Fujifilm X100VI Review
Edit: As of December 2024, I have swapped back to the X100V…the negatives discussed in this review eventually convinced me to sell the VI at a profit and “downgrade” back to one of the greatest cameras ever produced.
The most important thing to know about this review is that it’s coming from a long term owner of the Fujifilm X100V, and much of what I cover will assume you have some familiarity with both the X100 line and the V in particular. This review is as much of a “real world impressions of the VI from an X100V owner” article as it is a review.
First, let’s talk about the things I really liked about the X100V and how I used it.
Insanely portable - easy to throw into a jacket pocket, grab on the way out of the house, sling over a shoulder, etc. It’s a camera that wants to be carried and used.
All day battery life for deliberate stills shooting.
Highly customizable film sims that make shooting RAW completely optional.
A sharp 35mm-equivalent lens that has a ton of vintage character in its rendering.
A built-in ND filter that allows the f2 lens to be used wide open in harsh daylight.
These five key points are what make the X100 line, and the V in particular, such a winner for documentary photography for me. No one batted an eye at me snapping pics with it vs hauling around a full frame rig with a large fast prime lens, most importantly my family. It allowed me to capture fleeting moments that would have otherwise been marred by my photographic obtrusiveness.
Long story short, the VI retains all five of these key points. The size is as close to identical as you can realistically get considering they added IBIS. The battery life is still great for stills. The film sims are supercharged with the addition of 3 new base sims from which to build your own. The lens is identical in its rendering. The ND filter is retained for daytime utility (more on that later).
So what does the VI add that makes it worth the extra dough at retail? Here are the key 7 reasons that the VI is worth the price bump compared to the V.
The operational speed of the camera is increased in all aspects, from AF stickiness, menu navigation, shutter response time, etc.
The increase from 26mp to 40mp is immediately noticeable. Camera-processed JPEGs have a lovely microcontrast to them and render sharp details well.
4:5 and 4:3 aspect ratios are VERY welcomed…now we’re only missing 65:24. My opinion on this is that Fuji is unwilling to put this ratio on any camera under 50mp, but that is simply my gut feeling. The 40mp sensor on the Gen 5 Fuji cameras have enough resolution to still give us a workable file in 65:24 and I wish Fuji would let us choose for ourselves whether to use it at the expense of final file resolution.
USB file transfer is fantastic on mobile…simply plug a USB-C cable into your phone to quickly dump files instead of using the highly unreliable Fuji mobile app.
Reala Ace is the standout new film sim and provides a great basis for new custom sims, as well as being a solid sim to use on its own for stills and video. Check out my new Reala-based sim here.
The effect of the new IBIS unit is immediately obvious at low shutter speeds in stills and in video mode.
The 1.4x digital teleconverter is now highly usable with all of the extra pixels to work with.
Now for the ugly…
Build quality has suffered with the production move from Japan to China, at least in the initial batches. This has been independently confirmed with other first wave owners. Examples include scratches on the body straight from the factory, slop in media doors when closed, and even one reported case of the sensor being completely tilted on one axis leading to wildly out of focus shots.
IBIS does not park when the camera is powered off, meaning the unit rattles around while you are transporting the camera. Whether this leads to long term issues, we will find out. This is Fuji’s smallest (and likely most fragile) IBIS unit to date.
If you leave IBIS set to “continuous”, the camera will get quite warm at modest environmental tempertures. I cannot imagine how hot it will get in the summer in outdoor situations.
Many buttons, and most notably the command wheels, are as squishy and un-tactile as ever. I would expect a bump in quality here given the price of the camera.
Wifi file transfers are mind-bogglingly slow.
Other observations, neither good nor bad…
The VI is a heavier camera than the V by about 10%. It’s immediately noticeable but the difference between the V and VI fades within the first week of use and you’ll never think about it again unless you handle a V again.
The pancake lens is as slow as the V in terms of focus racking and retains all of the uncomfortable grinding sounds during operation. It does not inspire confidence, but important to note that I, nor anyone I know with a V or VI, have had a lens-related problem despite these sounds.
If shooting in OVF mode, going to and from playback is glacially slow. I’m primarily an EVF shooter so I cannot comment on if this is as bad as it was on the V.
The MCS switch is much easier to move now (in a good way)…whether it softens up to be moved accidentally will be something to watch for over time.
C1/C2 (etc) setting banks do not remember certain settings between them, such as aspect ratio, ND filter status, file mode (JPEG/RAW/etc) and more.
IBIS in video is still quite jittery and makes handheld footage a bit uncomfortable to watch. Digital IS does not seem to improve performance here.
The SD card is inserted in the opposite orientation as the V, meaning you will have to adjust muscle memory if coming from that model.
So where does all of that leave us? A good/bad/indifferent list where every category is as long as the other…quite odd for a product that is now in its sixth generation, which should be highly refined and leaving few caveats for users…right?
Well, yes. We’re mostly there, and what is this camera even competing with? The Ricoh GR? Yeah right…a toy by any other name. The Nikon ZF? No, that is a hefty hunk of metal that takes large lenses and is not by any stretch a highly portable camera. Ok, so what else…old point and shoots? Even saying the X100 is competing with the Leica Q line is a bit absurd when you compare prices and sizes.
No, that leaves us with the uncomfortable realization that the X100 line truly has no modern competition even after six generations. This demands that we meet the X100 line where it lies, with all of its flaws and perhaps strange oversights laid bare as a “take it or leave it” proposition, a camera inspired by the past but struggling in many ways to meet the future.
It’s a camera that has inherited 6 generations of menu kludge with little rationality applied to the layout of options.
It’s a camera that demands you pay more attention than necessary to custom setting banks and which features you’ve enabled or disabled in each, making quickly jumping between them a challenge.
It’s a camera that really wants you to shoot video on it, yet has a battery that feels like it’s on the verge of melting after 60 seconds of 6K recording.
But…
It’s a camera that produces amazing files straight from hitting the shutter.
It’s a nearly silent experience that finds itself welcomed in many situations a larger camera could never go.
It’s a fully tactile exposure process that lends itself to slowing down and being intentional with photography in a way that is antithetical to modern camera technology.
It’s a piece of kit so unlike so many others that it achieves the rarity of defining its own corner of the market in no uncertain terms.
The calculus of 1) buying into the X100 line if new to it or 2) upgrading your existing X100 camera (namely the V) comes down to the two bullet point sections I started this review with. If those things are of interest to you as they were to me, I’m hopeful you will be satisfied with your investment as I have been. While I was taken aback with a few of the negatives I found with the VI, especially as someone with a lot of Fuji experience, they do not detract enough from the overall experience that I feel buyer’s remorse, nor do I feel that I should have just stuck with the V.
What I have realized, however, is just what an amazing camera the V was and continues to be. If those first 5 bullets really speak to you, the V is so worth the investment and I wish it were a camera that was easier to get into everyone’s hands. The VI is all of that with some extra refinement in some ways, and a few half steps back in others. A perplexing bit of kit that is as fun to shoot as it is to look at, but not a perfect all-in-one package by any stretch…yet one that still feels like the best deal going, even at the new $1599 price point.
My highly recommended V and VI accessories
Haoge Square Hood with adapter ring (pictured at top of review)
JJC soft touch shutter button (pictured at top of review)
The below gallery will be updated over time as I take more photos with the VI. All photos were captured as JPEGs in camera with a small amount of processing applied in Lightroom. As of writing this, I have had the camera in my hands for just under a month and have not gotten to travel with it yet. If you have any questions about the V or VI, please drop a comment below and I’ll be happy to discuss with you.
