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Fujifilm FinePix X100
Sample Images
© 2011 KenRockwell.com. All rights reserved.
Fuji X100 (15.5 oz./440g with fixed lens, battery and card, about $1,200). enlarge. This free website's biggest source of support is when you use these links, especially these directly to it at Adorama, at Amazon, or at eBay (see How to Win at eBay) when you get anything, regardless of the country in which you live. Thanks for helping me help you! Ken.
August 2011 Fuji X100 Review More Fuji Reviews All Reviews
NEW: Fuji X100 Sample Images from Santa Barbara 08 February 2013
Fuji X100 Sample Images from San Diego 28 June 2011
Introduction
These are all as shot in my Fuji X100 as NORMAL JPG images.
Normal JPG is a more compressed option than the X100's default FINE JPG.
These aren't from RAF raw files, just the most compressed JPGs straight from my X100.
Click each image for the original file.
See also Ryan's and Katie's websites for more day-to-day shots. Astounding is how much more natural the colors look compared to every other camera I've used.
Skin Tones, Bokeh and Sharpness
Katie, ISO 200, f/3.2 at 1/150, macro mode. (full-resolution.)
The pose isn't the point; look at the skin tones! This is in diffuse morning window light, and rarely looks this good with other cameras. Look at the bokeh; everything fades into softness smoothly, not coarsely as with many other lenses.
Crazier, I shot this in JPG, and look at the sharpness after I edited it a bit mostly to get rid of some fluff on Katie. Insane!
Natural-Looking Fill-Flash
Perfect fill-flash. Fuji X100, 1/100 at f/2.2, ISO 200, flash ON. bigger or original © file.
See how you can't even see that flash was used, yet the faces are clear and there are little glints in our eyes? This is what fill-flash should be, and the X100 did this all automatically.
Ryan Loves Fire. Fuji X100, flash ON, Auto White Balance, Auto ISO chose ISO 500, Program chose f/2 at 1/60.) bigger or © original file.
See how Ryan looks completely natural against the background, with little sparkles in his eyes, and how the light of dusk looks exactly like the light of dusk in the background? Again, this is perfect fill-flash, all done automatically by the X100 without anything changed from the way I shoot it in daylight.
Fill-Flash, Sharpness, Color, Lateral Fringes
Ryan at Legoland. Fuji X100, flash ON, Program auto, auto white balance and auto ISO chose 1/640 at f/9 at ISO 200. bigger or full-resolution.
We've got both brilliant colors and natural skin tones in the same snap.
The fill-flash is perfectly balanced, and look what an SLR can't do: because the X100's flash is so close to the lens, there is no fill-flash shadow under the brim of Ryan's hat! Note how the X100 grabbed 1/640 of a second and still has perfect flash sync. A DSLR would have had to use a slow 1/250, needing a much bigger flash and more battery power with less action-stoping ability.
Of course it's sharp; look at the fabrics.
Look at the nuts on the left; no lateral color fringes here!
Center Sharpness at f/2 (nothing else is in focus)
Grab shot from the 1940s. Fuji X100 at ISO 200, f/2 at 1/125, focus on counter paraphernalia so not that much is in focus. Camera-original © JPG. In-camera sharpening set to HARD.
Distortion
Denmark. Fuji X100 at ISO 200, f/7.1 at 1/420. bigger.
Not bad; it's half the distortion of the LEICA SUMMICRON-M 35mm f/2 ASPH that competes with this FUJINON 23mm f/2 ASPH.
Macro Sharpness and Bokeh at ISO 400
Red on Green. Fuji X100 at ISO 400, f/6.4 at 1/120, focus on lower flower mass. Camera-original © JPG. In-camera sharpening set to HARD.
Closest macro distance, at f/2.
ISO 400 Sharpness at f/2
West Los Angeles. Fuji X100 at auto ISO 400, f/2 at 1/125, focus on center of image; everything else wasn't flat! In-camera sharpening set to HARD. Camera-original © JPG.
Auto Dynamic Range Control
West Los Angeles. Fuji X100 at fixed ISO 200 and fixed dynamic range at 100% (normal), f/3.2 at 1/200, focus on Coke machine. Roll mouse over to see the next image overlaid.
West Los Angeles. Fuji X100 at auto ISO 800 and Auto Dynamic Range chose 400%, f/5 at 1/280, focus on Coke machine.
The auto dynamic range function gives natural results, not forced images that look fake after 30 seconds. It's subtle, and brought detail into the outdoors that was in relatively blinding direct sunlight, and also lightened some of the darker inside part like their ceiling, and most importantly, the sunlit walls on the left are now naturally colored, and not simply blown-out.. Auto DR also straightened the image and removed the extra restaurant patrons.
What's also important is that the X100 did this all by itself as I had dinner with the kids running around. The only fiddling I had to do was to turn it off to make the "bad" image for comparison!
Auto DR bumps the ISO as needed, exactly as do Nikon and Canon's systems, but Fuji tells us about it instead keeping it secret as do the other brands. (This is why the D300 gets so noisy with ADR ON even at ISO 100; it's also really bumping up its ISO — but not telling us about it.) All these systems work by decreasing the actual exposure to the sensor to retain the highlights (thus the higher ISO reading for the lowered exposure), and then leave the bright sections alone as if they're still at ISO 200, and only bumps the dark sections to the equivalent of ISO 800. It sounds complex, and this is why Nikon and Canon don't shift the read-out ISO, even though they reduce the actual exposure as well in difficult light. Don't worry about it.
Bokeh and Focus Accuracy at f/2.5
Ryan at Price Club. (Fuji X100, Program auto, auto white balance and auto ISO chose 1/125 at f/2.5 at ISO 800.) bigger or original © file (6MP).
ISO 800 Sharpness and Lateral Color Fringes
Chevy. Fuji X100 at ISO 800, f/10 at 1/680, focus on center of image. Camera-original © JPG. In-camera sharpening set to HARD.
Plymouth. Fuji X100 at ISO 800, f/13 at 1/950, flash ON, focus on center of image. Camera-original © JPG. In-camera sharpening set to HARD.
Maui. Fuji X100, ISO 800, 1/640 at f/8, flash ON. original © file.
ISO 800 Corner Sharpness at f/8
Pacific Beach. Fuji X100, Auto ISO 800, 1/640 at f/8. original © file.
Two Chevies. Fuji X100 at ISO 800, f/10 at 1/600, focus on baby car, flash ON. Camera-original © rotated JPG. In-camera sharpening set to HARD.
The rounded 9-blade diaphragm rarely makes sunstars on brilliant points of light. When it does, its relatively faint and diffuse 18-pointed sunstars.
ISO 1,000 Noise, Color and Sharpness at f/2
The Bird Place, Fuji X100 at ISO 1,000, f/2 at 1/125. original © file.
In this snap, for which Auto ISO grabbed ISO 1,000 all by itself to retain the 1/125 I requested, be mindful that at f/2 very little is in focus except as focused at the center of the image. Only the right tip of the flying surfboard, center Bose Speaker, right-side blue vent and one of the lower right light fixtures are in focus.
ISO 2,500 Noise, Color and Sharpness at f/2
The Bird Place, Fuji X100 at ISO 2,500, f/2 at 1/125. original © file.
In this snap, for which Auto ISO grabbed ISO 2,500 all by itself to retain the 1/125 I requested, be mindful that at f/2 very little is in focus except as focused at the center of the image.
ISO 2,500 Noise, Color and Fill-Flash at f/2
Ryan loves fire! Fuji X100 at ISO 2,500, Auto White Balance, flash ON, Program chose f/2 at 1/60. bigger or © original file.
I don't know of any other camera that can set fill-flash and high ISOs so perfectly and automatically as the X100. I shot this on the fly with the same all-automatic settings as I use in daylight; my kids move too fast to be able to change settings as light changes with my Canons or Nikons.
ISO 3,200 Noise, Auto WB and Skin Tones
The Speed Graphic. Fuji X100, ISO 3,200, f/2 at 1/60, no flash. original © file.
ISO 12,800 noise, color, Auto WB and Autofocus
Katie and Ryan at the movies. Fuji X100, ISO 12,800, f/2 at 1/5. camera-original © Normal JPG. Camera set down to 6 MP resolution for family photos. Much of the noise you're seeing are JPG artifacts tweaking the grain. Of course it's not that sharp; it's hand-held at 1/5 of a second!
Not only is the X100 clean at ISO 12,800, the color rendition is great, and look how I so easily nailed perfect focus on Katie's eyes in light that was so dark (LV -3, about full moonlight) that I could barely see. This snap is right out of the camera in Auto White Balance.
On some ISO 12,800 images there is a little bit of fine horizontal banding, but so what; it's better than anything else I've used at ISO 12,800.
In-Camera Panoramas
