Well, I’ve had the x100 for a few weeks now. I’ve had a few more opportunities to get out and shoot with it, so I wanted to followup on my last post to let you know my thoughts on this cool little camera.
When I first ordered the camera I was very excited for it to arrive. There’s been a lot of hype around this camera from pro photographers that enjoyed having it as a walk-around camera. Something that you could carry with you when it wasn’t always practical to have a big DSLR around your neck, but still wanted to come home with decent shots you could use, possibly for professional use.
Fun, Fun, Fun to Use
As I stated in my first post about the x100, going out and shooting with the camera is extremely fun. The aperture ring on the lens, the shutter speed dial on top, ISO, exposure compensation and even flash and macro mode can all be adjusted with your fingers on the outside of the camera without having to take your eye away from the viewfinder. And then the fact that you can fire shot after shot without hearing a sound is kind of a rush too. Especially if you’re used to hearing the loud shutter sound from a DSLR. This keeps you from being too intrusive or too much of a disturbing presence while doing street photography (which this camera is great for). Just fun.
Hmmmm…
If you’ll recall from my first outing, while the shooting was so fun, I wasn’t really that happy with the image quality. I have been used to the quality of images of my 5D Mark II, so seeing something of less quality wasn’t all that impressive.
However
I’ve had more time to shoot with the camera and have also read what others had to say regarding different settings for the camera for possibly increasing the quality of the images you could get with this gem.
After getting used to the fact that the x100 is not going to match the quality images of my 5D I was able to appreciate what it does deliver.
Conclusions
So after spending more time with this camera my thoughts are…
- Is it a Leica M9? No.
- Is it fair to expect that it will replace a pro level DSLR? No.
- Is it a fun, lightweight, cool retro looking camera that produce some great images? Yes.
- Am I glad I bought it? Yes.
Here are a few I shot this week down on the strip (a few from Ceasars, a few from The Venetian) between meetings I was having down there. For the sake of transparency, all of these images have had post processing done in Aperture. But pretty much all of the images you’ll see on this site have been, so that’s fair.
Click on an image to view the full, larger version. (even left one in color!)
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