Truth is, I haven’t given my X100V much love lately. I’d had a few instances of camera shake spoiling photos (down to not using a fast enough shutter speed, given my shaky hands..) so ended up using my recently purchased Sony A7C with its image stabilisation and of course full-frame sensor for ‘casual’ photography. Not such a satisfying experience using it, as the ergonomics are no match for a Fujifilm camera. The tiny viewfinder is a pain if you wear glasses, and even with a slim 35 or 40mm prime lens it’s also still a fair bit bigger than an X100V.
So a misty morning this week seemed like a good opportunity to try and rekindle the connection. I figured that mono would suit the misty conditions, so set the camera up with a mono film simulation, tweaked to give me the high contrast look that Leica cameras are renowned for. Just took the camera, no filters etc and off I went.
The half an hour I planned to spend wandering locally ran to almost two hours, and I took around 35 shots.
Started processing them by loading the JPG simulated files into Lightroom, and have to say I wasnt that keen – they all looked a bit ‘muddy’ and the small amount of grain effect was rather noticeable. Fortunately I always shoot with RAW enabled, and these files, although lacking ‘bite’ were much cleaner. I had recently bought the DxO Pure RAW add-in, so as an experiment processed all the RAWs in that.
Wow! – what a difference, much brighter, sharper, and cleaner – noise, especially in the higher ISO shots was much better too. So these became my start point, and only a modicum of tweaking was needed, both to the shots I left as mono, and the few that seemed to work better in colour. I’m very happy with the results.
So it leaves me in a quandary – do I still need the A7C for ‘casual’ photography where a 35mm or so lens works for most shots, or is the smaller lighter X100V the way to go? (After all, I’ve also got a Sony A7iv and both zoom and prime lenses where I need flexibility, and that’s a much better option then than the A7C). What are your thoughts on the subject?
It’s easy enough to do with your camera though, and potentially gives much better results… Start by setting your camera to ‘exposure bracketing mode’
(If you really feel you need more than 3 shots with the X100F, there is a workaround – set the camera as above and take your first three shots, then turn the compensation dial to say, -3 and shoot again, then repeat using +3 – that way you end up with a series of 9 shots covering a wider exposure range. Keep the camera still during this whole process, so it really does mean using a tripod… Then choose maybe 5 or 7 shots that cover the range of exposures from darkest to lightest. Remember that with the X100F you can change exposure compensation by up to +5 and -5 by using the front wheel.)
Then import your photos for editing (I always use Lightroom, but there is other software that will do HDR merging). Then select your set of images and right click, select Photo Merge, than HDR. It’ll take a few seconds to create a preview depending on how fast your computer is, and how many photos you are merging. Adjust the options for auto aligning images and adjusting deghosting if necessary and then click ‘merge’ and Lightroom will, in a few seconds, add the new merged image to your filmstrip.
No such feature on the 
Using 
Start point is to get a 49mm R72 infrared filter (you’ll need the filter adapter for the X100 if you don’t already have it.) I used the 
It’s a good idea to adjust the white balance on the camera too, and rather than use a white card, just point the camera at a patch of grass or similar when setting it (p67 in the 
Life with a Fuji X100 camera 