Fujifilm X100V Review: What A Beautiful Camera

The Fujifilm X100V is beautiful, it could be Fuji’s most beautiful camera to date. But what’s it like to use? Let’s talk about it.

The X100V is the latest entry into the X100 series, and it’s much more refined. The aluminium plates on the top and bottom, the overall design, the ergonomics, the dials, everything to this camera is just excellent. It’s probably the most Leica-like, non-Leica camera we’ve tried to date.

It’s very reminiscent of the rangefinder look, but it also reminds us of the Japanese rangefinders like the Nikon S3, the Canons and more, with modern technology.

If you’re into photography, the X100V is pretty similar to the X-T4, X-Pro 3, with just a few minor differences.

One of the great things about the X100V is that it has a hybrid viewfinder. Some people love to shoot with the optical viewfinder, but the updated 3.69million-dot OLED EVF is more than adequate. Sometimes, you want to see what the image looks like with specific colour profiles which you can with the EVF. With the OVF, you’re guessing, and there’s a beauty to that, but nowadays the EVF is where we want to be.

The EVF and OVF are improved over the X100F, but it is a little bit small. If you wear glasses, you might feel that the image is a little bit further away from you than you’d like. It’s not a big deal, you do get used to it, but it’s something to take note of. The eyecup is also made of a harder material than the X100F, but we also wish the eyecup was bigger.

Another great feature is the tilting 1.62million-dot touchscreen LCD that can be flipped out. It’s slim and you can almost forget you can do that. It’s also excellent for shooting from the waist, which makes it great for street photography.

The camera is fast, the autofocusing is also fast, even though it’s not the same level as the X-T4. It’s around the same speed as the X-Pro3, the eye-tracking is great and it works relatively well. There’s a 4-stop built-in ND filter, so even if you want to open up the lens and shoot at f2, it’ll be fine.

The 23mm lens on the X100V is a new design, it’s redesigned for the X100V. It’s different from the other 23mm f2 lenses that Fuji uses, and it’s sharp. You get beautiful images out of it, and with its 26.1MP sensor, it’s really punching above its weight class.

The file size when shooting in RAW uncompressed is relatively large, at 50-60MB, so there’s a lot of data to play around when editing. With a rangefinder-style camera, it just doesn’t intimidate people when you go up to them and ask to take a photo versus having a large camera or DSLR system.

If you’re looking for a one-camera system with a fixed lens that you can put lens converters on it, you can do it with the X100V and you got everything covered for street photography, travel or even just a daily camera.

Let’s talk about video for a second. This camera actually has really good video functionality. Sure, it doesn’t have IBIS, but you can do 10-bit external recording on this, 8-bit internal, and people talk about Sony and Canon right now when it comes to video, but don’t discount Fujifilm.

One of the big changes to the X100V is the ISO dial, and it’s definitely much easier to change the ISO now because of how easy it is to turn the dial.

On the back, there’s no D-pad. There are mixed reviews about this because some people are complaining about their thumbs hitting the joystick, but we think it gives the back of the camera a much more simplistic look.

It’s such an easy camera to take around with you though, and Fujifilm has done everything right with the size, the weight, the price, the functionality and more. The images are fantastic.

Something that a lot of people don’t talk about is the dynamic range on Fujifilm cameras. On an originally overexposed photo, details could be pulled back from the blown highlights and the edited photo looks great. There’s a lot of information on Fujifilm RAW files and you can rescue a lot of detail.

There’s also a general 3D pop that you get from the X100V’s 23mm lens. Separation is also great, and falloff and bokeh is beautiful. There’s really not much you can fault this camera for.

Final thoughts on this camera, it’s probably one of our favourite Fujifilm cameras to date. For what it’s built for and designed for, it’s a home run. It’s a great camera for street photographers, lifestyle photographer and travel photographers.