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Do you currently use a Fujifilm X100-series camera and are contemplating an upgrade to the X100VI? Here are four reasons each to either upgrade or not upgrade.
Myself? I’m keeping my X100V. I’ll have to wait and see what the future holds. But you may still be on the fence, so here are some of my thoughts on it.
Reasons to upgrade to the X100VI
Higher resolution
The 26MP X100V had a digital teleconverter, allowing you to “simulate” fields of view equivalent to 50mm and 70mm for your in-camera JPEGs. Due to the (relatively) limited resolution, these photos had a separate sharpening algorithm applied. They still came out okay.
Thanks to an almost doubled resolution, the 40MP X100VI can use a straight sensor crop to give you tighter fields of view. The resulting JPEG (or HEIF) photos will still be smaller (Medium for the 50mm TC and Small for the 70mm TC), but they’re still plenty big for sharing on social media and are really sharp.
Even if you don’t use the Digital Teleconverter, this resolution allows for substantial cropping in post-processing.
Image stabilization
It’s quite a miracle that Fujifilm could squeeze image stabilization into this camera body without making it substantially larger (it’s only 2mm thicker).
While image stabilization will never help freeze motion in front of the camera, it’s a nice feature to mitigate shaking when using slower shutter speeds.
Fujifilm advertises six stops of stabilization; your results will vary depending on your technique. Still, with good technique, you can get sharp images hand-holding the camera at shutter speeds as slow as two seconds!
REALA ACE
Fujifilm’s latest film simulation might be one of my favorites. Colors are similar to PROVIA but appear to have a slight “Color Chrome” effect applied to them. Additionally, harder tonality really gives images a three-dimensional quality, much more than PROVIA.
But should you get this camera just for REALA ACE?
At its February X Summit, Fujifilm announced that REALA ACE will be available on the X-T5, X-S20, and X-H2 in the summer of 2024.
Focus improvements
In addition to including all the focus improvements found in the X-T5, like subject detection and faster algorithms, the X100VI includes some “focus settings firsts” for the X series cameras. These include:
- Zone Custom Setting: Create three custom Zone sizes, in addition to the three default squares.
- AF Mode ALL Setting: Disable autofocus area sizes you don’t want to use when AF Mode is set to ALL.
- Interlock MF Assist & Focus Ring: Your chosen MF Assist (Focus Peaking etc) will be hidden until you move the manual focus ring, then disappear when you’re done.
Watch this video to learn more about these X100VI focus features:
Reasons to not upgrade to the X100VI
Trying to talk yourself out of upgrading to the X100VI? Here are some reasons you may want to consider.
Availability
While you can’t do anything about the availability of this camera directly, I think there may be some value in waiting for shipping.
Unless you ordered the camera literally within 30 seconds of pre-orders being available, you’re probably still waiting for your camera a month after the first units started shipping.
This can be a good time to reflect on whether or not you really need to upgrade. What’s wrong with what you have? Can you create the photos you want to create with your current camera? Or is your current camera inhibiting you?
The new Custom Settings structure
I’ve been very critical of how Fujifilm changed its Custom Settings a few years ago.
Gone are “film recipes.” You can’t just save a style anymore. You now have to save all of the shooting and focus settings as well.
That means if you’re in a Classic Chrome-based style and think the photo might look better in Acros, and you change to your Acros preset, whichever Shooting Setting and AF/MF Setting options you saved with that Acros recipe will also be changed.
What if they’re different from what you were using with that Chrome recipe? You could easily miss the photo trying to change those focus and shooting settings back.
40MP has crossed the line
Do you really need 40 megapixels? Maybe if you’re doing a lot of cropping as mentioned in the previous section.
But if not, 40 megapixels is completely unnecessary. You can print fine work with 26MP and less.
Not only is it unnecessary, but it just adds to storage and processing requirements. Extra requirements for something you don’t need. I wish there were a “Medium RAW” option or something like that, allowing us to save a lower-resolution RAW file if we wished.
The more I use my X-T5, the more I miss the lower resolution of my X-T4.
More features, more complexity
Each new generation of camera adds more and more features. While this has the benefit of bringing all the new tech to the latest camera, it also adds to the complexity.
Now, you need to familiarize yourself with extra modes, extra settings, and extra feature interactions. Why is one setting grayed out and inaccessible? Because it might be interfering with a new feature you’ve enabled and didn’t even know it.
You can dumb down the cameras to be just about the aperture, shutter speed, and focus, but if you’re going to be disabling & deactivating all these new features, why get it in the first place?
Is the upgrade worth it?
The X100VI is a truly amazing camera. I do love it.
However, the features just aren’t enough to pull me away from my X100V, a camera I’m familiar with and is helping me be creative how I want to be creative.
If you don’t have an X100-series camera or are new to the Fujifilm system, I’d absolutely encourage you to consider the X100VI.
But if you’re coming from an X100T, F, or V, is the upgrade something you need?