Fujifilm X100S – “the pocket-XPro”

Never wanted to write one of these “it’s been a little quiet here” posts, but it actually was a little quiet here 😦

2013 has been busy so far, since I started to earn some money with my photography besides my main job as a sales manager. My respect goes to all those brave freelancers and full-time professionals out there, I just dipped my toe into the pro-water and am soooo glad to have that financial backing of my main job. Furthermore its kind of nice to switch to “non-photographic” thoughts now and then.

By the way, that’s why I also have some changes/updates regarding this website on my agenda – but filed this under “Priority: C” at the moment…

Anyway, I guess almost 80% of my photography will still be private pleasure and so as casual as it’s always been. The only challenge will be to find enough spare time for that. Speaking of private-pleasure-photography, I’m totally in love with Fujifilms X-system. This company exactly knows what some of us highly GAS-infected photographers want. The X-Pro1 is…ahh…I just love it! Period. Nothing feels better than grabbing my (black) dothebag Mono 06 with all those Xquipment inside (actually, the X-Pro1, her 4 Fujinon primes, an EF-X20 flash and stuff like the X-Pro Hand Grip, batteries/SD-Cards etc. fits in there nicely), and heading downtown to enjoy some hours of shooting with this awesome pieces of kit. But in spite of the fact that an X-Pro1 with a Fujinon XF prime isn’t actually a large/heavy camera (compared to a DSLR that’s capable of a similar output quality), it’s still that little bit to hefty to just slip it over your shoulder and take it with you everyday/everywhere.

Yes, I know:  there will be a Fujinon XF pancake lens later this year, and yes, there already is the tiny little Fujinon XF 18mm/F2.0 R with its pancake-like design; but I neither wanted to wait for the pancake, nor am I one of those (enviable) photographers that can manage to shoot everything with just a 28mm (FF equiv.) lens. Even 35mm (equiv.) is still a wide affair to me, since I already confessed to be a “50mm-guy”. But I have to admit that something between 35 and 40mm would be the perfect focal length for everyday-everywhere-use. That’s why I still used a trusty old Olympus PEN E-P1 with the lovely Panasonic LUMIX G 20mm/F1.7 ASPH pancake (40mm equiv.) for this purpose. After falling in love with the X-system last year, I was already thinking about replacing the PEN with a Fujifilm X100 – especially when Fuji released that extremely sexy “limited” Black Edition – but I couldn’t justify spending 4-5 times the price of the PEN (a good second hand E-P1 comes in for less than € 170,- on eBay & Co, and even the “PanaLeicake” isn’t that expensive anymore) for an everyday camera with more quirks than the X-Pro and the PEN together, and even without that beloved X-trans awesomeness 😉

But just 1 year later, it’s here. The thing that pulls the € 1.200,- out of my pocket easily. The facelift of the X100. Fuji listened to their customers feedback and made everything right (imho). No dramatic design changes, no revolution, no mainstreaming of the concept/look. I’ll stop here with tech/spec-stuff about the X100S since there are so many blogs and reviews out there, praising and testing the heck out of the new model (my personal favorite is Zack Arias’ “a camera walks into a bar”). The only thing Fuji didn’t give me (and many other photographers), is a black version of the X100S. But I guess they’re preserving that for another (even more expensive) “limited” Black Edition, and I guess I’ll even buy that BE version as soon as it becomes available 😦

Anyway, I have a small and light “pocket-XPro” for my everyday-use now. And the Easter Weekend gave me at least one hour of acceptable weather to shoot the X100S between two familial obligations in Frankfurt/Main. This isn’t a wannabe-review, just some thoughts of someone who enjoyed taking a few casual (and unspectacular) shots with his new toy…

Sir Benni Miles

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Quiet happy the OVF “knew” what I wanted to focus on in this one:

Sugar

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Steps

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Panning is what the OVF was made for:

Cornering

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Oh yes, the X100S definitely is faSt! But that doesn’t help anything if the photographer is slow. After I shot the cornering C-class Merc above, I caught myself “chimping” on the display to check the shot while this much more interesting classic SL approached from the left:

190 SL

…damn, although the Fuji got ready to shoot in next to 0,0 seconds, I didn’t get a shot including the beautiful front of this automotive classic, fitted with those awesome yellow fog lights 😦

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Someone killed a tree in downtown Frankfurt/Main:

Smiley

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Bench

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Let me fill this X100S-related blog post with some more images I’ve shot with that gem this weekend:

monitor self portrait

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Carolin

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business vespa

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cabin & shoes

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No real need for the Macro Mode on shots like this with the X100S. But using the EVF is self-evidently:

tired pug

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 Category: digital, gear, photography, street      Tagged: camera, First Impressions, Frankfurt/Main, Fujifilm, Fujifilm X100S, gear, hybrid viewfinder, PDAF, street, X100

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