Fujifilm X100s Review

Image Customization

Image finishing can be customized in various ways so that shooting in JPG can yield good results and shooting RAW isn't necessarily required.

Film Simulation (Custom Image)

The color balance, contrast, etc. of the JPG images can be tweaked. Pentax calls this feature image finishing tone (natural, bright, vivid, etc.) whereas Fujifilm calls it film simulation. It is a bit odd in this day and age that Fujifilm is hanging on to the characteristics of their film variants as the means to adjust the image finishing tone. How many remember the difference between a Velvia and a Provia? Anyway, film simulation forms the basis of getting the right image tone with the X100s.

The X100s can even bracket the film simulation. In that mode the camera will take one image and process it in three different ways. Below we illustrate the effect of simulating Provia, Velvia, and Astia. Provia is the camera's default setting, Velvia yields vivid results, and Astia soft results. The X100s can simulate additional film types - we shall forego those here.

The images were shot at ISO 200, cropped and resized. Click any thumbnail to browse a large version.

Provia

Velvia (vivid)

Astia (soft)

The processing of the image into three variants took less than a second and is much faster than what we saw on the X20. Film simulation is not available when shooting RAW.

We find Velvia too unnatural and it also has less dynamic range, so we used the Provia setting throughout this test. Astia, however, is a worthy alternative to consider as your default. It has slightly less contrast than Provia and hence slightly wider dynamic range. Here is another set:

Provia	Velvia	Astia

The image finishing can be tweaked further as illustrated in the following sections.

Extended Dynamic Range

The dynamic range can be extended on the X100s to preserve the highlights and our tests show that the DR400 setting also brings out detail in the shadows. Dynamic range expansion is set on the Quick menu screen, and the choices are Auto, DR100 (no adjustment), DR200 and DR400, with the latter having the strongest effect. For D200 to work the ISO must be set to 400 or higher, and for DR400 to work the ISO must be set to 800 or higher. This is unlike your Pentax DSLR, where the camera adjusts the ISO as required when extended dynamic range is engaged. With the Fuji you must remember to increase the ISO yourself or else extended dynamic range is not available, not even with the setting is DR Auto.

With that said, this feature works very well as illustrated below. In the example below DR200 was the optimal setting. Click on any thumbnail to enlarge and browse or click the link below the image for 100% cropped images.

DR100, ISO 200 - 100% crop	DR200, ISO 400 - 100% crop	DR400, ISO 800 - 100% crop

Other Customization

There are three additional image parameters that can be customized:

• Highlight tone (-2 to 2)
• Shadow tone (-2 to 2)
• Color density (-2 to 2)

We set out to test these settings. For film simulation we used Provia, dynamic range expansion was off (DR100), and the sensitivity was set to ISO 200. First we take a look at Highligt and Shadow tone. Click on any thumbnail to start browsing:

No customization
Highlight tone +2	Highlight tone -2
Shadow tone +2	Shadow tone -2
Highlight and shadow tone both +2	Highlight and shadow tone both -2

Highlight and shadow tone appear to be about contrast, with positive values increasing contrast and negative values decreasing contrast. Shadow tone also influences brightness and negative values work like extending the dynamic range in the shadows.

Let us finally take a look at color density:

No customization
Color +2	Color -2

Positive values for color increase saturation and looks very pleasant.

With some experimentation it should be possible to set the image finishing to ones liking.