FUJI X100T: A DIGITAL COMPANION

November 9 2021

Well this is a post that I dreaded writing and have re-written a few times by now. This post almost made me not want to continue blogging. BUT, I really want to discuss my whole venture into film photography and all things related so I figure it’s time to bite the bullet and sit down and write about a digital camera. Let’s see... It’s 5:50PM right now and I’ll write the time when I finish and hopefully it won’t be longer than ~30 minutes… I really want to be done with this post to move onto more exciting topics, I’ve stalled on it for way too long

The topic of todays post is of course my old Fuji X100T. It’s a fantastic camera that didn’t work out.

The camera didn’t work out for me because it wasn’t versatile. It was a fantastic camera to carry around and probably the best and most capable camera to be a companion to any analog kit. But, the camera could not hold its own. The main reason for this is the integrated 23mm f2 lens. The lens, about a 35mm full frame equivalent, is great for street, the focal length is ideal, the lens is sharp and the leaf shutter is quiet. But for everything else I just felt like I didn’t have the right tool. For portraits the field of view was too wide to be flattering and f2 on wide-angle lens on a crop sensor doesn't provide the greatest depth of field. And for landscapes I felt stuck looking for scenes that would work with the lens rather than using a focal length too fit the landscape.

Ultimately the limits of the fixed lens outweighed the size and ‘sleekness’ of the camera and I ended up selling it.

I still believe that the camera is a fantastic camera to use a secondary shooter or as your main camera if you know exactly what you want. I'm still figuring out my style so I shoot a variety of different things so the 23mm lens felt confining, but if you love that focal length then the Fuji X100T is a near perfect camera. So lets talk about some of the good things about it.

My favorite thing was the size and design. It is a beautiful camera with the vintage rangefinder look that draws reference to the legendary family of M mount Leicas. The camera is compact and easy to carry with you everywhere, it weighs nothing and looks great. I had the black version with a black cord strap that I really really liked. Some people often confused it with a 35mm camera, which I thought was a good thing.

The lens is incredibly sharp and the fuji film presets are awesome! Most of the time I shot with classic chrome and the pictures turned out great right out of the camera. I hardly had to tweak them, and a lot of the time I would use another fuji jpg as a reference for colors on the one that I was editing. You can tell that the camera wasn’t designed to be hassled with. The menus and dials are intuitive and if you shoot jpg the process is pretty much over right when you click the button. Which is great because that’s what I love about film. My current camera is a Nikon D610 and the raw files require a TON of editing to become a finished product which wasn’t the case with the Fuji.

There aren’t many, if any, negatives to the camera. The main reason that I switched is because I wanted interchangeable lenses and more bokeh :) At the end of the day the camera just didn’t work for me so I moved on which is all part of the process of finding ‘your’ camera.

If you are considering a Fuji X100 series camera and reading this post don’t let my opinions about the camera weigh to much in your decision. I really liked the camera; I just couldn’t justify keeping it as my only digital body… especially when I had so many F mount lenses that were dying to get a taste of the digital future.

I haven’t exactly been secretive about my new digital camera, it’s a Nikon D610 and it is perfect in so many ways. I will definitely talk about it more and you will see it in this blog a lot more. But for the time being I will say that I wouldn’t figure out what I want in a camera without the X100T, so, for that reason, it was good for me.

It’s 6:33PM and I’m calling this post complete which is a little over 30 minutes, but I’m stoked because now I get to talk about more film stuff. I only said I was dreading this post because I wasn’t motivated to write about a digital camera that has thousands of reviews online… I just wasn’t excited about it. So I had to rush through it but the post is finished and hopefully it was bearable. Anyway, thanks for reading and until next time, when hopefully we’ll be talking about film again!!!

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