Fuji X100S review: a top-end compact

According to Makoto Ooishi from Fuji’s Tokyo product planning division, in the future this Lens Modulation Optimiser technology will be extended to other cameras and lenses, including X lenses for the Fuji X-Pro1 and Fuji X-E1.

Like the Fuji X100, the Fuji X100S has a fixed 23mm f/2 lens made up of eight elements in six groups and including a double-sided aspherical element and highly refractive converging glass elements, which increase detail resolution and reduce aberration. Fujinon’s HT-EBC coating has also been applied, to reduce flare and ghosting.

Because the Fuji X100S has an APS-C format sensor, the lens produces images on a par with a 34.5mm lens on a full-frame camera. This and the fast maximum aperture make it ideal for documentary and street photography.

The Fuji X100 has a contrast detection autofocus system, but the Fuji X100S has a hybrid AF system that uses either contrast or phase detection depending on the situation. The camera decides which system to use depending on the AF point selected and the brightness of the scene.

If the brightness of the scene falls below 3EV, the Fuji X100S will default to using contrast detection focusing.

At its launch, Fuji claimed that the X100S has the fastest AF speed of any APS-C format fixed lens compact camera (not a huge pool), taking just 0.08 seconds to get the subject sharp. It will be interesting to see how it compares with the autofocus system in the APS-C format Nikon Coolpix A.

There are also changes to the manual focus system, and the Fuji X100S debuts the world’s first Digital Split Image display.

This makes use of the camera’s phase detection pixels (which double as green pixels) to create a double image that is than merged into the image from the other pixels. It’s essentially a form of digital rangefinder focusing.

Keen videographers will also appreciate the addition of Focus Peaking Highlight, which highlights the areas of highest contrast (and therefore best focus).

The Fuji X100 debuted a hybrid viewfinder, and this continues in a modified form in the Fuji X100S. Helpfully, the optical finder now has an overlay that enables you to see the exposure settings and focus point. It also now functions with subjects as close as 50cm away, rather than 80cm away.

The resolution of the electronic viewfinder (EVF) has also been boosted, and it’s a 2,360,000-dot device.

A new coating has been added to the viewfinder glass to resist fingerprints.

Like the Fuji X-Pro1, the Fuji X100S has Fuji’s film simulation modes. This has now been pushed to include 10 modes: Velvia, Provia, Astia, Pro Neg Std, Pro Neg Hi, Sepia, Monochrome and Monochrome with a yellow, red or green filter effect.

As with the new advanced filter modes (Soft focus, Dynamic Tone, Low-Key, High-Key, Pop Color, Miniature, Toy Camera, Selective Color – purple, blue, green, yellow, orange and red) these are JPEG-only options.

We would like to be able to use them to shoot raw and JPEG files, so that there is the option to have a ‘clean’ and a processed image. However, it’s nice that the camera automatically switches to JPEG-only mode when one of the filters is selected, so there’s no need for you to manually switch file format beforehand.

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This article by Angela Nicholson originally appeared on Techradar, a Burn Media publishing partner.