Just before leaving for New York City on a get away with my wife (read about why we were in NYC here), my 10+ year old Fujifilm X Pro 1 finally kicked the bucket. So…I pulled another digital relic from the shelf, my Fujifilm X10 compact camera. I wanted something light, un assuming, and fun. I am pleased to share that this old Fujifilm X10 exceeded my expectations. So much so, that it is changing the way I think about travel photography and gear.
The Fujifilm X10 was released way back in September of 2011. I think I picked up my first copy sometime in 2011. Not long after came the X20 with a new sensor and some much needed updates to the viewfinder. I sold my X10 and bought the X20. Not long after that the X30 came out. Again, I sold my X20 and picked one of those up. What a great camera that was too. And…Not long after that, the compact camera market crashed in favor of smart phones. My actions show how much I love little compacts and I am still sad to this day that this segment is still largely overlooked by both consumers and camera companies.
Back to the Fujifilm X10/20/30 series cameras. I wrote about my experiences with both the X10 and X20 here and shared some images and thoughts. About a year or two ago, feeling nostalgic, I picked up a pretty used & abused copy of the X10 for a low price to use to have some fun. Looking back at that post much of what I wrote about the little X10/20 still holds true. But would anything be different now that so much time had passed? Would my experience with newer cameras frustrate me? Would the image quality hold up? Let’s dig in.
Let’s get something out of the way right away, why on earth would I go to such a photographic location and take such an old camera? If I didn’t want to carry a larger camera or camera system, why wouldn’t I just use my smartphone like most of the world?
Honestly, the new smartphone cameras are truly fantastic. The simple answer is that I simply love to hold a real camera with a real shutter button in my hand. I am a photographer and while I use and appreciate my smart phone and the capabilities of the modern smartphone cameras and applications, I simply wanted to have a small, light, un obtrusive and capable camera. This trip was also not a photo centric trip. I needed the camera that I took to be second to the purpose of the trip. Honestly, I think it was a bit fortuitous that my X Pro 1 broke right before this trip. I don’t think I would have had as much fun nor would I have gotten some of these images.
I am not going to go into each and every spec of the Fujifilm X10. It’s old and all those details are readily available elsewhere on the internet. Rather, let me tell you how I set the camera up, use the camera and the features I find valuable. I’ll also share the good and not so good (bad) parts as this camera has a few of those too. FYI – I also did not and will not shoot video on anything other than my smartphone so I will not be commenting on the now very old video capabilities of this camera.
Features & things I like:
- The lens. What an amazing lens. The compact, extendable zoom lens is a banger. 28mm f2 at the wide and 112mm f2.8 on the long end.
- Size & weight. It’s small and easily fits in a small bag. I also carried it in my pocket with the lens collapsed in the evening walks.
- 2/3″ censor is bigger than traditional point and shoot/compact cameras.
- Starts quickly by turning the lens. It’s ready to shoot very quickly
- Small, built in flash – Which I did use on this trip
- Viewfinder – Although not very useful with no focus, exposure and framing guidelines, it can be used in a pinch
- Good in camera RAW conversion to JPEG for quicker, social sharing
- Small files – Modern day APSC and Full Frame cameras have huge file sizes. I didn’t want to bring my computer on this trip so I edited in camera RAW conversions on my smart device and didn’t clog up my phone memory that much.
- Very malleable and easy to edit RAW files in Lightroom
- Batteries are tiny and easy to carry an extra or two
Features & things I don’t like:
- Viewfinder – Yes, it’s on both lists. While pretty much worthless it does work in a pinch to at least get an idea of the framing. With some practice you can also see the focus confirmation light on the back of the camera out of the corner of your eye. But you have no exposure and that’s a real problem with this camera (see next bullet point)
- Fairly limited max shutter speed with no electronic option. This is an issue in even a medium brightness scene and forces you to stop down and not take advantage of the lower apertures. You can get around this by buying the Fuji lens shade and threading in a ND filter, but this just wasn’t an option for me due to the inconvenience of constantly removing with the lens shade or the filter.
- LCD screen lock up – Yeah it freezes and then jumps if/when you reframe. It’s annoying as heck.
- Battery life is OK at best. Thankfully batteries are thin, tiny and easy to carry extra(s).
- LCD – it’s good enough, I just wish it was a tilt up and out LCD.
- No Smartphone connectivity – To be fair, none of the cameras of this era had this. But I sure wish it did!
- No weather sealing
How I set up the camera:
- RAW – I pretty much only shoot RAW with this camera and use in-camera RAW conversion to create on the go files and use an SD adapter to plug into my phone to transfer those JPEGS.
- Single Shot – While it has continuous shooting, it’s fairly slow and I just find that I use this camera in a bit slower, more intentional way.
- Wrist Strap. I like to put the wrist strap on, hold the camera with/by the lens in the palm of my hand and go. It’s tiny and no one really notices it.
- ISO – Once you get used to the shutter speed limitations and how the camera meters, I make ISO adjustments as needed. Generally speaking though, indoors it’s usually at ISO 400. Outdoors its at ISO 100. I use the function button on top set to ISO.
So let’s talk about the picture quality. It’s good. I’d say really good in fact. Given 99% of all digital images taken end up solely on a phone, computer, hard drive or in cloud storage, they are truly great. I will say that if you really do print images, I wouldn’t print these things that big. But I have printed up to 11 x 14 with very good results….Your Results May Vary depending on your expectations, ISO of the shot taken, and your personal printing standards.
So here are a few different photo sets, one color and one black and white. We were full on tourists and I took a lot of the standard post card shots. I don’t care. They are our post card shots! Also, I am not going to go into the day by day or location by location of each of the images. I also edit to my liking. While some feel that un edited pictures are best for review, I like to make pictures I like and edit to my personal preferences. Feel free to leave a comment if you have a question or want to follow up on any of them. Thank you.
Note: As always, click on any image in either gallery to go to slideshow mode.
Before you look at the black and whites, I must confess. I really like the look of these images shot at about ISO 400-800 and using the Punchy B & W preset in Lightroom. I of course tweak them a bit, but I really like the overall feel of the images shot and processed this way. It may just be me and I am OK with that!
I hinted that shooting this little powerhouse of a camera changed my mind on travel photography. It most certainly did. It opened my eyes to carrying less and focusing on the experience. I also really appreciate the zoom lens. I ALWAYS have traveled with small prime lenses or fixed lens cameras. Honestly, based on this trip, I know I missed some great shots on those previous trips. Never once did this little camera get in my way. Sure it’s a little slow to operate and focus based on current camera standards. However, I enjoyed the pace and the intentionality in taking these images. The little zoom also gave me more reach and allowed me to frame differently. After years of traveling with one or two short primes, the 112mm f2.8 lens was eye opening for capturing images that were either different than some of my previous travel photography or just a bit different framing of some common NYC photography fixtures.
Honestly, it’s too bad that this kind of camera, or segment of the market, disappeared. Honestly, this is the kind of camera that most people should own and use. I could easily see a Fujifilm X40 with a 1″ sensor, built in hi resolution EVF, modern focus/face detect features, higher max shutter speed, tilt screen, wifi/bluetooth connectivity, built in ND filter, and smartphone connectivity. It would be so incredibly capable and to be honest, I probably wouldn’t shoot another camera unless I was being paid or had intent to print large. One can only hope for such a camera…..But I don’t expect that to happen so I am now looking for a Mint or EX+ Fujifilm X30 as it has most of those features.
And with that, I leave you with two shots. It’s the same image, one processed as color and the other as B&W. I am printing this image on metal (the color version) for my office area. I am so thankful to have run across the Oculus area at golden hour. Incredible light and shadows in this area.
Hope you enjoyed the images and thoughts on this gem of an old camera and line of cameras. Drop me a comment if you have questions, comments or your own personal experiences with this cam.
ImagineGnat 