Exposure problems (x100)

I've gotten my x100 for about a month now, and I'm generally very pleased with the image quality of the camera. In the last week, I've noticed that my camera seems to measure the exposure wrongly (in all 3 different metering modes) for apertures values higher than f2.0 (shooting in aperture priority).

For example, at f2.0, the shot turns out perfectly exposed, while from f4.0 onwards, all my pictures are increasingly overexposed, with iso and the subject held constant. I've noticed that the shutter speed calculation seems to be fairly linear; shooting the same object at f2.0, the camera decides it needs a shutter speed of 1/250, and at 2.8, a speed of 1/125, f4.0 at 1/62 and so on.

1. Apparently the camera measures the amount of light entering the aperture at f2.0 and sets a shutter speed, and any changes to the aperture is linearly affecting the resultant shutter speed, which results in overexposure for most of my photos.

2. The reason I only realized the above in the last week was that I was shooting mainly in manual mode, and ignored the ev meters. As it stands, to get a similarly exposed picture of the same subject as at f2.0, the camera measures the exposure values to be as such:

at f4.0 - 1 and a third stops underexposed
at 5.6 - 1 and a third stops underexposed
at f.8.0 - 1 and 2 thirds stops underexposed

at f11 and f16 - 2 stops underexposed, and I normally have to play around with the shutter speed to get the exposure for f16 correct.

As a result, I pretty much can't shoot in aperture priority with an aperture value higher than f2.0 without getting my pictures overexposed.

I'm slightly reluctant to send it in to Fujifilm Singapore for checking as they've informed me that the check alone will take about 1-2 weeks, and while the meters and program modes are screwy, I can still get proper pictures shooting in full manual and ignoring the meters.

My question is, Is this normal? Firmware or hardware problem? I'm thinking that my set is a lemon, and would like to get opinions from the forumers here. Thanks in advance!

Hi Beba and Inbolch,

I'm getting exactly the same problem as Beba, with DR set to 100%. I'm pretty stumped as to whether the fault is due to the ev evaulation algorithm, or if its hardware failure (ie. light meter).

I'll be trying out the new firmware when it's released before I decide to send my camera down in any case, now that I know mine isn't an isolated case.

I think thats because in full auto, aperture is mostly set to 2.0. I have no problems with the auto calculation of exposure at aperture 2.0, just 2.8 and higher having increasingly overexposed pictures.

mine also bought in singapore month ago, first everything was fine, now the metering become unpredictable, often over expose regardless of the camera setting, when that happened even the exposure compensation dial don't work, even at -2 stop, fuji should have recall these batch of production..other wise the hype is not how good the x100, but it's about how bad the product quality of x100..selling at this kind of price and boasting it for professional use.

I've seen a couple of other messages about stuck aperture blades. What happened was that the aperture didn't close down to the selected aperture so the shots were always taken with f2.0 and the result was of course more or less over exposure on all apertures but 2.0.

So I have a feeling you have to return your camera for service.

sounds like what happened with mine. I've given up and will probably send the camera in for servicing soon.

though I haven't done nearly as much exploring on the problem as you have. I've only had it for a few days now.

I do mainly people pictures and my subjects' faces are often blown out. I'll do some chimping and either dial down the exposure or switch to spot metering the white face.

Kind of maddening because I really like the camera, but what's the point when you have to be so aware of this quirk. I never had this problem with Canon and Nikon P&S and DSLRs.

Larken wrote:

I've gotten my x100 for about a month now, and I'm generally very pleased with the image quality of the camera. In the last week, I've noticed that my camera seems to measure the exposure wrongly (in all 3 different metering modes) for apertures values higher than f2.0 (shooting in aperture priority).

For example, at f2.0, the shot turns out perfectly exposed, while from f4.0 onwards, all my pictures are increasingly overexposed, with iso and the subject held constant. I've noticed that the shutter speed calculation seems to be fairly linear; shooting the same object at f2.0, the camera decides it needs a shutter speed of 1/250, and at 2.8, a speed of 1/125, f4.0 at 1/62 and so on.

1. Apparently the camera measures the amount of light entering the aperture at f2.0 and sets a shutter speed, and any changes to the aperture is linearly affecting the resultant shutter speed, which results in overexposure for most of my photos.

2. The reason I only realized the above in the last week was that I was shooting mainly in manual mode, and ignored the ev meters. As it stands, to get a similarly exposed picture of the same subject as at f2.0, the camera measures the exposure values to be as such:

at f4.0 - 1 and a third stops underexposed
at 5.6 - 1 and a third stops underexposed
at f.8.0 - 1 and 2 thirds stops underexposed

at f11 and f16 - 2 stops underexposed, and I normally have to play around with the shutter speed to get the exposure for f16 correct.

As a result, I pretty much can't shoot in aperture priority with an aperture value higher than f2.0 without getting my pictures overexposed.

I'm slightly reluctant to send it in to Fujifilm Singapore for checking as they've informed me that the check alone will take about 1-2 weeks, and while the meters and program modes are screwy, I can still get proper pictures shooting in full manual and ignoring the meters.

My question is, Is this normal? Firmware or hardware problem? I'm thinking that my set is a lemon, and would like to get opinions from the forumers here. Thanks in advance!

I'll try setting mine to 100 and not Auto.

My problem doesn't seem to be as bad as some are describing here.

lnbolch wrote:

Since there is no way to examine your camera, my guess is that you are using the dynamic range feature. It will protect your highlight detail at all costs, which means that the overall exposure is going to be dark.

When shooting RAW, first open one at the "as shot" setting to get your highlight detail with whatever "Recovery" might be needed, then open it again, ignoring highlight detail to produce a full dynamic range image of your primary subject matter.

It does a mind-boggling job of protecting shadow detail without producing horrid shadow noise. Layer one over the other, and use a layer mask to blend. I have found that the camera has exceptional dynamic range when set on 100% and for the present time, I have the DR set to that. I will explore this further.

I've done abit more testing and I think I've pinpointed the problem with my camera; it appears to have the same issue as the case reported on x100rumours - the aperture blades are not closing fully at high f-stop values. This explains why at f2.0, the exposure is normally perfect (or as perfectly as its gonna be, as the x100 has a natural tendency to be slightly overexposed), as at f2.0, the aperture blades doesn't need to close.

Here's what you can do to test your set:

Just set to full manual, manual focus, ie. set a shutter speed, and then aperture is set to f2.0. Focus on an object and adjust shutter speed until ev bar shows 0. Take a picture to test (picture should turn out fine).

Then set to f16 (the issue is most obvious and visible at f16), don't bother refocusing. Instead, turn the camera around so you can see the lens. Do a series of half presses without actually shooting. In most of the instances, I saw that the aperture on a half press was in fact much bigger than it should be on f16 (about 7/10 of those seem to be about f8 or so, with the odd 1 or 2 half presses actually closing the aperture properly).

Side note: I find this happening esp. when I've just switched from other apertures, ie. if you try the f16 step and it seems to close perfectly every single time, try going to f8, half press, then go back to f16 and do a few half presses. I've managed to reproduce this quite consistently on my set.

It would be interesting to see if there is any correlation with the serial numbers of these cameras that are affected, or a batch number.

I got my X100 a couple of weeks ago and try as I might I cannot get it to expose incorrectly. All exposure calculations at any given aperture are consistent and the exposures are all identical. The aperture blades close down as expected for the metering calculation to be made.

Maybe a problem just waiting to affect me at some stage, or I am lucky, but this seems widespread enough that maybe there is a batch of X100s with some inherent issue in the lens assembly. Definitely can't be firmware related because some people have reported that all was fine and now the problem had occured, indicating mechanical issues rather than software.

Simon
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