My First Week with the Fujifilm X100S

When I heard about the Fujifilm X100 cameras 12 months ago, I had zero knowledge of the hype and the surrounding community. I’ve used Olympus and Canon systems throughout the years, and I finally settled on the Sony A7 (the original). I’ve always been a bit of a vintage girly and I am drawn to the possibility of Fujifilm camera’s ability to achieve that retro/vintage aesthetics in-camera. As I started browsing Flickr galleries, Reddit threads and Instagram tags for X100 photos, I loved the various creative angles, mood and tone of the images presented.

While the Sony A7 is a great, flexible camera, I’ve always found the images to be a bit…sterile. I would always use Lightroom presets to adjust the tone, contrast, colour temperature etc. to achieve a particular aesthetic that captures accurately the vibe or moment I wanted to share. However I started finding the post-processing tedious and time-consuming, so I haven’t reached out for my camera as much. The Fujifilm X100V seems like the perfect solution: retro camera styling, fixed lens, and gorgeous colour profiles (film sims). The only catch was: 1. they’re ridiculously expensive 2. They’re unavailable. So I thought I would wait until the next iteration comes out.

It’s been four months since the X100VI was released, and the X100V is still ridiculously overpriced.

I’ve got a budget to stick to and refuse to spend more than $1,000 for a used, fixed-lens camera more than two years old. Plus, I’ve never used a Fujifilm camera and not sure if it’s my cup of tea. Anyway, I started browsing on Facebook Marketplace and realised quickly the only Fujifilm X100 series I could afford was the X100S, the second iteration, released in 2013. There are various issues with it: slow autofocus, not-great battery life, and only three custom settings, as opposed to 7 custom settings in the newer versions of the X100 series. But they’re issues I can work around as a hobby photographer still weaning myself off the full-auto mode (happy to say I’ve moved on to Aperture Priority these days).

So, on what was one of Melbourne’s coldest, stormy days, a man drove across town to exchange his Fujifilm X100S for some cold, hard cash. Up till that point, I had never held a Fujifilm camera. I could regret it…and I did.

First Impression of the Fujifilm X100S

It’s so beautiful!! I adore the retro styling: the knobs and the dials, the steel grey against the textured black… my internal vintage girly was screaming. I’m also impressed by how light it is, compared to my Sony A7. I can already see this is a camera I will use for casual, daily shoots.

Once I got everything set up and ready to shoot, I felt a bit flat. The auto-focus isn’t just bad, it’s terrible! The focus point was tiny and wouldn’t focus on the areas I wanted the camera to. Is it faulty? Is it just bad?

I did manage to get some accidental nice shots with a Monochrome filter on though.

The low light and action shots were worse! Everything was blurry. Unusable.

AF-C vs. AF-S

I wanted to cry at that point and sell the camera on Facebook Marketplace. I’m glad I didn’t because I discovered the camera had been on AF-C (autofocus continuous) mode, which means the camera finds focus continuously while the shutter is being pressed. This is not good for me because I tend to compose my shot, and then press the shutter. AF-S (autofocus single) mode is what I should have on, where there’s a function to select the point and the size of the focus area.

Once I am in AF-S mode, everything falls into place. The camera finally is starting to do what I wanted it to do and produce the type of images I wanted it to. I’m also starting to enjoy the camera a lot more. I appreciate the in-built colour profiles (film simulations) that are modelled off Fujifilm’s film stock. They do make images pop, or evoke a certain vibe, without having to spend too much time in post-processing. That way I can focus on composition and storytelling.

Film Simulation (Custom Settings)

I find it so ironic that at the point where our phone cameras can produce realistic, crisp, crystal-clear images, we are manipulating our digitally generated images to look like they come out of film cameras. The retro styling of the camera and the availability to adjust colour profiles in-camera enables the creation of digital images that mimic film stock. A browse on TikTok, Reddit and various forums has given me a quick crash course on “film sim”. I appreciate the ability and ease to create images that evoke a different vibe just by manipulating colour profiles etc. I gave a whir of two “recipes” from Fuji X Weekly (my poisons of choice: Classic Chrome and Colour Negative Standard), and I got the hype! No, I’m hyped!

I was eating breakfast and admiring the shadows dancing against the wall. So I set the task of recreating the warm, high-contrast yet dark mood from Wong Kar Wai’s ‘In the Mood for Love’. Here’s a snapshot of some photos I got, straight out of the camera without editing:

The film simulations are fun and the gratification is high. I would love to pick up a film camera camera again, but I don’t have the budget for overexposed shots. As an amateur, I want to learn composition, light, shadow and how to achieve a certain look and feel by manipulating the camera settings. So far, the Fujifilm X100S ticks all the boxes with its light form factor. I feel more inclined to pick up the camera and just shoot. It’s the only way to get better at taking photos.

First Week Thoughts

My first week with a new camera system started kind of rocky (complete with a rainstorm). The question that was constantly on the back of my mind was whether I should’ve splurged on the newer versions. At the end of my first week, I was content with my decision:

1. I have a fun camera that I am not going to be precious about, which means I am more likely to take it out with me.
2. I love the ability to create different colour profiles in-camera, which saves me time spent on post-processing in Lightroom. But I also cringe at the word “recipe”.
3. I am glad I didn’t spend the extra money to get the X100V or X100VI. It wouldn’t have made any difference to my photos.

Nostalgia: The Pain from an Old Wound

With that being said, In due time I will probably upgrade to X100V, X100VI, or maybe swap my Sony for the X-T5. Fujifilm hit the jackpot with the X100 series. As a designer and marketer, the craze around Fujifilm X100V (and VI) craze reminds me of the infamous Kodak Carousel monologue in Mad Men: nostalgia is an incredibly potent emotion. More than megapixels or AI technology, we want to be taken back to a place we know we are loved; a place where we ache to go again and again.

Fujifilm is our Kodak Carousel: We’re jaded from big tech and fearful of AI. We yearn for the simpler times, when birthday parties, kisses from Mum, family holidays and unsupervised yard time were sepia-hued, grainy and just a bit out-of-focus.