's not tall enough to have room for Someone with larger hands like myself to Have room for the pinky finger to fit And so it's for me it's not necessarily An incredibly comfortable camera to hold You know you may look cool holding it But there's always a little bit of a Feel like it doesn't mold into my hand And into uh or my fingers don't kind of Mold around the grip itself in terms of Those Dimensions the camera is 12 28 mm In width 5 in it is 74.8 MM in height 2.9 in and just 55.3 mm in depth 2.2 in And remember that is including a fixed Lens here uh the lens is constant here This is not an interchangeable lens Camera the weight is reasonably uh Substantial at 521 G that's 1.1 lb but Remember it's not just the all metal Body that we've got here it's the fact That there is a lens permanently Attached to it and that weight also does Include both the battery and the memory Card as Well now as mentioned there is a classic Control scheme here and some of that I
Like it's familiar to me from cameras Like their XT series though with a few Added quirks that does introduce a bit Of a learning curve if you're not Familiar with the X100 series I mean I've reviewed at this point uh dozens And dozens of cameras including 12 Previous Fuji cameras and so I typically Know where things are on a Fuji camera But I did have moments where I had to Figure out how different functions Worked because the control scheme is a Little bit unique probably the weirdest And the wackiest part of that is the Largest dial on the camera which is the Top mounted combination shutter speed And ISO dial it took a a while for me to Figure out that the way to control that ISO there is a very quirky pop grabbing This ring popping it up and then you can Rotate it underneath and so that you can Control the layer underneath it which Has very very little Little Resistance No clicks or anything so you're Definitely going to want to pop that Back down because otherwise you could Easily U Move it it's it's a bit of a Weird control scheme and frankly this Whole control dial I think you could you Could do away with I don't know how many People actually want to control their Shutter speed from a dial particularly When you consider you're only you're Only able to access full stops there so
That means you're going to end up with a Lot more either over or underexposed Images because your typical means of Controlling your shutter speed is in Onethird stop increments allowing for a Lot of extra Precision outside of that there are Other controls here a little bit more Traditional including an exposure Compensation dial which I always Appreciate um there is a little bit of a Rocker dial around the shutter button Which allows the on and off and then There are the control Wheels front and Back a little bit of a different control Here that is surrounds a button and it's A rocker style left or right allows you To add different functions there up to And including the ability to do your Zoom function Andor to switch in between The optical or the electronic viewfinder Which is something that is unique to me In Fujifilm cameras the fact that you Can switch between those to uh very Quickly and there is interesting you Have the option there of having in the Optical viewfinder to also have an Electronic overlay with some different Aspects there that make it interesting And and I think fun to use in many cases Now that viewfinder itself is a 0.5 in Opening it is a 3.69 million dot Resolution evf so you know a little bit Better than say what you're going to
Find on a Sony a7c but nothing that's You know really fantastic there either The really kind of the headline here is That Optical viewfinder the fact that You can actually see right through a Viewfinder even with the camera turned On is somewhat unusual in the age of Mirrorless Cameras other controls are attached to The actual lens itself there is an Aperture ring here but because of being Such a lowprofile pancake style lens That apperture ring is actually not easy To access I found it that I preferred to Go ahead and switch aperture onto one of My control dials and so that I could Control it from there rather than trying To do it from the actual lens itself There is a control ring on the lens Itself obviously the primary function Would be for manual focus but if you're Using autofocus you can also use other Functions there kind of like the control Dial on Canon RF lenses and so uh like The default function there if you're an Autofocus mode is it does allow you to Switch into the digital teleconverter Options and so that you can uh zoom in To uh have a little bit tighter of Framing so just to give you an idea of What your resolution points in at 35 mm Which is the standard view that's Fullframe equivalent the 40 megapixels If you uh do the first Zoom in our
Digital teleconverter setting it goes to A 50 mm angle of view and that gives you A 20 megapixel um overall resolution if You zoom on into 70 mm you drop down to 10 megapixels but obviously a tighter Framing yet now I will note that This Only affects jpegs if you get raw images Even if you shot a sequence of those as I did kind trying to test uh framing on My test chart you'll find that you Actually have three identical raw files Unlike like there are no Crop Marks on The raw images this is really more about Doing things in camera in jpeg now Interestingly there is an integrated Flash here just a little rectangle at The front of the camera which they can Do because there is a fixed lens here Although I think that if you add the Lens converters to there particularly The telephoto one you probably are going To introduce some Shadow into that I Don't love on camera flashes but more Interesting here is that it can be used And set up in command mode and so that You can use it as a master to control Off camera flashes so that is an Interesting application of that I find That when trying to change up controls From you know for example not wanting to Use that uh the the clunky shutter speed SL aperture needing to set that up I Found that it was a little bit Unnecessarily complicated again I'm very
Familiar with setting up cameras Including Fuji cameras I found that I Had to fool around things for a little Bit because the relationship between Auto mode and then command mode gets a Little convoluted here there's also no Mode dial here and so say if I wanted to Switch from AV mode to manual mode I Have to make multiple changes here it's Not that I can just select manual mode And there's an automatic kind of handoff So to speak of the various control Schemes here and so again the the Ergonomics here I don't actually love Myself because there is no mode dial the Drive button in the back interestingly s Kind of as that function that's where You access things like Brack in or Panorama even your movie mode is access Through there and so obviously you don't Have a completely separate control Scheme set up for movie mode it has to Be accessed there now the touchcreen on The back is a tilting they have expanded A bit the tilting range it's still you Know somewhat limited but a little bit More than what was available before on The X100 series it is a 3in 1.62 million Dot resolution touchscreen uh Unfortunately I have yet to see I Started reviewing Fuji products at the Xt3 level I have yet to see any Improvements to their touchscreens Unfortunately they're still not as
Responsive as the competition uh you Can't navigate menus outside of the Q Menu with them I just I would love to See some improvement to the touchscreen Functionality here other controls are Pretty conventional and obviously you Can you assign custom values to it there Is a little bit of a joystick that helps With navigation on the right side of the Camera there is actually the port that Has a couple of connection ports here Including a combination a mic input also A remote shutter release both in that 3.5 mm Jack there's USBC here that can Be used for communication Ando charging Battery and Camera there is a micro USB Output the other side of the camera Actually has the very useful uh switch And this case it's a switch for manual Focus continuous autofocus or single Shot mode as you probably figured out The card slot is on the bottom and the Really unfortunate thing here with the Upgrade to 40 megapixels and higher Resolution video is it's still not just Only an SD card slot it is a UHS one Only compatible so UHS 2 offers up you Know transfer speeds up to three times Faster than UHS one really unfortunate Here because that does have a practical Slowdown of buffer buffer depth as we'll See in just a moment battery pack is Unchanged here it is still the NP W126s uh battery pack it is rated for
450 shots here at kind of optimal Settings and it can drop down to a Little over 300 depending on the mode That you're using biggest kind of Limitation here is if you're wanting to Shoot 4K video at the higher specs the Battery will last for about 45 minutes Which is not very long you're probably Going to want to get a spare or two this Is the first of this camera series to Allow direct upload to the cloud from The camera itself which is obviously a Useful function there as noted earlier It does come with an inbody image Stabilization system and um you know Some people said well you thought maybe It would be a lens based stabilization Instead it's a camera based Stabilization I'm not sure what the Practical difference is considering You're only ever going to use one lens Here so whether they did it through the Lens or through the camera body I don't Think that it really made much of a Difference but they were able to Miniaturize it and make it work here so Kudos to them on that and uh I mean Practically because there's only one Lens you can very quickly do the math as To what six stops should come out to Which would be over a slower than one Second shutter speed I don't think that Too many people are going to Successfully handhold a second or more
In my test I was able to get a keeper Rate of about 20% going back to about Five stops at a half second shutter Speed I was able to get and so I mean it Works reasonably well but my experience With lens based stabilization or camera Based stabilization that You' tend to Get more dramatic looking results at Telephoto distances for the simple Reason that there is a practical limit If that shutter is open for a while There's going to be some camera movement And there's only so much that a Stabilization system can do to prevent That and in this case it's good I also Found that it was good for doing video Work if you're doing static shots if You're doing uh slow moving shots where You're moving around however if you try To walk with it it still is going to Give you some some clunky results when You try to walk shooting Video now an unfortunate Omission to the Upgrades here is the fact that we still Have an incredibly convoluted process to Get a full weather sealing obviously the Camera is weather sealed at all of the Points save the lens itself so the easy Fix to that would seem to be creating a Weather sealed lens that's still not What Fuji has done you have to remove The front kind of flange unscrew that You have to screw on adapter and then You need to screw on a filter on top of
That to complete the ceiling that Creates a number of complications not to Mention unnecessary additional expense By the time you buy this adapter and a Filter if you want to get the Fuji adapt Or Fuji filter that matches the camera You're in about another right under $100 US additionally in price it also means That things like the case here it Actually doesn't fit quite as well you Have to cram it in a little bit because It's really designed for the bare lens Not the lens with the weather ceiling Attachment to it it also means that if You're going to use one of the converter Lenses you're going to have to unscrew That assembly because this needs to Thread on into the same place and it Also means that without you know buying That adapter you can't actually use Filters at all here and I'm actually not A big fan your mileage be very I'm not a Big fan of using protection filters Myself if I'm going to throw a filter on There it needs to be serving some Function because you're adding an Additional glass element and additional Complications that can come with that Glass element I find for example I'm far More likely to get smudges and Fingerprints on a filter because of the Process of mounting them than I am on Lenses themselves all of that obviously Can impact your overall image
Quality the other kind of quirky thing About the case and by the way the Accessories from the previous generation All work here I do appreciate that the Uh case itself it is it does add a very Retro look you know cool factor that Again looks like some of my classic slrs Unfortunately though this design is kind Of a twart design to where the two Pieces don't actually attach together And so when you you go to actually shoot And by the way again because I have that Weather ceiling on it is very it's not a It's not a comfortable fit I have to Really really stretch everything to try To get the rear button to click into Place I can eventually do it you can see Looking at the side that everything is Not seating quite right with that web Signal on there but to my current point To actually take a photo you've got to Pull that off and then remove it because It doesn't attach anywhere to the lower Half of the case so that means that with One hand very likely you're going to be Holding on to this or dropping it on the Ground or trying to fit it in a pocket But it's not all that small and trying To take a photo with the other hand I'm Sure that some people love the case I Look at it as being somewhat impractical Myself I will give you a bit of a Breakdown during our Optical sequence Looking at what happens when you attach
The converter lenses one of them makes Switches The View to a little bit wider An angle of view and so going from a 23 Mm adapting down to to a 19 mm um you Know plus the crop factor then and then The telephoto adapter changes from a 23mm angle or lens here to a 33 mm so a Little bit more of a telephoto closer to A 50 mm angle of view and so I mean it There's some clunkiness about that too That we'll we'll come back to when we Look at that these cost you about 350 Bucks a piece by the way so I would say In conclusion when it comes to the the Build and the design here the camera Obviously looks really really cool it Has that kind of it Factor there's no Question about that so the Retro style And the Retro cools or retro controls Does make it look very cool hipster but It also compromises ergonomics at times And so there's some give and take when You go retro so how about autofocus the Autofocus system is essentially the same As what we've been seeing for about Three generations of Fuji cameras it's Still the basic you know combo hybrid of Contrast and phase detect AF that works fairly well though not as Good as what the leading competing Brands do and I I would say that at this Stage I would say that autofocus is Still the weak Link in my opinion of the Whole Fujifilm system no matter what
Camera you're talking talking about but What has been added here is the X-processor 5 which does add on the AI Deep learning for tracking it does make The system work better than it ever has Before now obviously in this case you Really can't separate the performance of The camera and its autofocus system from The actual lens and its own AF system Inside because this is the only lens You'll ever use on this camera and so I Found in doing my test that autofocus Speed is about average it's not Blazingly fast this is obviously not a Linear motor because the Focus motor has A bit of a scratchy field to it it's not Silent in operation and you'll see the Focus speed is fairly good but it's There's a little bit of kind of a double Clutch where it it hits and then it it Kind of resets to make sure that it Focuses lock there so it doesn't have as Much absolute confidence is what the Better lenses and better focus systems Working together are able to achieve And so for Stills I found that I got the Job done uh we used it in a a wedding Ceremony and uh just some street Photography different things and I found That autofocus worked you know it worked Well it got the job done but definitely Not top tier in terms of my experience Your shutter speed here is it's going to Depend on the actual method that you
Choose and so the mechanical shutter has Uh upper burst limit of 11 frames per Second the the uh actual shutter speed Is is capped off at 1/ 14,000 of a Second which by the way this top dial That's as high as it will go is to 1 4,000 of a second which is kind of weird Because if you shift into the electronic Shutter you can get up to 20 frames per Second in burst though by the way with a 1.29 times crop if you want no crop uh Connected there you can shoot up to 13 Frames per second but the shutter speed Limit is 11/ 18,000 of a second which Means you actually can't control that Fully from this upper based dial I Really like Fuji's kind of hybrid Approach setting that you can do where You can choose to have the mechanical Shutter up to a sh certain shutter speed Limit and then it will switch Automatically into the electronic Shutter if you need a faster shutter Speed it's very very useful in real World use now obviously you have pretty Good uh burst speed here but it is Really limited by the buffer depth which Of course is constrained by the right Speed of that UHS one card and card slot And so that means that your buffer depth If you're shooting raws is limited to Just 17 images and so that's going to Give you barely over a you know a a Second or if you're shooting at the 20
Frames per second it's going to be less Than a second of of kind of space to Capture your action before the buffer Fills if you switch to lossless com um Compressed raw it'll drop in it'll Increase to the mid 20s if you go up to A full lossy um compressed raw you'll Get up to the mid-30s and then with Jpegs it's between 80 and 146 depending Upon the burst speed that you choose so This is fine for capturing small burst But this is not a sports camera think of It more as a means of if you're shooting A street or shooting a weding wedding to Be able to kind of shoot off a burst you Capture the perfect facial expression or The you know freezing the movement of a Subject but don't think of it as a Sports camera for video purposes I found That the video Focus pool were fairly Smooth there is a little bit of visible Stepping but a fairly consistent and Smooth process but I didn't find that it Was always confident or initially Accurate it would arrive at a Destination but you could tell it wasn't Quite there and so it would readjust and Get things right so obviously that does Impact the overall um kind of presence Of being in the shot if the you know Focus moves around a bit you're you're Going to see that and be kind of Disconnected from what the you're you Know the person is trying to convey
Through the video footage itself when I Did my hand test to a test between going From the eye to the eye being blocked I Found that it's not as responsive as What I would like and so even though I Was fairly deliberate there were times I Move my hand and I move my hand back and It still hadn't completed that Transition and so it need a little bit More time than what I was giving it even Moving slowly there is some apparent Focus breathing as you might have Noticed it's not severe but it is Present so overall focus is a bit of a Mixed bag is better than what has been In the X100 series before but it's still Not top tier in overall performance as Noted video is improved here uh we can Now do up to 6.2k internal with 10bit Recording or color depth which is great Now if you're going to shoot at 6.2 it Does come with a crop factor it's a 1.23 Times crop factor you can also shoot at 4K 60 and so you have the ability to Slow down your footage later on that has A very mild 1.14 time crop probably Won't notice that too much if you want Zero crop fullframe readout you're going To need to shoot at 4K 30 here you can Also shoot up to 240 frames per second In full HD if you want to really do slow Motion footage uh there's upgrades here As far as the ability to now shoot an F Log 2 you've got hlg for a high dynamic
Range type footage and so you've got you Know some some decent codecs and options Here for the kind of video that you can Shoot and as noted already the addition Of embody image stabilization Dramatically improves your ability to Get running gun footage with this camera In a way like never before I think this Is a better hybrid camera than what the H or the X100 Series has ever been Before we'll talk for a moment about the Lens performance since that is connected To the overall camera performance in a Unique way with a fixed lens like this As noted it is a 35mm equivalent focal Length there is some mild Distortion and Moderate vignette a little bit of pain Cushion Distortion in the lens and about Two stops of vignette uh both of those Things are impacted if you use the Converter lenses however more in that in Just a moment there is some mild Fringing of both the longitudinal and Lateral varieties nothing too severe However I found in testing the Resolution obviously this lens is it is The same lens it was on the last Generation of camera so rather than Having to face 26 megapixels and now has To resolve 40 megapixels which on an Apsc sensor like this that's equivalent Of over 90 megapixels of fullframe Resolution that's a lot of Demand on a Lens and the lens mostly is able to
Handle it I found that the center is Fairly good wide open contrast is a Little bit lacking there is a fairly Consistent drop off as you move across The frame to the corners with the Corners being considerably softer than The center of the frame I found that Contrast really improved when stopping Down from F2 to f2.8 so if you want more Pop to your images that mild stop down To f2.8 makes a huge difference I did Find however when stopping on down to F5.6 to f8 probably optimal range across The frame the corners never really get Pin sharp and so if that's a priority For you they they they get acceptably Sharp and never like really really sharp Defraction will start to set in because Resolution is higher defraction starts To set in at about f8 but becomes more Noticeable by f11 and considerably more Noticeable by F16 the boka from the lens Itself is okay it um you know in some Settings it looked fine in other Settings it got a little bit busy you Can get fairly close and get a decent Level of magnification out of the lens And obviously that helps you to have a More blurred out background but the Quality of the background blur itself is Is okay but it's not exceptionally Good I found that adding on the wide Converter lens added a lot of barrel Distortion and um a tremendous amount of
Vignette vignette qu Quant quantity of Vignette almost doubled adding this on I Also found that it really softened the Image adding on the the telephoto lens Converter adds a little bit of Distortion but a considerably more Amount of vignette a little bit less Vignet than this but at very high levels To where I had to almost max out the Sliders to correct for it I also o found However that this did not soften the Image at all but rather if anything Things looked just as sharp if not Sharper with it attach so thumbs up on That Point now as far as the sensor Performance and the lens performance I Will have a deep dive breakdown at the End of the video if you're interested in That so I'll just give you a little bit Of an overview of the overall sensor Performance if you're not familiar with This 40 megapixel sensor you can find a Deeper Dive by either checking out my Text review or also looking at the video Reviews of the X T5 or the xh2 which Both have the same sensor and I've Reviewed them in detail before this Sensor is the highest level of Resolution on an apsc body that is Currently available and it's very very Useful in a situation where you have a Fixed lens it means that that 23mm lens Has much more room now for cropping or
Using that digital teleconverter I would Say that unless you're really desperate I would skip the actual lens converters If you want multiple lenses then buy an Xt5 and have access to a full range of Lenses uh these are not in my opinion Going to compare to a dedicated lens That covers that focal length and they Aren't really all that much cheaper Either and so I would go with a Different camera if that's really what You want to do but having the ability to Deeply crop means that as a street Camera you have a lot of extra options For framing as a portrait camera etc etc A landscape all of those things so that Resolution is very very useful the Dynamic range here is not at the top of The Heat but it certainly is competitive And Fuji helps things out that if you Shoot in the dr200 OR dr400 mode dr200 Is available at ISO 250 and dr400 is Available at ISO 500 but what those allow you to do is it Opens up to where you're actually Sampling your your highlight information From the lower base resolution or base ISO level where whereas you're sampling Shadow information from your current ISO Setting so it gives you a lot of Additional latitude for recovering Highlights and shadows as a byproduct of That and so that can be a really useful Hack if you want more dynamic range if
You want more on that again check out Those reviews that I've already Mentioned there the iso performance is Really pretty strong here those of you That are coming from the 26 megapixel Sensor I think will be fairly pleased With how well Fuji has managed to Dramatically increase the resolution While keeping the the high ISO Performance level just almost on par With the 26 megapixel sensor it doesn't Mean that it's Flawless and certainly Through ISO 3200 things look great a Little bit worse at 6,400 and then the The native limit at 12,800 there is some visible noise there But particularly if you're wanting to Shoot like an acros and you're shooting Monochromes it still looks really really Fantastic and it's really in that ladder Point it is these film simulations and The ability to tweak them in camera for Both photos and video that really I Think is where the m magic happens this Is a camera that I think above all is For people that really love the ability To get photos that they look they love In camera and to be able to tweak that And customize the looks to get exactly What they're looking for and this camera Gives you a tremendous amount of custom Ability to be able to accomplish that And if you love to shoot jpegs I think That the jpeg engine here is fantastic
Will allow you to really get great Looking images right there in camera one Unfortunate thing on that front is while You can create custom recipes both for Stills and for videos they don't seem to Translate over so you're going to have To recreate those looks for video or Over in Stills if you're wanting to Match the look of photos and video What's interesting here is that the Built-in film simulations they don't if You're bringing in the Raw images they Are not embedded in the Raw image and of Course in the Raw images you have the Ability to to select any of the film Simulations in post all of them in post And add them at at that point however if You're you're customizing a look and Then shooting it in raw even the raws Themselves will have that information Embedded because you don't because it's You don't have the ability to just Instantly recreate that look in post so That's interesting there and I will have To say before I move on from this that I What I love I think above all else from Fuji I do like the new reala ace um film Simulation I think that's a really good One but I love their various Acro Settings I think that the monochromes You're getting out of Fuji is for me Pretty much top tier I really really Love the look of them the overall just Cleanness and pop of them and so I I
Love it for monochrome work so in Conclusion there's actually nothing Really unique here in terms of the Hardware the sensor the autofocus system Even the color science you can get all Of these things in other cameras but I Think it's very obviously the packaging Packaging of the X100 VI that appeals to Certain purist who want simplicity and Want their process capture process to be About the photos rather than about the Gear and clearly Fuji has tapped into a A a large and maybe a growing Market of People that really love the idea of the X100 series and of course I think that People don't mind looking cool while Doing it it's kind of ironic to me in That they're kind of using a lot of film Era design cues here but in all of their Marketing it's not people that shot film Back in the day but rather it's all you Know young hipsters in their 20s walking Around looking very stylish while using This camera and so that really I think Kind of shows what the marketing is About this is designed for people who Are willing to spend money on something They consider to be desirable and love It despite its limitations for the look Of using it what they can produce using It and maybe the way that they look While using it as well this is an Extremely capable camera but it's no More so than what an xt5 is for a
Similar price for example but I think That what Fuji has managed to do is to Distill a lot of the Leica M rang finder Goodness into a camera that has a Similar appeal but is at a fraction of The price and if that happens to suit You then get in line and hope that Someday one of these becomes available For you if you want more information you Can check out my full text review that Is linked in the description it's long It's detailed there's a lot of data There and beyond that if you want to Deeper dive into some of the sensor and Optical performance stay tuned and we'll Do the optical Deep dive right after This so first of all a quick look at the Different framing options you're going To get if you use the original lens Versus the converter with the wide angle And then if you switch to the telephoto Lens converter so you can see you've got Some fairly uh significantly different Framing options though obviously getting There is not quite the convenience of Using a zoom lens now if we turn turn Off the corrections here is what we get In terms of vignette and Distortion you Can see that the there is a little bit Of ping cushion Distortion just a little Bit of a squeeze up that way and then Some heavier uh actual vignet in the Corners my correction here is a minus Three to correct for the the Distortion
And then about a 53 in the corners to Correct for the vignette so a little Less than two stops or right around two Stops nothing too severe there if you Add on the wide angle lens converter However you introduce a lot of barrel Distortion as you can see here and then Also uh a more significant amount of Vignette so you can see that trying to Manually correct it now I I will say That the correction profile does a Fairly good job you can see that without That profile it doesn't correct Perfectly it's not completely linear the Distortion pattern but the amount of Vignette here is like a plus 95 so a Really significant amount of venette so If you throw on the Telly lens converter You'll get a instead of the barrel Distortion you get a fairly heavy pin Cushion Distortion here about a plus 13 To correct for it very slightly less Vignette though still a very significant Amount about A Plus 90 so three or four Points less but still a lot to correct For in this case the correction is a Little bit more linear and so I could Get a pretty clear looking result um After manually correcting it now the Ability to deeply crop uh the 40 Megapixels of resolution is incredibly Useful here so take this shot for Example it was shot from towards the Back and so 23 millim doesn't get you
Really close enough to the action but The ability to deeply crop in and still Have good resolution if you tried to Crop in like this on a uh iPhone for Example indoors your resolution would Look like mush but you can see that There's still nice Clarity and detail There even after a deep crop in fact Right here we're at 100% of a crop now Before I give you a chart test kind of Torture test I want to give you some Real world perspective and so here at f2 You can see shooting through the window This is real Ace here as far as the look You can tell that there's there's very Very nice detail I mean even on 40 Megapixels everyone would be happy with That as an end result this shot also at F2 this is an across monochrome here and You can see that even though this lens Doesn't have amazing contrast up close You know everything is I think Acceptable for most purposes stopping it Down a bit and we can see that at a Pixel level there's a lot of information There I mean obviously this is a big Scene with lots of detail and we can see As we work towards the edges this is F7.1 that while the edges may not be Flawless they really look pretty good And so looking here at the other side You can see that I mean this is a Perfectly useful image even at 40 Megapixels no one would have too many
Complaints about that so going to the Chart here at 200% magnification you can See that contrast is okay fairly good in The center of the frame and detail is Fairly good mid-frame is still looking Pretty good as we scroll down towards The corners however you can see that the Corner resolution is okay but not Exceptional and so you can see that There's a bit of a drop off towards the Corners from F2 to f2.8 you can see that There's a pretty dramatic Improvement of The contrast in particular in the center Of the frame the detail looks much Better as an end result of that Mid-frame is also looking better and the Corners you can see see there's a little Bit of of contrast Improvement but as is Going to be a trend you can see that as Far as the actual detail radically Improving it just isn't happening now to Give you some real world perspective Here's F2 here's f3.5 same scene here And you can see if you compare these two Um sides just how much more contrast There is and so the fine textures of the Grass underneath the frost crystals it Just pops on the right side whereas the Left side we're left with a little bit Of softness of course the trade-off here Is that there is more defocus the Background's a little more nicely Blurred obviously at The Wider aperture So at F4 and f5.6 we're hitting pretty
Well Peak here in terms of optical Performance looking really sharp and a Little bit better at f5.6 we can see That that carries off not quite to the Corners you can see that they are Improved coming back here for a moment Improved but not great yet and that is Fairly true we can see it's better Looking actually up here in the left Corner and up here in the right corner Uh it's it's okay but it's not Exceptionally sharp now after f8 you'll Start to see the effects of defraction So if we take a look here in the center Of the frame you can see we're starting To get softer at f11 and softer still at F-16 due to defraction so as noted Previously adding on the wide angle Converter here which gets you to 19 mm It has a pretty unfortunately Significant softening effect at least in The version that I use used and so I can Really see a pretty high reduction of Contrast uh everywhere that I look the Image is softened I can stop things all The way down to f5.6 and as you can see It's still not as sharp or high contrast As what the original or bare lens is Wide open at f2 now interestingly that's Not really the case when you add on the Telly lens converter here and so it is Gives you a 33 mm angle of view you can See that looking in the center of the Frame you know the contrast actually
Looks a tin bit better with the lens Converter on there it's you know right Here I would say it's it's I would Probably favor the bare lens into the Corners you can see that there's some Reduced contrast but when you stop down There's actually a much more radical Improvement in the corners at f2.8 with The teleconverter attached than what There is with the bare lens it's kind of An oddity that I've not really seen Before over on this side again the Further you get away from Center the More Improvement I think that there is Relative to to what you see from the the Center Performance so I would say what Happens when these Optics are added is That maybe you you lose a tiny bit of Center Performance but you actually gain When it comes to the corners of the Frame which definitely look better so as Noted previously you can get a Reasonable amount of defocus if you get Close to your subject but you're going To find that the bokeh quality it's it's It never gets like creamy as in a Premium lens is going to accomplish There's a little bit more Edge than what I would like sometimes a little bit more Busyness and so bouquet quality is is Good but it's not great finally just a Couple of sensor observations so in this Shot you've got a lot of dynamic range Obviously you've got a bright sky and
Then you've got some deep Shadow Underneath the bridge here and so There's details obviously that got Obscured but because we do have good Dynamic range in this sensor you have The ability to really pull open those Shadows basically as much as you want And you can see that there's a little Bit of fine noise noise that's been Added in here but overall the image There's there's no banding or anything Ugly showing up the detail still looks Very good and I've got the ability also To pull back in the sky a bit more There's not a whole lot to recover in This particular image so you have the Latitude to really open things up there So finally when it comes to the high ISO Performance this is at the top of the Iso range ISO 12,800 autofocus Definitely slowed down to get this shot Cuz I was shooting very not a dark room But an extremely dim room and you can See here looking at the image as a whole That there certainly is some visible Noise pattern here but it doesn't look Terrible there's not any kind of color Banding or patches the primary kind of Negative that I see that if I looking Close is that you've got some scattered Like hot pixels there and so the shadow Information isn't as good as what what I Would love to see you can see that the Detail is held up really nicely that's
Not a problem here at all and and and so This is still what I would consider a Usable image even if there is a look to It that is the result of that kind of Grain that is everywhere an easy way to Fix that is to just choose one of these Monochrome conversions and you can see That there are still a few of those hot Pixels that show up here and there but The overall look of the grain is Pretty Natural here for a monochrome conversion And so I think that at high ISO if you Don't mind shooting monochrome they Still look pretty cool to my eye as Always thanks for watching to the very End if you absorbed all of this I hope It has helped you to make an informed Decision about the X100 VI thanks for Watching have a great day and let the Light in [Music]
