Storms a comin'

During my latest trip to Wells-Next-The-Sea on the North Norfolk Coast I was confronted by the first serious Autumnal storm of the year. The winds were averaging well over 30 mph with gusts much higher than that. The fact that they were Northerly meant that the Quay in Wells took a right battering during high tide. It is the first time that I had seen the sea breach the harbour wall and flood parts of the car park, albeit only slightly. I can see how easily coastal towns may flood, given the right conditions.

Angry storm clouds and crashing waves, captured with the Fuji X100

I decided to walk down to the harbour, leaving most of my camera gear back in the house. The reason being, the weather was pretty poor, dull, drizzling and very windy. I really didn't expect to capture much really, so packed a little Fujica STX-1 film camera and my trusty Fuji X100. The weather, as expected, was pretty wild when I reached the quay and any shots taken close to the harbour wall had to be done so with the utmost care. Every now and then a wave would push over the wall and crash several feet into the car park bringing with it a lot of debris. I tried to dodge the waves, timing my shots when I could and waiting for any breaks in the clouds. The clouds looked very angry and menacing and I was determined to capture this dramatic detail within the photographs I was taking.

One of my favourite trawlers, always photogenic. Fuji X100

The Fuji X100 is great in these situations as it is so small you feel as though you can move around so quickly without feeling encumbered. You don't compromise on image quality though, and that is the important part, the images here are testament to that. They are fantastically sharp with great contrast and fantastic punchy colours. All the information in the sky has been retained and with a little work in post on levels and saturation, amazing quality images have resulted.

Ten minutes later and the sun is out. Great contrast and punchy colours
courtesy of the Fuji X100

I purchased my Fuji X100 about six months ago and I have to say that I haven't regretted this decision in the slightest. I ordered mine from Wex Photographic and paid £549 which I believe is what it still retails at today. At the time I was purchasing mine a replacement was introduced, the Fuji X100s. I couldn't afford the new model so went for the X100. The common consensus amongst the many people online is that the newer model is a worthy successor to the original camera and if you have the money then the X100s is the one to go for. However, the X100 is still an amazing bit of kit, and for roughly half the price of the X100s, it's an absolute bargain.

Calm after the storm. All is quiet at the quay,
Wells-Next-The-Sea. Fuji X100

I will quickly list the quirks of the X100 that I have discovered over the course of the last six months. If online sources state that these quirks have been rectified with the newer model then I will state that too.

First up, the continuous auto focus, which many considered poor on the original X100. I have to confess that I don't often use mine in this way, single focus for me. On the one occasion that I did use it at a bike race in May it worked reasonably well, see http://brettgardnerphotography.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/at-races.html for more details. I also find the focus lock on speed and accuracy to be pretty good, I have no problems in this regard. The one thing that is pretty pants with the X100 is it's manual focus ability. It's rubbish and better left ignored. As far as I'm aware, this has been rectified with the X100s, so if this could be an issue for you then the newer model may be the better bet.

Picture quality with the X100 is fantastic and I'm able to shoot at ISO 3200 without any real issue. The X100s is reportedly one stop better in this regard, ISO 6400 being usable. Again, this could be a deal breaker for some, but i'm a wedding photographer who shoots in pretty poor light on occasion and with the fantastic F2.0 lens I find I don't have much of an issue. Having that extra stop though is always nice. The X100s also uses a different sensor and this has four more megapixels than the X100, 16 M.P. vs 12 M.P. There is a slight different look to the files produced by each sensor and slightly different colour rendition. To be honest, if the images are as good on the X100s as they are on the X100 then you really can't go wrong.

The menu system on the X100 is annoying, I mean really annoying. It's so clunky. I can move round the menu systems on my Nikon cameras with ease but the little Fuji just isn't particularly intuitive. This has been addressed with the X100s and should allow quicker operation by the user in the field. If you have largish hands then you may find the controls on both the X100 and X100s fiddly although they have been modified on the newer model with slightly raised buttons. It's best to program the function buttons to your preferred shooting style and leave well alone. That's what i've done with my X100 and I'm pretty happy with it at present.  

Strangely enough, while there are certain aspects to the X100 which are simply maddening, that's all part of it's quirky and wonderful charm. You learn to live with it's little faults simply becomes in most other respects it really is truly amazing. It's such an easy camera to pop in a coat pocket as you leave the house and it constantly challenges you to take better images. Whichever camera you decide to invest in, you're going to become the proud owner of an absolute belter, one that is going to challenge as well as help improve your photography and maybe, in fact quite possibly, make you fall in love with photography all over again.