just lately, I got myself a Fujifilm X100T, to replace my trusty X100S. Having done research for many many months, I finally came to the conclusion that the X100T is indeed the better camera.
Having played with it for some days, I now believe it too.
The differences between the X100T over the X100S might be minute, but, depending on your situation and camera use, they could be huge!
So, why is that?! Lens, sensor processor are all the same, so, why bother?!
First, I would like to list some improvements, that most folks talk about, which just are not important enough for me.
- exposure compensation +/-3 over +/-2 (with manual exposure, who cares?)
- third stop increments on the aperture (how many legacy system actually sport that?)
- bigger LCD (just consumes battery, stop chimping!)
- wheel dial gone and replaced by a rotary dial (never had a problem with the old one, however, now there is one control less)
- styling of the buttons (they are looking better, but they are harder to feel)
- position of the buttons (that's just learning curve)
- classic chrome film simulation (I am not sure about this one, anyway, it can be simulated in Rawtherapee)
- WiFi (maybe)
Now to the improvements I really like, most of which are not discussed a lot.
- 7 custom memories, just like the X-Pro1
- 3 configurable auto-ISO memories (although maximum shutter speed is 1s/125 only ... Fuji, please make it 1s/250!)
- the view-finder trick, that everyone is so excited about, is actually very usable (with the next improvement in the list)
- coloured focus peaking (I will come to this later in that post)
- mic/remote in (while I do not care too much about the microphone, remote could be great for triggered stuff!)
- electronic shutter (this is great! totally silent, with speeds up to 1s/32000 at f/2! - no flash though)
- framing lines adopt during manual focusing with the OVF
- configurability of the buttons (obviously)
- charging via USB (great for traveling light)
There are more improvements, such as improved noise reduction at high ISO, which might help, but are not that important to me.
Obviously, I like the fact, that I can configure the X100T exactly the same way as the X-Pro1, what custom memories is concerned. The X100S, having 3 custom memories only, felt a bit clumsy. Now that both my X-cameras got the same settings, shooting is a lot simplified.
Now to the best part, 2 combined actually, the new hybrid viewfinder trick in combination with coloured focus peaking. This is really great! When in OVF, pushing the VF-lever towards the lens, this little rectangle occurs in the lower right corner of the viewfinder. With the film-simulation set to any black&white mode (we are shooting RAW, right?!) this area will show a B&W representation of the designated focusing area. Here comes the magic: manual focus was never as easy with focus peaking set to red. Just get as much red in the greyscale preview as possible. Still, you got your optical viewfinder image to see what going on outside the framing lines. How great is that?!
To me, the 2 features I just described to you in detail, were reason enough to replace the X100S with the X100T.
