I have a Fujifilm X100VI, mainly to be a fun walkabout camera. For that, it's expensive, but thanks to generous parents, I had the money, just as there was finally stock available. I've only had it a few days at the time of writing, but I'm really enjoying it so far. A few early thoughts: - I have no idea if it can or will replace my Sony. It's way more limited, but it's also way more fun. - The autofocus isn't as bad as I feared. Yes, Sony is better. But for the most part, with my [[Sony A7iii]], I was using single point AF, and back-button focussing. I rarely let the camera choose what to focus on, and rarely needed continuous AF. For basic single-shot AF, the Fuji is just fine. - Instead of setting up back button focus, I realised I can just use single-shot AF, get it focussed, then switch to manual focus using the switch on the side of the camera, and get pretty much the same result. - While the different control system doesn't make a huge practical difference to me, it seems very elegant. Aperture, shutter speed and ISO are all on dials. Set any of them to 'A', and that's automatic. Set them all to A, you're in 'program' mode; set the Aperture to an actual value, leave the others on Auto, you're in 'aperture priority'. No need for modes, just set what you care about, leave the rest on auto. - Film Simulations and recipes are really good. It can make nice-looking JPEGs straight out of camera. I don't like spending much time editing, so that's great for me. Well, I say JPEGs... - It can actually save as HEIF files, instead of JPEGs. Since I'm all-in on Apple stuff, that's the native format in Photos anyway. - For some reason, the Clarity setting is disabled when saving HEIF files, but most of the advice I've seen has said to never use it anyway - it makes the camera much slower, taking half a second or so to save each image. - After a bit more use, I found Apple Photos really doesn't handle Fuji's HEIF files well. It's a 'container' format, so Fuji's implementation could be very different from Apple's. Photos would take ages to open at full resolution, and ages to export. Switching to JPEGs makes bigger files, but they work much more smoothly. I *think* this is on Apple to fix, so hopefully it will improve at some point. At least until then, I'm back to using JPEGs. - I took it out for a walk, set it use Classic Chrome Film Simulation, switched to the optical viewfinder, and just took photos. No previewing what they'd look like, no reviewing. Just waited until I got home, and copied them to my phone to look at. Kinda fun. - This isn't how I'd usually use the camera, but I'll probably do it again, with different film simulations or recipes. Would probably be interesting to do in monochrome, too. - I did the same with monochrome later. It *was* interesting. - Fuji's XApp is much better than the Sony equivalent. Once you've told the camera to use 5GHz WiFi, it's reasonably fast. It even sends a push notification to prompt you to copy the images over, and transfers GPS data to the camera from your phone (which Sony does too, tbf). It can copy things over when the camera is off, but keeps copying if you switch it on and start taking more photos. - Those push notifications just stopped working after a while. GPS data isn't entirely reliable, but not too bad. Overall, it's still way better than the Sony app was, at least for me with the A7iii. - The buttons and dials generally feel pretty good. Mostly, they feel *really* good, tbh. But the shutter button doesn't, which is the most important one. It's not *bad* as such, but there's quite a bit of travel that does nothing, then a fair bit more pressure is needed to get to the 'half press' point. Then not *much* more to get to full press. I'm getting used to it, but for a while I was taking photos when I only meant to focus, and wondering why it wasn't focussing when I hadn't pushed far enough. ## Recipes and Custom Settings Before getting the camera and experimenting, I hadn't really understood the difference between Film Simulations and Recipes, though it turned out to be pretty much what I'd assumed - a Recipe is just the combination of a specific Film Simulation and some custom tweaks. Usually they are intended to look like some other type of film, but not necessarily. The thing I hadn't understood, though, was that they're really just a way people use the camera's Custom Settings. My Sony had a couple of custom 'modes', which would save a whole bunch of settings, to apply when you set the dial to that setting. Fuji has something very similar, where you can have the 'normal' settings, then up to seven 'Custom Settings'. They can be named, and saved, and you can set up a dial to switch between them. But using them for recipes is just one way to use them. Along with colour adjustments, film simulation setting, white balance changes, highlights and shadows adjustments and other image settings, they can include things like focussing and metering modes, Auto ISO settings, and quite a few other things. So you might have one for street photography, and one for portraits, one for low light photography, and one for when you hand the camera to someone else to use and need it to be easy. But the most common use is to save a Film Simulation along with all the tweaks to make it something different. ### My Use of Them Initially, I used them for recipes, to try out different looks. But after a while, I moved to having a couple of recipes and some 'modes', for specific types of photography that need specific settings, like 'Pets' for photographing Blossom, and 'Sunbeam' for spot metering for a beam of sunlight and underexposing the rest. I'm still experimenting and learning, but I think that's probably how they'll stay, maybe trying to move towards three or four for general use recipes, and three or four 'modes'. ## The Q Menu The Q menu is a pretty nice feature on Fuji cameras, but I found it a bit of a pain to access. It gets its own special Q button to activate it, but the button is on the rear grip part, and it's tiny and flush, so I found it hard to find by feel, and hard to push reliably. So I reassigned it to the button next to the shutter button. Handy and easy to find. But then I realised I was hitting that button, then using front and rear command dials to move around the menu. So I reassigned it to pushing the rear command dial. So now, I push the rear command dial, then immediately change the settings with the two command dials. Push it again, and I'm done. The first item on the Q menu selects your Custom Settings, or Recipes, so usually, when I want to switch recipe, it's just push command dial, rotate to the one I want, push again. I've put Film Simulations in the second position in the Q menu, so changing those is almost as quick, just adding in one roll-click of the front command dial to change which setting I'm changing. ## What Is It? Technically, it's a compact camera. No interchangeable lenses, no zoom. Photo-centric - it can do video (and pretty well), but it's very much designed for stills photography first. By the standards of 'compact' cameras, it's relatively big and heavy. On paper, it doesn't make a huge amount of sense. But it has a relatively big sensor - APS-C, so a bit smaller than full frame, but larger than Micro Four Thirds and much larger than most compact cameras or phone sensors. And it's got dials and buttons that make it very tactile to use, even compared to many high-end mirrorless cameras. Add in the leaf shutter, flash, ND filter, and film simulations, and it's a pretty power-packed camera in a fairly small size. ### The Hype In some ways, the most notable thing about the X100 series, from the X100V to the VII, is the hype surrounding them. They got famous on TikTok and Instagram for being great cameras that can give a 'film-like' look, and for photos that don't need any editing. I expected the second-hand market to get flooded with them, as non-photographers rushed to buy them because of the hype, then sold them on when they realised you actually needed a bit of knowledge and experience to get good results. But that doesn't seem to have happened, so either they're getting what they want of out them, or they're putting in the work to learn to use them. Or maybe there are a lot just sitting on shelves, looking pretty for TikTok backgrounds. Honestly, I'm pretty hopeful that a lot of new people are learning photography to get the results they want out of these cameras. ## My Settings These settings won't be right for everyone. My style of photography, and how I use this camera will probably be different from yours. I'll try to explain *why* I've used each setting, and each button assignment, so hopefully you can understand if my logic makes sense to you. ### My Buttons - Fn1 (next to the shutter button). Face/Eye Detection Toggle. Taking a photo of someone? Hit this button. Makes it quick and easy. Not much more to say - unless you very rarely photograph people, you probably want this function somewhere easy to get to. - Fn2 (middle of the viewfinder selector lever). Spot metering. I used to have a button on my Sony to take a spot meter from wherever I was pointing, and lock it until I hit the button again. Can't do that on Fuji, but this toggles spot metering. It's for when I want to expose for a bright sunbeam, and let everything else go dark. Or maybe when there's only one thing in the frame I care about the exposure of, to let the sky get burned out. I like it to be easily accessible, and for some reason, this button feels like a natural place for spot metering. It's big and round, in the middle of another control, like a big spot. - AEL/AFL (back of camera). AE Lock. Its intended purpose. Yeah, I know, it just feels wrong to have something be the default. I tried not doing this, and when I used spot metering, just moving the focus point to where I wanted to meter for, but it felt like I was juggling things. Easier to move the camera to get the metering I want, then lock it. And sometimes I just want to, say, expose for the sky, and then there's no need for the spot metering - point the camera up a bit, lock exposure, recompose. It can even be quicker than using exposure compensation - just move the camera and lock exposure. - Q button (back, almost on the right side). Start movie recording. I kinda hate this button. It's in such an awkward place. And it's so flush with the rest of the camera that it's hard to find by feel. I end up mushing my thumb down on the back, and hoping I can feel it move. And I use the Quick Menu way too much to want it assigned to such a shitty button. So this gets relegated to take a quick video, which I don't do often enough to care too much about, but I do want to do without having to rummage in the Drive menu. - Rear Command Dial (the wheel on the back). The magic button. My favourite control on the entire camera. I love this control so much I have given it the almighty Quick Menu. The thing that's so amazing about assigning this to the Q menu is that it's also how you control the Q menu. Roll the command dial to change the first setting. Roll the front command dial to switch to a different item *in* the menu. Roll the rear one again to change that one. So when that's the button to *open* the Q menu, you're already set for changing the first item on the menu, which is always your custom settings. The second item in my Q menu is Film Simulations, so they're quick to get to as well. The ND filter is last, so one 'click' roll of the front dial, and I can turn that on and off too. Several of my most used controls are quick to access, right under where my fingers are. ### My Custom Settings and Recipes These will vary massively with taste, and what types of photography you do, but this is what I use. 1. Ferrania - From Fuji X Weekly, a reasonably plain-looking recipe that isn't too warm (like so many of them are), but still has some nice character. 2. Bronze - From Fuji X Weekly, Vintage Bronze. Looks quite similar to the 'Leica Brass' look in the Leica LUX app I experimented with for a while. Very warm, turns everything brown. For some reason, I like that. I'm guesing this is a bit of a love/hate one, plenty of people will think it looks awful, but I love it. 3. 2Moishe - It's just a bit too much. Too Moishe. 2Moishe. Velvia, with most colour, contrast and detail turned up a bit more. It's a but much most of the time, but when I really want a bright and colourful style, it does that. 4. Titanium - Monochrome, based on Acros, not too contrasty. Also, tinted a bit towards the purple, to give a bit slightly 'selenium' look. 5. Black - Dark, high contrast, high detail black and white. 6. Pets - As the name suggests, this is mostly for when I want a quick photo of Blossom, or other cat/dog. It's mostly about the AI focus mode, rather than the look, though it does have a bit of contrast to make fur look fluffy. 7. Street/Quick - I usually leave AF on small area. For this, it uses wide area, making its own guesses. Good for quick shots when I might not have time to actually care about focus. ## Accessories I can't say a lot about most accessories, because I only bought a few. - Screen protector. The [Laramar one for the X100V](https://www.wexphotovideo.com/larmor-screen-protector-for-fuji-xt4-x100v-x-p-3039000/) fits perfectly. Seems expensive, but if you don't get one, you'll scratch your screen, and regret it. I has no ragrets. Easy to fit, and even quite easy to remove and refit after realising I got a bit of something stuck under it. I hate having a scratched up screen. Paintwork, fine. Anodising, great. Don't care. Love a bit of wear. Wabi Sabi and all that. But not on the screen. - Small Rig thumb grip. Nice. Fits well, feels good, makes gripping the camera slightly easier. But for me, only *slightly*, and it gets in the way of the rear command dial. I took it off again. Lots of people do love them, but it's not for me. - Metal shutter button. Came with the thumb grip. Makes the shutter feel slightly worse. Not entirely clear why people seem to want that. It doesn't feel *that* good to start with. Maybe some people actually like the way this feels, or maybe they just really want the red button because it looks cool. I'm not even convinced it looks good, tbh. - Fuji's own adapter and lens hood. The round one. Pretty good, tbh. Lives on the camera for me. Makes it a bit more bulky, but I *do* think this looks cool, and it protects the lens. The adapter it fits on also takes a filter, so it adds weather resistance, and adds my black mist filter for a bit of extra vintage style. - This had one major problem - the hood fits on so loosely that it kept falling off. Kind of amazing they made it this way. It has barely any grip on the adapter. I put a bit of washi tape over two of the ridges it fits onto, now it fits nice and snug, and stays in place perfectly. Still easy to take off and put back on, but only when I *want* it to. - Bowman Leather Finger Strap. Yes. Finger. Not wrist. It's just big enough to slip a finger through when using the camera, but it also makes a handy way to pick the camera up, or to hang it from a carabiner. Not the most useful thing, but it also doesn't get in the way too much, and looks really nice. I also added two of the little leather 'donut' shapes, to protect the sides of the camera from getting scratched by the rings that hold the strap on. - Peak Design Cuff. The wrist strap one. Basic, yeah, everyone's got one. But they are good. I'm the weirdo who's wearing it like a bracelet even when I'm not using my camera, just so I know I'll have it when I need it. - Peak Design Leash. The thin neck/sling strap. Usually goes over one shoulder, camera on my right side, ready to grab. Again, everyone has one, ya basic. But I love this thing. Quick and easy to attach and detach. Keeps my camera right by my hand. A little push sends the camera behind me if I need it out of the way; a little push the other way, and it's in front of me, ready to go. Camera swinging about too much? Just shorten the leash, easy. - [[Wandrd Rogue Sling]] - I switched back to the 6l version, no need for the 9l with the little Fuji, especially when it's not usually *in* the bag. Room for all the bits I want to carry ([[Peak Design Packable Tote]] x 2, power bank, spare battery, cables) and still room for the camera if I want to put it away. Not trusting Fuji's weather resistance *that* much if it starts pouring down.