Fuji FinePix X100

jwcdds wrote in post #12959120
In any case, back to my example, Macro mode, EVF, attempted that shot 10x and got 0 out of 10 tries.

Was the AF assist on?

quiksquirrel wrote in post #12959174
Was the AF assist on?

IIRC, yes, the assist was on.

I just want to stress (since this is an x100 thread after all) that I liked the camera for the most part. However, for my current/personal use at the moment, which consists mostly of indoor ambient light at home with the family, it performed poorly because I put it in a difficult position. For the price tag, I couldn't justify keeping it, even if it's got dashing good looks and great IQ (when AF hits).

jwcdds wrote in post #12959190
IIRC, yes, the assist was on.

I just want to stress (since this is an x100 thread after all) that I liked the camera for the most part. However, for my current/personal use at the moment, which consists mostly of indoor ambient light at home with the family, it performed poorly because I put it in a difficult position. For the price tag, I couldn't justify keeping it, even if it's got dashing good looks and great IQ (when AF hits).

That is slightly disappointing.
But then again.. I shoot almost entirely outdoors during daylight hours, so I should be fine.

Hmm. That would bug me too if I couldn't get that shot in ten tries. I haven't encountered any situations yet where I put the focus point on something contrasty and it could not lock focus.

In daylight the autofocus speed is decent. In low light autofocus can be very slow. But I love everything else about it.

Csae wrote in post #12959155
No idea what it was for you, but it focuses fine for me.

It is slow though, slower then a 5d, but i can get it to focus in low-light without too much trouble, even -without- the AF Illumination seizure.

For normal focusing, i found going into EVF, and just shrinking the AF selector to a smaller size helped me nail it much better.

But its slow. Make it no mistake about it. Its slow.

However it never bothered me, i would certainly not try to chase a 7 year old in ambient light with this camera.

The reason you can do that easier with a p&s is because the focal plane is much larger, theres not as much critical focus on it or as much to focus in terms of glass either.

For a 1,200$ camera the AF on this sucks horribly, but thats okay with me, it shines elsewhere.

I agree with Case.

jwcdds wrote in post #12959190
IIRC, yes, the assist was on.

I just want to stress (since this is an x100 thread after all) that I liked the camera for the most part. However, for my current/personal use at the moment, which consists mostly of indoor ambient light at home with the family, it performed poorly because I put it in a difficult position. For the price tag, I couldn't justify keeping it, even if it's got dashing good looks and great IQ (when AF hits).

ugh, that's a disappointment because you and I shoot a lot of similar subjects (our kids in poor light). How was the IQ inside in low light -vs- your 7D and 24L though? Does it keep up ISO wise if you can get it to focus?

I dont know I have a super active/hyper 17 month old and I am still able to get some great shots. Yes will I get some missed shots sure.. but I get just as much missed shots as my 5dmkII with the 50L f/1.2 and 85L f/1.2...... actually my 85L hunts quite a bit in low light...

quiksquirrel wrote in post #12958862
But this is where the beauty of rangefinders come in. Set it to manual and pre-focus to a useful distance and allow for just enough DOF to have a few feet to play with.

There is only one flaw in your reasoning. The x100 isn't a rangefinder.

The x100 does have a focus distance scale in the VF you can pre-set to a distance of your choosing if you want.... It even shows you the margin of focus you get, so its not just a focused at 2f, its a focus at 2f with focus ranging from 1f to 3f, etc.

But yeah its no rangefinder, it just looks like one :P

jacobsen1 wrote in post #12960100
ugh, that's a disappointment because you and I shoot a lot of similar subjects (our kids in poor light). How was the IQ inside in low light -vs- your 7D and 24L though? Does it keep up ISO wise if you can get it to focus?

Hey Ben.

IQ is good. Very good (for a glorified P&S, though not surprising since it has an APS-C sensor). But they gave it a good lens. So when the camera can/does focus, you should be very pleased with the results. I think I'll be flamed badly for saying this but I didn't find the overall IQ better than the 7D personally. After all, the very reasons I even entertained getting one were:

1) "omgwtfbbq IQ that is as good if not better than 5D2" as so many had claimed.
2) Small-ish size as to not have to lug around a DSLR.
3) Just looks friggin' cool.

IQ: Well, my own tests show that the IQ isn't any better than the 7D. In fact, at iso3200, I started seeing banding in the x100's JPG in the shadows. It's very faint and I wouldn't say it's at a level where it would ruin anyone's photos... but seeing the banding was an unpleasant surprise. What the Fuji is good at is that the AWB actually works better than the 7D (it felt that way). Colors were better SOOC, which made me not even want to shoot RAW with the x100. Turns out that's a good thing since the x100 doesn't really have a worthwhile buffer to talk about.

Size: It was actually much bigger than I expected. It's not pocket-able unless you have large coat pockets, or you wear super baggy pants designed for obese people when you're only 28-34" waist. I wanted a "travel-light" package... since everyone had been touting that the IQ was other-worldly, and thinking that it might be even small enough for me to carry in my pocket. But alas... I ended up throwing it in my camera bag, which I had been using to lug around my 7D and lenses. If I'm already packing the bag, I might as well shoot w/ the 7D for similar IQ (minus the AWB), but better features/faster focus, better video, etc...

Looks: Gotta admit, it's sexy looking. I liked it. It's built well. Feels solid, not like some toy. So it was at least reassuring to know that $1200 got you a camera that didn't "feel" like a toy in hand.

There are other pros about the x100. It's cool to select various processing, used to simulate film. It definitely attracted a LOT less attention in a restaurant (unless the dork sitting at the next table happened to be a fellow camera nerd). Lugging a DSLR around and putting it on the table, you get a lot of curious on-lookers wondering what's going on. With the x100, 99% of the time people don't even notice it's a camera.

It's one of those things that you may just need to bite the bullet and try one out for yourself to see if it'll work for your shooting style. As many have noted... unless you pre-focus manually and by luck your kids fall within the range, AF speed is painful (compared to a DSLR) in indoor ambient/low-ish light. Well, it's as bad as a P&S, not worse. But outdoors, this thing is a champ. I just wished it had been slightly smaller so that it would fit into my pocket better to make it actually portable.

darktiger wrote in post #12960374
I dont know I have a super active/hyper 17 month old and I am still able to get some great shots. Yes will I get some missed shots sure.. but I get just as much missed shots as my 5dmkII with the 50L f/1.2 and 85L f/1.2...... actually my 85L hunts quite a bit in low light...

Maybe cuz you're shooting w/ the 5D2. My 5Dc has fairly low keeper rate as well, when my son's moving indoors. But my 7D runs circles around the 5Dc in terms of keeper rate (but that is to be expected). But at least the 5Dc can acquire and lock focus. It's just the shutter lag makes 1-shot all but futile and the AI Servo in low-light does leave much to be desired. In the specific example I posted for my keys... the x100 refused to focus and as you can tell by the photos... it's not a contrast issue (at least I didn't think it would be).

Sirrith wrote in post #12960424
There is only one flaw in your reasoning. The x100 isn't a rangefinder.

True. But it's close enough

jwcdds wrote in post #12961227
Maybe cuz you're shooting w/ the 5D2. My 5Dc has fairly low keeper rate as well, when my son's moving indoors. But my 7D runs circles around the 5Dc in terms of keeper rate (but that is to be expected).

The 50L and 85L are notoriously slow at focusing, i have used the 85L as well and can confirm this, theres alot of glass to move, i dont know if the 50L is that much faster then the 85L but i wouldn't suspect so.

I found the IQ to be on par with my 5d1, iso1600 is quite pleasant and i don't shoot at iso3200... i will just use the flash then, the flash is actually Really good at just filling and getting a lower iso instead of blowing the **** out.

In low-light depending whether i want to be discreet or not, i'll use the AF assist, set a SS of around 1/15 - 1/30, f2, iso 1600, and then set the flash to slow sync, it makes for decent results imo.

Even more suprisingly, most people are not bothering to shot Raw with the x100, i certainly don't, the JPGs are quite good!

jwcdds wrote in post #12961227
IQ is good. Very good (for a glorified P&S, though not surprising since it has an APS-C sensor). But they gave it a good lens. So when the camera can/does focus, you should be very pleased with the results.

well, remember I have a NEX5 this would be replacing. It's got a big sensor but it's not as good (IMHO, I can ALWAYS tell the difference between a sony and canon shot when I'm processing them). And the only lens small enough to consider is good, but not great. So the X100 should beat it with BOTH the sensor and lens... The NEX5 focuses fine for me, I'm wondering how much different they are...

those three things are exactly what's drawing me in!!! 2 and 3 are true regardless, 1 is subjective but I'm hoping it's closer than the NEX, but as we're both saying it only counts if it's in focus.

I've been living with a GF1 and NEX5 for the last 2 years now so I know what you mean. This is the same depth as those two, which has always been my biggest complaint in their size. Mine live in my jacket pocket when skiing or in a pelican box when sailing. When not doing either of those it's just hand held and carried with (or maybe a wrist strap).

same with the NEX/GF series and an awesome side effect. Especially when you shoot using the screen (only option with the other two).

I think that's where I'm headed... As for AF speed, I've been fine with my NEX, GF1 and even P&Ss as long as they eventually lock... But I'll have to try one myself to see.

see, I shoot with a 5Dii in one shot in single shot mode all the time and have zero issues with my kids. So different shooting styles maybe?

darktiger wrote in post #12960374
I dont know I have a super active/hyper 17 month old and I am still able to get some great shots. Yes will I get some missed shots sure.. but I get just as much missed shots as my 5dmkII with the 50L f/1.2 and 85L f/1.2...... actually my 85L hunts quite a bit in low light...

your flickr has some good examples too, thanks! As for the 1.2s, yeah, I switched to the siggy 1.4 and LOVE it over the 1.2 85. I also found the 85L too slow, even on my 7D. Looks amazing though.

Csae wrote in post #12961612
i will just use the flash then, the flash is actually Really good at just filling and getting a lower iso instead of blowing the **** out.

In low-light depending whether i want to be discreet or not, i'll use the AF assist

That's something I've seen in the flickr pool as well (fill flash). Those shots look great and better than my 5Dii could do... So something I'll try, but I'm not a big flash fan, makes you too noticeable and my kids also flinch... The AF assist beam could be useful though.

Thanks for all the help everyone. Sounds like I've got a NEX5 to sell and a X100 to track down. I won't be satisfied until I try one myself.

while i loved my X100 for the looks and image quality., but performance wise, it was not that great... even after the new firmware i still had some issues.... and once it died on me, i sold it immediately... i had it for 1 day and it died, then i sent to Fuji and waited 1 week to get it back...

When using the OVF i could not focus and recompose, it tended to back focus.... but i fixed that by using the "live View " feature (like a point and shoot camera)

My Wife ordered a Sony NEX-C3 for herself, and i'm going to run to B and H and pit up an FD mount for the NEX and use a bunch of old FD lenses which i hear are still leaps and bounds better than the NEX lenses...

dtufino wrote in post #12962237
When using the OVF i could not focus and recompose, it tended to back focus.... but i fixed that by using the "live View " feature (like a point and shoot camera)

did you use the shutter for AF? That's one of the BIG reasons I've always been a rear button AF guy (when given the choice). Focus when I tell you to. DO NOT FOCUS when I DON'T tell you to...

good luck with it. I like the NEX and the 16 is nice and small and a FL I like a lot. I just don't love the fact it's a 2.8 and they've not come out with any new lenses after a year of my owning one. I'm sure they'll come out with some next week though. For me MF isn't really an option so I haven't played with adapters. Plus, if I did an m-mount adapter would be far too tempting then the voightlander 12mm...