Brothers...

bs1946 wrote:

X100S. What's Your Favorite Flavor?

Had to use my iPhone 12 Pro Max to take this photo. Sounds like a good excuse to get another Fuji X100.

Both are beautiful. The black and silver (B&S) is beautiful in a classic, flashy way; which is why many enthusiasts prefer B&S.

The black (B) is beautiful in a slightly more modern, much more subtle, conservative way. The B&S looks like a high quality enthusiast camera while the B looks like a profession/journalist camera.

The B camera is more practical for people photos. B is especially more practical for candids, street photography, and journalism. I also find B more practical for consensual posed photos. B attracts less attention from human subjects and they find it less intimdating and/or distracting than a shiny camera. Likewise B is better for wildlife photos and surveilance for same reasons. These are reasons why most pros use black cameras.

Black initially became popular with journalists in Vietnam because the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese shot at shiny cameras, which resulted in many dead journalists. So journalists started using all black cameras, which reduced fatalities among journalists. All black cameras have been the norm for most pro photographers ever since.

I own a B&S Pentax K1000 since 1989, two B Minolta since 1992, two B Rebel T2i since 2010, one B&S Olympus E-M5ii, one B&S Olympus E-M10ii, and three B Olympus E-M10ii.

I can tell you from personal experience that shiny camera attract a lot of attention, which is often detrimental to you or your photos. For examples... Many times when I was using a shiny camera, I was asked (sometimes confronted) what I was photographing, or why I was photographing. Not just when shooting candids or street photos, but also a couple times when I was shooting architecture or real estate photos I was confronted by nosy neighbors, one time a nosey cop who threatened to arrest me, another time a nosy aggressive jail guard (county jail was next door to an office building that I was photographing to make an ad to rent it). Over the years I've taken thousands of real estate photos (architecture and landscape) and been confronted many times by various jerks.

Do you know what each confrontation had in common? I was using a B&S camera every time some jerk confronted me. I'm talking about my experiences over 30 years.

I also shot hundreds of photos of similar subjects in similar circumstances using all black cameras and lenses. No one ever bothered me when I used an all black equipment. Not one problem in 30 years using a black gear.

Also, candid subjects are much more likely to shy away or get confrontational if your camera is shiny. Also wildlife is easily spooked by shiny cameras.

I've had lots of people problems when using shiny cameras (even when shooting architecture and landscape, and even moreso with candids). I've never had a problem when using black gear.

So I've developed a strong preference for black gear.

I used a black Sharpie marker to blacken all large white lettering on front of camera body (such as the brand name) because the front of camera is what candid subjects see. I know other photographers who use black electrical tape to cover white lettering on their camera bodies. The advantage of electrical tape is that it's easily removeable if you ever want to sell your gear. The disadvantage of electrical tape is it's less permanent if you never sell your gear.

My Minolta, Canon, and Olympus black camera bodies had their brand names on the front of body in big white letters, until I blacked out the letters using a fine-point black Sharpie marker.

Your Fuji X100S black body has an all black front, which is good because it's the front that subjects see (or hopefully don't notice). So you don't need to blackout any lettering. Your black X100S is already stealthy. Fuji was very wise (or just dumb luck?) to not put white letters on the front.

Along with all black gear, obviously inconspicuous clothing and behavior helps too. Also, as prep for candids... Before getting into position on site... I get stap around my neck, remove lens cap, turn on camera, and verify settings ahead of time so when on location at proper moment, I just lift camera, zoom if needed, frame, press shutter, lower camera, done.

It might be even stealthier to not use EVF and instead use LCD screen at waist or chest level, but on bright sunny days I prefer EVF.