Reviews |Fujifilm X-T100 Review

Fujifilm X-T100 Review

Fujifilm X-T100 Review
Review

Snap Verdict

Although it’s aimed at beginners the Fujifilm X-T100 has a nice solid build, a good quality viewfinder and a robust-feeling 3-way tilting screen. In fact, the build quality is so good, it doesn’t feel like an entry-level camera. Inside it has a regular design 24Mp CMOS sensor rather than the X-Trans CMOS III design chip of X-series cameras further up the Fujifilm line, but it still delivers high-quality results. You also get 11 of Fujifilm’s superb Film Simulation modes, Bluetooth and WiFi connectivity and a straightforward interface. We’re not fans of the power zoom of the XC15-45mmF3.5-5.6 OIS PZ kit lens, but on the whole, the X-T100 is a good choice for beginners.

For Fujifilm X-T100

  • High-quality viewfinder
  • Attractive images
  • Easy to use

Against Fujifilm X-T100

  • Focusing can be sluggish
  • 4K video only available at 15fps
  • Power zoom kit lens
 

Fujifilm X-T100 Review

Features

Inside the Fuji X-T100 is the same 24.2MP APS-C format CMOS sensor as is in the company’s X-A5. This means that the X-T100 has the more common Bayer colour filter array rather than the X-Trans array found in cameras like the Fujifilm X-T2, X-T20 and X-Pro 2.

This also means that there are phase-detection pixels on the sensor, which is good news for the autofocus system. There are 91 AF points in a 13×7 grid, with the central 35 being the phase detection points.

Fujifilm has combined the sensor with a processing engine that enables a maximum continuous shooting rate of 6fps (frames per second). This rate can be maintained for a burst of up to 26 jpegs. Alternatively, the Low Continuous shooting rate enables 3fps shooting until the card is full.

Fuji has given the X-T100 a native sensitivity range of ISO 200-12,800. If you’re prepared to sacrifice capturing raw files, the sensitivity range can be expanded to ISO 100-51,200.

There are also three customisable Auto settings with a maximum value of ISO 6400.

Viewfinder and Screen

As I mentioned earlier, the X-T100 has an electronic viewfinder. This is a 0.39inch 2,360,000-dot OLED device. This shows the entire image and previews the impact of the camera settings.

There’s also a 3inch, 1,040k-dot LCD screen with a unique 3-way tilting mechanism. This is unlike the tilting mechanism of the Fujifilm X-T2, but it’s not like the usual vari-angle hinging type you find elsewhere either. Nevertheless, it can be flipped out to the side for selfie shooting as well as tipped up or down for low and high-level shooting.

Connectivity

As you’d expect, the X-T100 has Wi-fi connectivity onboard for transferring images. However, it also has the low-power Bluetooth connectivity that introduced with the Fujifilm X-E3.

After initial pairing, this makes connecting your camera and smartphone easy. 

Build and Handling

It may sit towards the lower end of Fujifilm’s X-series line-up but the X-T100 still feels nice and solid in your hand. The anodised aluminium top-plate add to the feeling of quality.

At 448g including the battery and memory card, it’s lighter than the Fujifilm X-T2 but heavier than the X-T20 above it. Around the back, there’s a small but significant thumb ridge but the front of the camera is flat. Thankfully there’s a textured coating that gives some grip. There’s also a detachable grip supplied with the kit and I highly recommend using it. It adds purchase and makes the camera feel much more secure in your hand.

Fujifilm X-T100 Review

Controls

While the X-T100 has the traditional styling that we’re familiar with from the X-Series, it doesn’t have the old-school exposure controls of models like the X-T2 and X-T20. This means that there’s no shutter speed or exposure compensation dial with marked values. Instead, there’s a large mode dial on the top-plate and a smaller dial to its right that’s used for adjusting exposure compensation.

In recognition of the X-T100’s entry-level status, the mode dial has a setting for the SR+ Auto Mode. This fully automatic mode has been improved by the inclusion of subject and scene recognition.

There are also settings to select Advanced Filter, Scene (with 10 options), Portrait Enhancer, Landscape, Sport, Night and Panorama mode. In addition, you can select to shoot in program, aperture priority, shutter priority or manual exposure mode.

The X-T100 can also work with Fujifilm lenses that have an aperture ring.

On the opposite side of the hot-shoe from the mode dial, there’s another large dial. You can customise how you use this, but I found the default settings work well. In the beginner-friendly modes like Scene and Advanced Filter, for example, it allows you to scroll through the various scene and filter options. In the advanced exposure modes, you can use it to select the Film Simulation mode.

Fujifilm X-T100 Review

Screen

Fujifilm’s choice of screen mount is quite unusual. It’s less intuitive to use than the vari-angle mounts that you see on cameras like the Panasonic G9 or Canon EOS M50. However, it feels very robust. It also has the advantages of a standard tilting screen, which means it doesn’t have to be flipped out to the side of the camera before it can be tilted up or down.

Furthermore, it can be tilted for shooting in portrait orientation but as the hinge isn’t a vari-angle type, it matters which way up you’re holding the camera.

If you want to shoot a selfie, the screen can be flipped out to the side through 180 degrees and viewed from the front of the camera.

Touch-Control

Helpfully, it’s possible to select four features to access by swiping up, down, left or right on the screen. However, it takes practice to develop the right swiping technique. The speed and start and end point of the swipe make a difference. It may mean that some people will give up before they’ve really got going with this element of touch control, but it can be helpful.

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It’s also possible to use the screen to set the AF point when you’re looking in the viewfinder. However, I find this a bit hit and miss so generally I tend to use the buttons on the back of the camera.

Unfortunately, the navigation buttons aren’t especially easy to identify with your thumb. As a result, you can find yourself dabbing about on the back of the camera each time you want to move the AF point. It can get a bit frustrating.

On a more positive note, the 3-inch 1,040,000-dot screen gives a good clear view. When the view is magnified, there’s enough detail visible to enable you to focus manually if you want.

Sadly Fujifilm doesn’t extend touch-control to the menu or Quick Menu. Neither does the main menu have a customisable ‘My Menu’ option and the Quick Menu can’t be changed.

Electronic Viewfinder

Like the screen, the 0.39-inch 2,360K-dot OLED electronic viewfinder gives a clear image of the scene. It lacks the real estate of the 0.5-inch screen finders in cameras like the X-T2, X-Pro 2 and X-H1, but it’s a godsend in bright light. I did much of my testing of the X-T100 in the French Alps and the bright conditions made it hard to assess exposure on the screen. The viewfinder makes life much easier.

Performance

Overall the Fujifilm X-T100 performs well. In the default settings and good light, it usually delivers attractive images with plenty of detail. The general purpose Multi exposure metering (Photometry) setting tends towards quite bright images and many of my shots were taken with -1/3EV or more exposure compensation.

Of course being able to assess exposure in the viewfinder before you take the shot means this is less of an issue than it might be with a DSLR.

Image Quality

It may not have Fujifilm’s widely respected X-Trans CMOS III sensor, but the X-T100’s 24Mp chip delivers the goods. There’s a high level of detail and this is maintained well up to about ISO 3200 when some smoothing starts to be visible in jpegs. It’s not excessive and at normal viewing sizes the images look good. But if you zoom in a little and compare the results with those shot at ISO 200 you see the loss of detail.

By ISO 12,800 the smoothing of out of focus details becomes a little more noticeable. If you zoom in to 100%, some areas also have a painterly texture.

The ISO 25,600 and 51,200 settings are jpeg only, and they’re best avoided. Even at normal viewing sizes, some colour bleeding is visible and the jpeg images look a bit smoother than they should.

Raw files shot at the higher ISO settings have more noise and less colour saturation. You can conceal some of the noise and boost the saturation in processing, making raw files a better choice at the upper end of teh ISO range.

I wouldn’t get too stressed about shooting at ISO 12,800 if I had to, but I’d aim to stick to ISO 3200 if I could.

Fujifilm X-T100 Review

Colours

One area where Fujifilm’s cameras tend to impress is with the colours they produce. There’s a nice selection of Film Simulation modes and there’s usually more than one to suit every shooting scenario or taste. The X-T100 has 11 Film Simulation modes available: Provia/Standard, Velvia/Vivid, Astia/Soft, Classic Chrome, Pro Neg Hi, Pro Neg. Std, Monochrome, Monochrome +Ye Filter, Monochrome,+R Filter, Monochrome,+G Filter and Sepia.

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As a rule, I use Provia but I also like Classic Chrome a lot. I use Velvia occasionally when I want a more vibrant image. If Acros was available, I would use it for shooting black and white images, but unfortunately, the X-T100 doesn’t have it. Instead, there’s a selection of Monochrome options. I find the monochrome coloured filter effects quite distracting and keep switching between them to see which works with each scene. But it’s still nice to be able to visualise a monochrome image before capturing it.

The X-T100’s auto white balance system can generally be relied upon to deliver pleasant results. There’s a collection of preset options available as well, but many will find that the AWB setting is all they need.

Autofocus

Although it has Fujifilm’s Intelligent Hybrid AF system which combines phase detection and contrast detection, the X-T100 isn’t the fastest at focusing a lens. In fact, with the 15-45mm kits lens, it’s prone to indecision.

However, it coped reasonably well when I was photographing someone zip lining. When I used the Wide/Tracking setting it tracked them for the majority of shots taken at 6fps. It faired even better when I switched to a single AF point and I kept it over the moving subject myself.

Sample Images

Follow the link to browse and download full resolution images.

Fujifilm X-T100 Sample Images

Verdict

There are aspects of the Fujifilm X-T100 that I love – the build and image quality for example. But there are also aspects that frustrate me. I find selecting the AF point that I want to use a bit fiddly when I’m looking in the viewfinder. That’s whether I’m using the screen of the button controls.

The focusing can also be quite hesitant and there quite a few occasions during my testing when a red rectangle appeared to show me that the camera couldn’t focus. This means picking another point or recomposing to put the selected point over an area of higher contrast. It doesn’t quite match up with the promise of the build quality.

I’m also not keen on the power zoom of the XC15-45mm f/3.5-5.6 OIS PZ kit lens. It’s a little laggy and it can take a bit of backwards and forwards to get the framing you want. Of course, you can always start out with this lens and then progress on to some of Fujifilm’s more traditional lenses. There’s an extensive line-up of 26 now and there are some real beauties.

But let’s not forget that this is an entry-level camera.

That means it won’t be quite a slick to operate as a top-of-the-range model. As I’ve said, the build quality is lovely. It sets the X-T100 apart from more plasticky entry-level cameras. The controls are also logically arranged and although the navigation buttons are a bit hard to distinguish when you’re looking through the viewfinder, the Quick Menu is fast and easy to use.

It takes a little while to get used to the screen’s tilting mechanism, but it feels solid and works well.

Fujifilm X-T100 Review

Should I buy the Fujifilm X-T100?

The Fujifilm X-T100 looks and feels like the real deal. It has an excellent viewfinder and screen for an entry-level model and it delivers high-quality images. It’s a good camera for novice photographers. If you want a better AF system or more traditional controls, however, take a look at the X-T20 further up the Fujifilm line.

It’s also worth taking a look at the Panasonic Lumix GX9 and Olympus OM-D E-M10 III.