First travel photos with X100S

HakonD · Aug 12, 2013

I bought my X100S a couple of weeks ago, here are my first travel photos. The main reasons for buying this camera was:

(1) Light weight - I travel extensively and only use carry-on luggage

(2) Decent IQ

(3) Very easy access to shutter speed and aperture - love the manual controls on X100S

I like the camera a lot, not exploiting all its possibilities yet. My previous camera was a Pentax K-5 where I mainly used the 21mm and 40mm primes. Main disappointments with X100S are: (1) Battery life and battery indicator - the time from "two bars" until empty can be very very short, (2) The softness of F2.0 in "macro" mode - it's actually not very useful at that aperture. Some of the pics have been lightly post-processed in Corel Aftershot Pro. Some pictures are flawed, for me this has been a fun learning process...

Handheld panorama with X100S.

BluesJake · Aug 12, 2013

Lovely images and nice summary of your thoughts on the camera. Thanks for posting.

Toccata47 · Aug 12, 2013

You asked for criticism so here's some:

These look nice but prioritize style over substance and ultimately make for shiny, but dull photography. I like travel photos that inform; shots that make you feel like a sense of place. These might be shot anywhere and don't take in much about the setting at all.

uniball · Aug 12, 2013

Toccata47 said:
Toccata47 wrote:

You asked for criticism so here's some:

These look nice but prioritize style over substance and ultimately make for shiny, but dull photography. I like travel photos that inform; shots that make you feel like a sense of place. These might be shot anywhere and don't take in much about the setting at all.

That is a very personal view. There is no shortage of superb "narrow subject" photographs that reinforce a sense of place as well as stand out as superb photographs. I'm sure the OP took far more images than these on his trip. Without the context of the album, I don't know how one could come to your conclusion.

I travel a lot and always incorporate close ups in my collections. They fit well, add to the sense of place and style never hurt anyone. For some of us, what is dull are endless travel shots that do a great job of conveying a sense of place but lack much interest beyond that.

HakonD · Aug 12, 2013

Thanks Toccata, good point. I agree that I was guilty of doing a lot of close-ups as I was exploring the depth of field with the fixed lens on the X100S.

mdavidp · Aug 12, 2013

Thanks for the photos.

My criticism: None

I liked them!

Mike P

Activatedfx · Aug 12, 2013

I like them! Especially the pool balls. "My kind" of photos. I'm a shallow DOF junkie. ;-)

Only crit would be some blown out highlights. If you shot RAW, try using the "Highlights" slider in ACR/LR/Aperture/other processor to bring back some detail. I once read an article where the author dialed down the Highlights slider, sometimes to -100, then brought BACK the bright areas with the "Whites" slider in LR, which results in smoother transitions and more retained detail. I find this technique works very well.

And, yes, f/2 Macros with the X100/X100S are a little soft and "glowy", but it can work nicely for flower images and to add a little atmosphere!!

Joachim Gerstl · Aug 12, 2013

Nice pictures. Which country? Thailand?

Your findings are correct. Battery management of the Fuji X is a shame.

yardcoyote · Aug 12, 2013

I know I've seen plenty of images of great historical sites and sweeping vistas. My own interests lie in the details, and I particularly like the roll of cloth, and the balls arranged for some kind of game I'm unfamiliar with. That image does a great job of suggesting a place to me, even if I don't know what place it is.

HakonD · Aug 12, 2013

Joachim Gerstl said:
Joachim Gerstl wrote:

Nice pictures. Which country? Thailand?

Your findings are correct. Battery management of the Fuji X is a shame.

HakonD · Aug 12, 2013

Activatedfx said:
Activatedfx wrote:

I like them! Especially the pool balls. "My kind" of photos. I'm a shallow DOF junkie. ;-)

Only crit would be some blown out highlights. If you shot RAW, try using the "Highlights" slider in ACR/LR/Aperture/other processor to bring back some detail. I once read an article where the author dialed down the Highlights slider, sometimes to -100, then brought BACK the bright areas with the "Whites" slider in LR, which results in smoother transitions and more retained detail. I find this technique works very well.

And, yes, f/2 Macros with the X100/X100S are a little soft and "glowy", but it can work nicely for flower images and to add a little atmosphere!!

Thanks for pointing out the highlights issue. Will investigate. Regarding shallow DOF - one of the key reasons I bought this cam was the old-school manual control opportunity, especially for controlling aperture. The softness at f/2 is still annoying, but I am learning to work with it/around it...

nonicks · Aug 14, 2013

HakonD said:
HakonD wrote:

Thanks Toccata, good point. I agree that I was guilty of doing a lot of close-ups as I was exploring the depth of field with the fixed lens on the X100S.

Hi HakonD,

Very Nice pictures. I like them all. I am very excited about my new x100s which is on the way to me. I just wonder how close you can shoot without getting serious softness effect. I think the lens is sharp but show softness only if one shoots close up wide open?

Also the overall color of X100s is very nice. But do you think the overall picture color of the JPEG SOOC using default auto white balance carries a blue cast which easily makes the pictures a little dull, less pop and "less shine"? Just my observation from what I read and saw on the internet so far... but want to confirm if you are aware of the same.

Thanks for sharing.

HakonD · Aug 15, 2013

nonicks said:
nonicks wrote:

Hi HakonD,

Very Nice pictures. I like them all. I am very excited about my new x100s which is on the way to me. I just wonder how close you can shoot without getting serious softness effect. I think the lens is sharp but show softness only if one shoots close up wide open?

Also the overall color of X100s is very nice. But do you think the overall picture color of the JPEG SOOC using default auto white balance carries a blue cast which easily makes the pictures a little dull, less pop and "less shine"? Just my observation from what I read and saw on the internet so far... but want to confirm if you are aware of the same.

Thanks for sharing.

Hi Nonicks,

Thanks for your comments. In my limited experience, the softness issue applies to shooting in close-up mode with aperture at f/2 and f/2.8. Otherwise it is quite ok.

I have used auto-white balance only, and have found the colors to be quite pleasing, I have not noticed any bluish cast. A fun option is to use the "Film Bracketing" mode using the "Drive" button - you can set up the camera to generate 3 images from each shot, each image processed differently thereby simulating differet types of analog film such as Velvia etc.

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First travel photos with X100S

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