First Look: Fujifilm X100V

Fujifi lm X100V

Michael Topham takes a tour of Fujifi lm’s new premium compact in the X100 series

Shutter Shutter speeds range from 15min-1/4000sec using the mechanical shutter, or 15min-1/32,000sec using the silent electronic shutter.

HOT ON the heels of its latest entry-level mirrorless release, the X-T200, Fujifi lm has unveiled its fi fth model in its iconic and stylish X100 series. The X100V replaces the X100F that was released in 2017 and introduces a number of improvements, making it the most advanced premium fi xed lens compact in Fujifi lm’s history.

Features The X100V is the latest X-series camera to inherit Fujifi lm’s 26.1MP X-Trans CMOS 4 APS-C sensor and quad-core X-Processor 4. Together they deliver a sensitivity range of ISO 160-12,800 (extendable to ISO 80-51,200), along with continuous shooting rates of 11fps with the mechanical shutter, 20fps with the electronic shutter, or 30fps with a 1.25x crop. To complement the sensor, Fujifi lm has designed a new 23mm f/2 lens for the X100V that promises better resolution, lower distortion and a greatly improved performance in the corners and at close focus distances. The good news is that the improvements to the optics have had no effect on the size of the lens, meaning it remains compatible with existing adapters and conversion lenses. Photographers have the option to add a wide conversion lens (WCL-X100 II) or tele-conversion lens (TCL-X100 II) to extend the X100V’s fi xed 23mm focal length (equivalent to 34.5mm in 35mm terms) to a 28mm equivalent (0.8x) or 50mm (1.4x) equivalent lens. In addition to weathersealing around the body, Fujifi lm has designed a weather-resistance kit for the X100V (£99) to enhance its operability in challenging conditions. The adapter ring (AR-X100) and protector fi lter (PRF-49) make it fully weather-resistant. Like its predecessors, the X100V features a hybrid optical/electronic viewfi nder. In its optical mode, the fi nder continues to provide parallax-corrected frame lines, along with detailed overlaid exposure information, but now offers wider 95% coverage and a higher 0.52x magnifi cation. As for the EVF, this has been upgraded to offer a clearer viewing experience with a 3.69-million-dot

Design The body has top and bottom plates milled from single pieces of aluminium, which results in a refined and classic camera body with clean, attractive edges.

Touchscreen Touchscreen control extends to the quick menu, but it doesn’t support navigation of the main menu like the X-A7 or X-T200.

Weatherresistant kit The weather-resistant kit will be sold for half price (£49.50) to UK customers when it’s purchased with the camera. resolution, 0.66x magnifi cation and improved contrast. The X100V’s autofocus performance has improved too. It can focus down to -5EV in low light and spreads 2.16-million phase-detection pixels across the surface of its sensor. Users can select from 117 AF points laid out in a 9x13 formation, which can be increased to a 425-point layout arranged in a 17x25 grid. Furthermore, it provides enhanced face and eye detection and is equipped with Fujifi lm’s focus limiter function that can be used to set the lens to a specifi c range of distances, which can be useful

At a glance

£1299 body only

■ 26.1MP APS-C X-Trans CMOS 4 sensor ■ X-Processor 4 ■ 23mm f/2 lens ■ Hybrid viewfinder (OVF&EVF) ■ Two-way tilting touchscreen ■ 4K video at 30fps ■ Compatible with legacy conversion lenses

AP got hands on with the X100V at a launch event in central London

when the distance to the subject you’re photographing remains consistent. Other new additions include a built-in 4-stop ND fi lter, which improves on the X100F’s 3-stop ND fi lter, and a wider selection of fi lm simulation modes that includes Classic Negative, which made its debut in the X-Pro3. Videographers benefi t from having the ability to record 4K video at 30p, with Full HD 1080p also available up to 120fps. Those who’d like to record in 10-bit, 4:2:2 can do so via the HDMI port and there’s a 2.5mm mic input to enhance audio quality. Another welcome improvement is the X100V’s healthier battery life, which lasts for 350 frames using the EVF, or 420 frames using the optical viewfi nder. With a USB Type-C port users have the option to charge on the go, and just as you’d expect, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth is built-in to enable wireless transfers and remote control with mobile devices running Fujifi lm’s Camera Remote app.

Build and handling The X100V shares the same charm and elegance as its predecessors, but there are quite a few differences that aren’t immediately obvious. With regard to its build quality, the top and bottom plates are now manufactured from single pieces of aluminium, resulting in a much crisper fi nish around the edge of the body than previous versions. The aluminium covers, which are built around a magnesium alloy frame, are exquisitely fi nished in a satin coating, with the allblack version being anodised rather than painted to give it a ‘deep black’ look. On the top plate, the X100V, like the X100F, benefi ts from an ISO dial that’s built around the shutter speed dial. It’s similar to the arrangement you’ll fi nd on the X100F in that the outer portion of the dial is lifted to adjust the ISO value, but it’s also vastly improved in the way it doesn’t have to be lifted and rotated simultaneously. Pull the outer ring up and the ISO dial can be rotated freely with your thumb before it’s pushed back down and locked in place. The signifi cant change at the rear is a new two-way tilting 3in, 1.62-milliondot touchscreen. By designing the screen unit incredibly thinly, users get the benefi t of a tilting screen with no additional bulk –indeed you wouldn’t really know it’s a tilt screen if it wasn’t for the cut-out at the bottom left corner of the body that helps pull it out. The X100V does lose the four-way controller. Instead users are encouraged to use the joystick and the Menu/OK, playback and DISP/Back buttons, which align beneath. A small quick menu button remains, but it’s shifted to the right to prevent accidental thumb presses.

First impressions

WITH the X100V, Fujifi lm has listened to what existing X100 users have had to say and responded by making a series of valuable improvements to key areas of its operation and design. If the examples we were shown of how the new lens resolves sharpness is anything to go by, we can expect it to produce better image quality in the corners –plus with the introduction of a weather-resistance kit, photographers will no longer be afraid of using it when weather conditions take a turn for the worse. Adding a tilt screen will be a huge benefi t to street photographers who like to shoot inconspicuously from the hip, while other tweaks such as refi ning ISO control and giving it an even more premium fi nish are likely to charm existing X100 users into thinking about an upgrade. We’re looking forward to reviewing it in a few weeks’ time.

World’s fastest lens with autofocus AT THE same time as announcing the X100V, Fujifi lm revealed its next lens to be added to its lineup of XF lenses will be the Fujinon XF 50mm F1.0 R WR. It will bring the total number of lenses for X-series cameras up to 35 and it’ll be the world’s fastest lens with autofocus. Equivalent to 75mm in 35mm terms, it’ll employ 13 elements in 8 groups and include an unusual concave front element, 2 extra low dispersion (ED) glass lenses and feature a 77mm fi lter thread. Fujifi lm explained that the set of large elements towards the front of the lens are used to form the image, while the rear section that’s made up of 5 elements in 3 groups will be used for focusing. The lens is designed to produce very ‘creamy’ looking bokeh and is promised to be even better in this respect than the much-loved XF 56mm F1.2 R. The fact Fujifi lm had a working sample to show us suggests it might not be too long before we see the lens rolling off the production line. Fujifi lm was also forthcoming in saying there will be three additional lenses added to the XF range by the end of the year, however no futher information about what these three lenses will be has been disclosed.

The new XF 50mm F1.0 R WR coupled to the Fujifilm X-T3

Fujifi lm X-T4 is only a matter of days away

THE OTHER very exciting news to come from this year’s X-Summit broadcast held at Fujifi lm’s House of Photography in London was confi rmation that the Fujifi lm X-T4 is on its way. Towards the end of the live broadcast, Fujifi lm revealed the X-T4 will be offi cially announced on 26 February. Although no further information was revealed, the offi cial announcement ties in with the annual CP+ Camera and Photo Imaging Show in Yokohama, Japan (27 February to 1 March) where we’re expecting many of the major players in the photography market to release their latest products and innovations. AP will be attending CP+ to bring you all the news and information as and when we receive it, so watch this space.

Woman on tube holding flowers, London, 1960

A United Kingdom By Bruce Davidson

The legendary Magnum photographer’s show includes some of his rarely seen work, as Amy Davies discovers

EXHIBITION

Huxley-Parlour Gallery, 3-5 Swallow Street, London, W1B 4DE until 14 March. MondaySaturday 10.00-17.30. Admission free.

On commission for The Queen magazine, American photographer Bruce Davidson travelled to the UK in the autumn of 1960. Given free rein to create his personal portrait of the country, he toured for just over two months, spending a number of weeks in London before moving on to the south coast, then heading north to Scotland. His travels showed him a country that, in parts, appeared untouched since the 1930s, alongside a society that was driven by difference while still emerging from post-war trauma and several years of cuts and austerity.

He pointed his lens towards the extremes of city and country life, as well as shifting social and cultural attitudes. Particularly drawn towards the teenager, he was keen to show the growing disparity between youth and age. Eventually published in April 1961 under the title Seeing Ourselves as an American Sees Us: A Picture Essay on Britain the results show arguably what was the last remnant of a nation vanishing into modern things and ways of thinking yet to come.

Also on display are photographs shot by Davidson in Wales during the mid-1960s. The story goes that the photographer, while serving in the army, asked a Welsh sergeant where he would send his worst enemy. The answer: Cwmcarn.

Years later, while on assignment photographing Caernarfon Castle in the north of the country, he decided to finally pay a visit to the town in the Ebbw Valley in the south. A mining town, it was known for its social deprivation, along with the scars left on the landscape from many years of heavy industry.

ALL PICTURES © BRUCE DAVIDSON / MAGNUM PHOTOS COURTESY HOWARD GREENBERG GALLERY/HUXLEY PARLOUR GALLERY © STAN DOUGLAS

Also out now

The latest and best exhibitions from the world of photography

Wales, 1965

Girl holding kitten, London, 1960

Davidson’s photographs show a different, more hopeful side. Focusing on the communities – for example the mining families and children at play –the images are a countenance to the hardships those in the frame undoubtedly faced. As an American, Davidson is perhaps able to see things about us and our society that a British photographer might not even notice. The images were shot with kindness, compassion and respect. Free exhibitions of this calibre don’t come along that often, so if you can get to London to catch it, it’s a must-see.

Teenagers and jukebox, Hastings, 1960

EXHIBITION

Stan Douglas: Doppelgänger Victoria Miro, London. Runs until 14 March. Tuesday-Saturday 10am-6pm. Entrance free PRIMARILY a video installation, this exhibition also includes selected works from Douglas’s photographic series Scenes from the Blackout. Canadian artist Stan Douglas often explores what he describes as ‘speculative histories’ – moments in time when events could have taken a very different turn. In this series, he imagines the effects of a total loss of power in present-day New York City and how people would behave in such an emergency. A panoramic view of an almost entirely blacked-out cityscape is set against scenes showing individual experiences of resourcefulness and various degrees of misbehaviour. Douglas has been creating fi lm and photographs since the 1980s, as well as more recently working on theatre productions and other projects. The photos are cinematic, with a fi lm-noir or Hitchcock-like quality to them –it’s well worth a visit if you want to see something unusual and slightly surreal. Amy Davies

EXHIBITION

Masculinities: Liberation Through Photography Barbican Centre London. 20 Feb to 17 May. £15-£17 (concessions available). Opening times vary, see website for details This major group exhibition explores how masculinity is experienced, performed, coded and socially constructed as expressed and documented through photography and fi lm from the 1960s to the present day. More than 300 works from over 50 different artists are featured in the exhibition, including Richard Avedon and Robert Mapplethorpe. Younger and lesser-known artists are also represented, some of whom have never shown in the UK before.

Jane Alison, head of visual arts at the Barbican, said ‘In the wake of the #MeToo movement and the resurgence of feminist and men’s rights activism, traditional notions of masculinity has become a subject of fi erce debate.’ There are many highlights of the exhibition – make sure you set aside a couple of hours to fully explore everything it has to offer. See Peter Dench’s latest Final Analysis column (p66) on ‘Gentlemen’ by Karen Knorr – an image on display at the show. Amy Davies

Viewpoint Andy Westlake

It’s clear that camera bargains are available, just don’t expect the latest technology

In next week’s issue

On sale Tuesday 25 February

Do you have something you’d like to get off your chest? Send us your thoughts in around 500 words to the address on page 24 and win a year’s digital subscription to AP, worth £79.99 I n this week’s issue, I review Leica’s latest M10 Monochrom, a rangefi nder camera that shoots only in black & white. It’s very special indeed, but then again it probably should be, given that it costs £7,250 without a lens. I paid considerably less than that for my car. While this is an extreme example, it does often feel as though cameras are getting increasingly unaffordable. For example, Sony’s original Cyber-shot RX100 –the fi rst camera to feature a 1-inch sensor, of the kind that’s now ubiquitous across advanced compacts –seemed inconceivably expensive for its type when it was launched back in 2012 for £550. But by 2019, the seventhgeneration version appeared for an eye-watering £1,100, fully double the price. We often get asked why we only review expensive cameras, but here, in a nutshell, is the problem. We review cameras when they’re fi rst released, and at that point, they’re expensive. In essence, this simply refl ects how the market now works. Where once a new camera would completely replace its predecessor on the dealers’ shelves in a matter of weeks, now the old models stay available for much longer, at everdecreasing prices. This in turn allows manufacturers to pitch their latest and greatest tech at a higher price point, and recoup their development costs from early adopters. So this is where bargains are to be found –not with the shiny new releases, but with older designs, which are often still very capable indeed. The bargains are out there Let’s consider a few examples. Want a brilliant full-frame DSLR? Take a look at the Nikon D750, which can now be had for under £1,000, less than half the price of its recently announced successor, the D780. How about a high-quality 4K-video shooting mirrorless camera? Panasonic’s very capable G80 costs £600 with a versatile 12-60mm lens, making it £300 less than last year’s G90 for much the same spec. If it’s an entry-level DSLR you’re after, the Canon EOS 2000D costs £369 with its image-stabilised 18-55mm kit lens, having started life with a £469 price ticket. And going back to Sony’s premium compacts, at the time of writing that original RX100 could be bought from reputable retailers, brand new, for just £249, with intermediate generations at practically every price point in between. We reviewed all of these cameras, it’s just that they looked quite a lot more expensive at the time. So what are your options if you’ve only got a couple of hundred quid to spend? Unfortunately the bottom end of the market has been decimated by the quality and ubiquity of mobile phones, so there’s not much to buy new. But this is what the second-hand market has always been for, and there are plenty of reputable retailers out there, so you don’t have to take your chances on eBay. The bottom line is that bargains are still around, just rarely with the latest cameras. Andy Westlake is currently the Technical Editor of Amateur Photographer . For six and a half years he wrote for Digital Photography Review, writing numerous lens and camera reviews. Sony’s original RX100 currently costs a fifth as much as the latest version CONTENT FOR NEXT WEEK S SSUE MAY BE SUBJECT TO CHANGE © STEWART WALL AP 2020 awards

We reveal the best cameras, lenses and accessories that we tested last year

An important body of work Tips to help you produce a coherent set of images for a successful portfolio

Well travelled We share some of our favourites from this year’s winning Travel POTY images