Review Fuji X100s

By Matt Gore/iconphotomedia

FUJI X100s Review and Images - Tested on the Streets of NYC April 2013

All images Matt Gore ©2013 Please do not copy



It was a close call but the Fuji X100s arrived the day before I was due to fly to New York. I have to say a big thank you to  Fuji and to London Camera Exchange Southampton for getting it to me in time.

So a 6 hour flight to get my head around the instruction manual...or watch all the 'Die Hard' movies back to back(?) .... I arrived in New York with a very basic grasp of the cameras functionality and faith in what one man can do when the chips are down!

Before I start I want to say - I am no Equipment Reviewer, I am a working Photographer based in London.  I have been searching for a long time to find a digital camera that gives me film like performance on the street equal or bettering the Performance of my Voitlander bessa cameras. 

This review is based upon my personal experience over the course of a week shooting everyday in NYC with only this Camera and a 'learn as I go attitude' The technical will be very brief to say the least - their are loads of great review sites out there....in this review I will concentrate on the Camera for Street photography and Reportage use...it's made for it!!














Styling and Durability

The look... Awesome! It looks the absolute business, feels it too. Solid well built and elegant. I had heard talk on the net of the welcome return to embossed steel casing, and I whole heartedly agree with the feeling 'why the hell did they stop making em like this'? As testament to this tough little trooper its first day of ownership with me in New York I bounced it straight on the concrete in front of my Hotel. Hadn't walked more than 10 paces!!! 
I don't think it was the strap, more likely the fabric of my jacket,  the camera slipped straight off my shoulder - I mistook the pull on my arm for trouble (hey I was Upper Westside by the Park, can't be too careful those limos may just be on lease!?!) The Camera bares a tiny nick on the based plate - but none worse for wear! 

Score: Styling 9/10 Durability 9/10 




Performance and Use

The Camera is so beautifully inconspicuous, it allows you to work quickly and a effectively. It's a shoe in for street photographers and photo journalist the world over! Due to its quality it's also a legitimate 2nd/back up Camera in your Pro kit especially when size and weight are issues. When set up to be, the Camera is totally silent and if you disguise your finger depression I found I could shoot directly looking at people. 

I don't know the numbers but their is a shutter lag when compared to my Nikon D3x I was also fooled a few times by the use of the hybrid viewfinder. Again when set, it will preview the scene on the back then as you move the Camera to you eye it turns off the back screen and goes to electronic viewfinder. On taking the image the viewfinder displays the image - which I found useful at times and distracting at others, often confusing reality with the image and vise versa.
 







My main gripe is a stand out - the battery just doesn't last. Now I am sure you can turn off the electronic viewfinder and turn off the display at the back etc and conserve power but even in the instruction manual it only advertises 330 frames with a fully charged battery and that is most probably under 'preferable conditions' I have purchased a 2nd battery as it's essential Hahnel do them at about £20. My battery ran out every day while I was still shooting and just to warn you it's like a Profoto - One minute you have power the next...dead!  I approximate I was getting 150 - 200 raw frames before it gave up the ghost! 








Score : Performance 7/10 Use 8/10


The files, Colour Rendition and Image Quality. 

This little Camera punches way way way above it's weight. The files are a dream to work with, aside from the rather Pedestrian Raw Converter software supplied, the files look smooth, sharp as a tack and respond well to adjustment and post. Colour rendition under mix lighting is clean and true. I like the pre programed 'Film looks' you can set. They have featured a setting for all the old favourites Velvia, Astia, Provia etc that reproduce that film stocks characteristics and behaviour. They also have included those slightly cheesy 'punch, toy, vintage settings you see in Aperture and Iphoto. 
When you view one of the 40mb files at 100% it takes you a minute to just comprehend that you shot it on the little fella and haven't confused it with a DSLR card.

Take a look... 100% first then 200%




And Colour rendition is true and faithful


This quality performance along with the cameras speed, usability and discreet looks is why many reviewers are calling it 'One of the best cameras ever made' I am already starting to see why!

Score: Image Quality 10/10



Pro's and Cons

The Pros...Speed - Handling, Writing and Processing all super fast.
Size and Looks
Fill Flash is mind blowingly good! It just looks right!
Layout and Controls. Proper dial knobs and stuff.
Silent inconspicuous operation 
Fast Shutter sync
Legitimate 2nd Camera for a Professional
Affordable (when compared to the finest German manufacturer)
Image Quality and Colour Rendition
Lens Qualilty


The Fill flash as seen here 'Post no Bills' Set to Fire always, camera on Aperture Priority with a 1/2 stop under exposure compensation and the flash knocked down a 1/3 (note I burnt in the edges of the hoarding a touch)

The Cons....

Battery life is terrible, buy a spare in fact get two!

RAW conversion software supplied is quite pedestrian 

Fix lens will bother some but not me!

No file support from Aperture, Photo shop etc yet. At time of writing April 2013

Not a great high ISO performer as compared to the unbelievable numbers SLRs are doing.

MY SUMMARY

Buy it!!! or at least one of the others in the range...it's awesome and you won't regret it!

Bravo Fuji!!! This is a Proper good camera and meets the requirements of so many different types of Photographer!!

I think it's a shoe in for any Photographer  interested in Street, Documentary or Photojournalism. It's ability to grab a high quality image with manual intuative control makes it great for so many other photographers too. It starts to make me think about my equipment configuration and whether a move to medium format is made a little closer with the addition of this Camera in my bag?

This Camera wants to take great pictures - you feel it as soon as it's in your hand - whoever you are and whatever you need from Photography this Camera warrants your attention.


Priced around £1099 Available now.

Keep an eye here on the blog as it won't be too long before I post job images shot on the x100s
All Images Matt Gore


Light It, Shoot It, Retouch It! Learn Photography and Photoshop Online with Scott Kelby!

Is that a camera in your pocket??

By Matt Gore icon photographer

I have always tried to keep a decent camera close to hand. Back in my news days I was seeking my fortune, I remember reading that one of my favourite photographers  Sebastião Salgado having photographed the assassination attempt on president Reagan in 1981 made enough money from the picture sales to give up day to day news assignments and ultimately concentrate on the amazing feature work he is now renown for.


Salgado was on a story covering the president's first 100 days in office. Reagan was speaking at a hotel in Washington. Because Salgado had eight pages to fill and needed lots of different shots he left the hotel just before the speech finished to capture Reagan leaving the building - 200 other photographers stayed inside the hall and got pictures of him smiling and shaking hands. "I started to take pictures just as the man [John Hinckley] started shooting," says Salgado. "Because I was on this story for the New York Times I had been driven to the hotel with security men, so they knew who I was, and I was actually standing inside the security ring when it happened." But he doesn't like showing the pictures or talking about them too much. "It gets so much attention that I could become just the photographer who took the pictures of the assassination attempt on President Reagan. (exert from Guardian newspaper article)
Read the full article by clicking here  well worth it.


I can't ever remember shooting anything on the tiny pocket sized and decent Olympus XA I kept in the car glove box ready loaded with Fuji 400 but the thought was there.


 I did also keep my favourite ever film SLR the Nikon FM with a small 50mm and a roll of Ilford FP4 as close to hand as I could during this time, this was was for opportune street pictures or 'snaps' as Elliot Erwitt describes the breath taking images he shoots between photography assignments and better things. Since 2000 I have shot a lot of these 'snaps' and although I have yet to make my fortune selling any of them, that is unless you count the framed print I sold to the sponsor of an exhibition I had in 2002 for £200. I think his wife wanted the 20 x 30 framed, mounted hand print of a Venice street scene as a splash back for her hob!

Baby on Charge, Northampton 2002  Picture by Matt Gore

Here is one of my favourites from that time, shot on my Nikon FM which I carried in my domke camera bag for Newspaper jobs as a staffer on the local paper in 2001-03


The baby was photographed in the reception of the paper I worked at, I always used the visitors car park instead of the main staff car park as it was right next to the building and subsequently the dev machine (yes we worked film in 2002 and used developer and stuff) and I needed to get my pictures in. For some unfathomable reason the photographers car parking was always allocated at the back of the very large car park, a good 400 metre walk past all the office bound editors, assistant editors, sub editors and reporters cars.






Nowadays I have gone digital with my 'snaps' camera, admittedly with mixed results. For some reason digital doesn't feel right with this type of work, I can't explain why. I think reading other keen street photographers such as in-public founder and serial street shooter Nick Turpin's blog the Leica M9 seems to get it right but it's pricey and I like to chuck my street camera around. At £7000 with a lens attached I'm not sure I would ever feel comfortable.
At present I'm trying out the Olympus Pen EP-2 I have the viewfinder attachment and the 17mm pancake lens. It's the modern equivalent of the secondhand XA I used to run around with 10 years ago.




Here's me at work with it a few months ago. The heavens are about to open, me and the camera are about to get drenched so good job it wasn't £7000 worth!

Olympus PEN EP-2 with 17mm Pancake Lens by Matt Gore

I encourage any photographer or visual communicator whatever the media to go out into the street and shoot what attracts the eye, finding order and symmetry in the chaos is challenging and difficult but highly rewarding and has real sense of achievement. I feel the work I do on the street has a positive effect on my commercial work and portraiture. Recently my commercial photography has involved more and more production, lighting, set up, technique etc it's a refreshing change to strip that back and work with a single lens, ambient light and timing. One of my all time favourite quotes that's key in the approach to street photography is by the fantastic William Klein 'I photograph things to see what they look like photographed' say's it all really.

I will be posting more street photography in the future, plus any thoughts or comments I have on the olympus PEN ep-2 camera and it's uses for this type of photography.

Image left - Photographed by Matt Gore using the Olympus PEN EP2 camera 17mm Pancake Lens and VF-2 Viewfinder. Ramsgate Beach, kent, UK

Cardiff Museum, Voitlander Bessa R with 50mm lens by Matt Gore

Above Cardiff Museum kids playing hide and seek shot on the glorious and fantastic value for money Voitlander Bessa R with 50mm lens. Below 'tits' written in weed killer Abington park, Northampton.

Nikon D100 SLR, 35-80 F2.8 lens, by Matt Gore

 

Section 44 I'm a photographer not a terrorist

By Matt Gore - Photographer, iconphotos


As a street photographer (street photography and techniques in future posts, please check some of the work out at www.iconphotomedia.com) I have always been a keen supporter of http://photographernotaterrorist.org/ a collective of photographers determined to defend photography, press freedom and the creation of visual history in the United Kingdom.


 I received my own rather embarrassing section 44 back in November last year near Westminster, London. It was embarrassing as a new assistant, Adam, had just met me for the first time to discuss a shoot he was due to assist me with the very next day. After coffee and a chat about the state of professional photography and his future prospects,  I decided it would be a really good idea to have a recce of where I would shoot the magazine portrait and talk him through what I had planned. I literally only dropped two frames before we were challenged by two 'plastic' police, they were actually quite charming and friendly yet quite insistent on having to do a section 44 even though I explained what I was doing and showed the two (slightly over as I hadn't even got my exposure close yet) frames.  

I couldn't help myself shooting this cheeky frame as officer LX 7256 filled the details out. As of 8th July section 44 was suspended in the house of commons and photographers across the UK can now get on with their jobs without constantly being harassed by Police officers and Security Guards most of which are never nearly as friendly as the officer pictured here.