Fujifilm X100 settings & notes

Some facts about the camera which are easy to forget as well some notes to self.

ISO

• The hardware is only capable of maximum ISO 1600. Any higher ISO value is pushed with software in camera.
• Auto-ISO can be set to a maximum ISO value between 400 - 3200.
• When shooting RAW (with Auto-ISO turned off), ISO can be set to a minimum of 200 and a maximum of 6400.
• When shooting in JPG mode (with Auto-ISO turned off), ISO can be set to a minimum of 100 and a maximum of 12800.
• ISO value also serves as lowest ISO value in auto ISO mode.
• When in Auto-ISO, the “Min shutter” value will not be respected if you hit the Max ISO value. The Min shutter value could therefore be regarded as a “soft limit” Min shutter value.

Dynamic range (tone mapping)

• DR100 is the default setting for the camera.
• DR200 (changes minimum ISO to 400) will stop down the RAW 1 stop.
• DR400 (changes minimum ISO to 800) will stop down the RAW 2 stops.
• RAW files with DR200 or DR400 will appear darker in post production as they are stopped down, and there is currently no way for e.g. Lightroom to interpret this feature in order to compensate (the way the JPG engine does).
• Dynamic range is really only good if you use the camera’s JPG engine. If you shoot RAW, you should set this to DR100 and tweak exposure in post production.
• If you want to maximize dynamic range and shoot RAW: manually underexpose and bring it up in Lightroom using Brightness and Fill Light. 

Auto Focus

• The X100 uses Contrast Detection Auto Focus (CD AF), which means you should never try to find focus in the edge of two objects of different distance from the camera. More details by Arjay on this over at the X100 Forum.
• The X100 is not a true rangefinder camera, thus is not great at manual focus. For best AF performance, use AF-S with smallest AF window in Electrical View Finder (EVF).
• The X100 will have more difficulty locking AF onto horizontal lines than on vertical lines.
• The AFL/AEL button is by default set to Auto Exposure Lock (AE-L), by setting this to AF-L, auto focus can be locked instead.
• Optical View Finder (OVF) Power Save Mode set to “on” will reduce AF performance, according to the manual.

My settings

Starting with the default settings after a factory reset or firmware upgrade:

• ISO: 200
• ISO Auto Control: On, Max Sensitivity: 3200, Min Shutter Speed 1/125
• Image Quality: F+RAW
• Dynamic Range: DR100
• Film Simulation: Astia
• WB Shift: R/Cy +2, By/Ye -2
• Color: High
• Sharpness: Hard (the X100 does apply more sharpness to JPGs with this setting – although sharpness is not applicable with Astia or Velvia, which are film simulations, according to Fuji)
• Highlight Tone: M-Hard
• (Shadow Tone: Standard)
• Noise Reduction: M-Low
• Flash: -2/3
• Image Disp: Off
• Operation Vol: Off
• Shutter Vol: Off
• Quick Start Mode: On
• Fn Button: ISO
• RAW Button: ND Filter
• AE/AF-Lock Button: AF-L
• Corrected AF Frame: On

Disp. Custom Setting, OVF:

• Electronic Level: Off
• White Balance: Off
• Film Simulation: Off
• Dynamic Range: Off
• Frames Remaining: Off
• Image Size/Quality: Off
• Battery Level: Off

And last but not least I set the focus area size for AF-S to the smallest possible.

Documentation, firmware and files

• User Manual (PDF)
• Firmware download
• Lightroom JPEG Lens Profile (save as...)

Reviews

Please note, the reviews below were written before the release of firmware 1.21 (released in March, 2012), which dramatically increases auto focus speed, improves manual focus ring responsiveness as well as makes the RAW-button configurable (among other things).

• DPReview's X100 review
• Luminous Landscape's X100 review
• DxOMark's X100 review
• Image Resource's X100 review
• Zack Arias' X100 review
• Linhbergh's X100 impressions
• DigitalRev's Fujifilm Finepix X100 hands-on review (YouTube)

Bugs and quirks

I have assembled a list of known bugs and quirks for the current X100 firmware which can be found here.

Ets. Lucien – Vins & Liqueurs

Arriving in Paris. Yum?