I have sold my Fujifilm X-100T
I have sold my Fujifilm X-100T.
This is a decision long in the making. Not an easy one. Truth is, this is a great camera, and I miss it a lot. I guess, part of growing up in the art of photography includes about letting go. As corny as it sounds, what makes me get through this "grieving” process is to know that the person I sold it too is going to truly enjoy a mastercraft of a camera.
Selling this camera help me fund the purchase of the Nikon D700, my first full frame camera. Not because I am ditching Fuji, I am not, gotta a lot of love for my other Fuji bodies (X-T1, X-T2 and X-Pro2). And now that I can compare between brands and sensors, I get to appreciate and better understand what is it that I am looking for in photography. As a hobbyist, I just find it hard to justify keeping a certain number of camera gear.
Once I said the X-100T is a perfect camera for travel, for family gatherings, just for anything that requires documenting without being much noticed. The quality of the images it produces surpasses by far that of iphones, the lens is sharp like a knife, its autofocus is fast enough, and the colors it produces straight out of camera have that “awe” effect on people.
A few things I learned along the way using this camera that made the experience of photography more enjoyable: get a thumb grip and a soft release shutter button. Believe me, the handling of the camera to take shots from different angles improves dramatically. Since the LCD of the camera is nearly perfect, you can easily crook your wrist in the most awkward forms to get impressive and stealthy shots, without needing to look through the viewfinder that much. The X-100T provides and optical viewfinder, a marvelous technology, that I did not use much, but what I did use a lot is the silent shutter, that alone allow me to get real close not to distract my subjects.
Another point about the ergonomics of the X-100T is its rangefinder style. I got a similar enjoying experience when using the Fuji X-E2S, and ever more refined with the Fujifilm X-Pro2. I guess being able to have your eye in the viewfinder, and the other eye alert on the surroundings allow you to spot more interesting shots, besides being able to show your face and your expressions makes people more at comfort when taking street portraits.
However, there were a few things about the camera that could improve. The battery life for starters, please, get a second battery and take it with you wherever you take the camera, once you get in the zone, you don't want to feel abandoned by a tool that drained its battery power, bring a backup. The sensor struggled in low light, which just demanded to slow a bit down before taking the picture. And the noise performance in high ISOs could bring a waxy look to skin tones, for which I found two workarounds: changing the noise reduction parameter to -1, or even better, set the ISO at 800 and let the fill flash do the rest, for some reason the X-100T had a level of precision to correctly estimate exposure without blowing harsh light on people faces, and the end result picture had both detail and much less noise.
I enjoyed this camera a lot. It's the one camera I have shot the most photos with, being one that I can bring everywhere. I surely miss it, and I strongly recommend it. You'll love it.