€ 860 – That’s how much I paid for this camera. I think that’s already a big investment for a second-hand camera. I didn’t hesitate with the V, which was twice more expensive on the second-hand market. I even saw a guy on Reunion Island selling his for €2200! So what makes the IV different from the V?

• More MP: 26 instead of 24 (For a guy who had a 10 MP camera, the gain is negligible)
• Faster AF (the thing I couldn’t care less about…)
• Tilt screen (another thing I couldn’t care less about …)
• A new X-trans sensor (the arms race)
• A new lens (interesting but still opens at f2…)

So there’s probably lots more, but I’m not very interested in all that. Even though I talk about GEAR quite regularly on this Blog, I don’t know much about it. In fact, the first thing I do with a new camera is to set it up so that it’s as easy to use as possible. All I need is access to the shutter speed, aperture and ISO. That’s all I need! In a pinch, I like to have the exposure memory somewhere. It’s quite useful when I start doing light & shadows. I’ve been doing it quite infrequently for a while now, but I like having the option of exposing the highlights quickly.

My Street settings for the X100F are fairly simple:

• Manual focus at 3m or 2m depending on the situation, but preferably at 3m
• Aperture f8
• AutoISO with 12800 max and minimum speed of 1/500s

Yes, you’ve guessed it, it’s just zone focusing. I don’t use AF at all in the street. I used to do so with the Ricoh GRD IV because the system allowed me to use zone focusing at a predetermined distance at the same time.

So I had a few mishaps with the Fujifilm X100F … Nothing too serious, but it’s the kind of thing that didn’t happen to me with the Ricoh GRD IV.

I had engaged the ND filter (3 stops!) on my X100F by mistake. I did a session without realising it and it was when I got home that I saw that all the photos had been taken at ISO 12800 (!!!). The weather wasn’t great that day and that’s why the ISOs were set so high … I was quite disgusted because I’d taken some interesting photos and it was clear that the quality was very poor. Big beginner’s mistake.

The second problem I had was with the aperture ring. I don’t have one on my Ricoh GRD IV. Here I’d set it to f8, but I’d taken a break and put the camera in my bag. Of course the ring moved and I should have checked all that when I took the camera back to take photos. But no, it was when I got home that I realised that I’d shot with a MAP at 3m but at f2.5! in other words, everything had to go in the bin. Except for one photo where the people photographed were actually 3m away. That was my second big beginner’s mistake.

Well, apart from that, I lost my invisibility cloak with the Fujifilm X100F. It’s clear that this camera is more noticeable than the Ricoh GRD IV, which was very small and looked like a toy. The grip is pleasant despite the weight of the camera. I wear it on my wrist rather than around my neck. The camera is very responsive and it’s a nice change from the Ricoh. I shoot with the LCD because that’s also an old Ricoh habit, but it also allows me to adjust the framing by stretching my arm or bringing the camera towards me. This gives me an arm’s length of latitude (~ 0.7 m). Getting to grips with the camera was easy because I’m already familiar with the Fujifilm ecosystem. I tried the OVF and found it very interesting. I’m saving it for the photos I’ll be taking of my family. For street photography, I’m keeping the LCD.

So much for my first steps with the Fujifilm X100F. Nothing revolutionary. All the photos were taken with the Fujifilm X100F.

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