Appendix: Bugs, quirks and eccentricities

The X100 is a fascinating and in many ways charming little camera, which is capable of producing truly stunning images. The biggest problem with the X100, however, has always been its firmware - while a huge amount of care and attention has clearly been lavished on the design and development of that beautiful body and lens, on launch the firmware felt like it was abandoned hurriedly long before it was truly finished. Even after a significant round of bug-fixes with successive firmware updates, the X100 still has some strange habits (although - credit where it's due - it's now a much better camera than when it was launched).

To give an idea of the extent of the camera's quixotic operation, here's a (not necessarily exhaustive) list of things it does that you might not expect, many of which are undocumented in the manual. Some are minor, but others have a significant impact on operation. Of course, Murphy's Law dictates that even after extended use of the camera, its various operational bugs and oddities tend to catch you out precisely when you're trying to capture a shot quickly, and don't have time to double-check all the settings.

This list was compiled for firmware version 1.01. We've indicated issues that Fujifilm says it's addressed in Firmware 1.10, released 24th June 2011, and Firmware 1.2 released 21st March 2012.

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  • In Manual exposure mode, Live Histogram always implies correct exposure, regardless of settings
  • ISO bracketing, film simulation bracketing and dynamic range bracketing drive modes will turn off raw file recording without warning (and aren't greyed-out when shooting raw)
  • Depth of field scale is distinctly conservative - it appears to have been calculated for a 35mm actual (rather than equivalent) lens
  • When using AEL/AFL to autofocus with the camera set to MF, no focus confirmation is displayed (and equally, there's no warning when correct focus can't be attained)
  • When the ISO is set manually it overrides the DR setting, but in Auto ISO the DR setting takes priority
  • ISO 100 (L) and 12800 (H) are unavailable (greyed out) when shooting raw
  • In Manual exposure mode, camera will allow shooting at incompatible shutter speed / aperture combinations (e.g. 1/4000 sec F2)
  • Program shift only works if Auto ISO and Auto DR are disabled, and flash mode is set to Suppressed.
  • Program shift counts rear dial or thumb lever commands beyond the point where the aperture is set to its largest or smallest (F2 or F16), and requires those commands to be reversed before it will stop down or open up again
  • OVF Power Save Mode disables live histogram, but leaves the box in which it's normally displayed blank in the viewfinder
  • Drive mode, macro and flash mode buttons behave differently from the white balance button, and differently again from the AE and AF buttons
  • AF point cycles from anywhere on the top row to the bottom right position by pressing the 'up' key, and from the bottom row to the top left by pressing 'down'
  • In video mode, a full-press of the shutter is required to start recording, but only a half-press to stop
  • In video mode, autofocus is continuous regardless of focus switch position (AF-S / AF-C)
  • Magnified manual focus assist is not available in video mode
  • The ND filter is not available in motion panorama or video modes
  • Images shot in 16:9 JPEG + RAW can only be reconverted in-camera to 3:2 JPEGs
  • Images shot in continuous drive mode use a completely different file naming convention (which causes problems with sorting)
  • In Auto ISO, the camera initially displays the value set in the main ISO menu, even when it's above the currently-set maximum and will never be used*
  • Battery can be inserted the wrong way round, despite having an asymmetric shape
  • Supplied charger won't accept the battery directly, instead it requires a (supplied, but unlabelled) adapter piece to be fitted first
  • ISO and DR are set independently for each exposure mode, and for the Motion Panorama drive mode*
  • Drive and macro mode settings are discarded on changing exposure mode, entering playback or auto power-off*
  • When using the EVF or LCD, the AF point size is reset by switching to manual focus, or using the OVF*
  • When shooting JPEGs in 16:9 aspect ratio, the EVF and LCD displays are cropped accordingly, but the OVF displays 3:2 framelines. It's possible to enable 16:9 guidelines, but unlike the framelines they're not parallax-corrected*
  • Camera can only be woken from auto power off by half-pressing and holding the shutter button*
  • Images can't be deleted in the Detailed Information playback mode*
  • In playback, when magnifying a portrait format image the enlarged area is shown in a 3:2 portrait format area (even if shot at 16:9), wasting most of the screen area**

* Behaviour addressed or changed with FW 1.10
** Behaviour addressed or changed with FW 1.20