Potential issues with Fujifilm X100V
Fujifilm X100V was released in February right before the pandemic. Whether it was a great a camera or not, it was hard to tell because most of the articles I could find were relatively standard. The reviews were done by a group of professional camera/hardware reviewers that we all are very familiar with. Usually, I am skeptical, so I didn't upgrade to Fujifilm X100V right away. Being a Fujifilm X100S owner, I knew I would like the X100V regardless. X100S is the camera I have owned the longest. Even though it's far from the fastest in terms of focus ability, I have enjoyed shooting with it. X100S is simple and straightforward. I am not a quick shooter; thus, the focusing speed never bothered me much. While researching X100V online, I have seen people talked about numerous issues that had caused hesitation in buying the camera.
A few months into the pandemic, my interest in Fujifilm X100V rekindled. I didn't shoot for months other than snaps from my iPhone. I have been bored, and I really needed some sparks in my life. The first camera that came to mind was the X100V. This time, I didn't think long and decided to give it a shot! The first impression was great with the camera. It had a solid build, and it felt great in my hands. Compared to my X100S, the V felt more professional. They had added more features, and it was a lot to digest at first when I browse through the camera's menu. People always criticize Sony's camera menu, but I always thought they all are quite complicated. With more features developed and baked into cameras, I often found myself Googling it when I bought a new camera. Some new terms in the V were quite confusing to me since X100S was the only Fujifilm camera I have. I had no idea what "Color Chrome Effect" or "Color Chrome FX Blue" means. All it took was to look them up online; we are so fortunate that all information is a click away these days.
Not sure if I could say I am an extensive researcher, but I guess I could be obsessive and do a ton of research when I am interested in a new product. So far, I have heard 3 major issues people had brought up online. The first one is overheating. In recent years, overheating seems to become the main culprit when people list new cameras' problems. When I was setting up and taking random pictures in my backyard, the back of the camera did warm up to the point that I noticed it. The outdoor temperature that day was around 90 degrees. Although It was similar weather on my first outing exploring East Austin, I didn't run into the overheating issues. I am not a video shooter, and I think if I keep a simple setting, I shouldn't have to worry about it.
The second issue I have heard was lens grinding. I rarely use manual focus on a tiny camera, but I did sense a little bit of that when I tested it. It wasn't so bad that I would need to send it back. It's usable, and it doesn't bother me when using the camera.
I have recently seen people on the Facebook groups mentioning issues with their camera shutter buttons after using it for a few weeks. It's hard to explain, but the shutter button somehow became ultra-sensitive and causing them to take additional unwanted images. By the time of writing this, the camera only with me for about a week. I don't know if that would happen to me or not, but I will update the post if that issue ever came up.
Lastly, a few minor issues I noticed when using the camera. If you set the Clarity anything but 0, the camera's writing speed will slow down. Therefore, I would suggest setting Clarity at 0 to improve the shooting experience. Since I don't have much use for the front dial, I prefer to use it for exposure compensation. To do that, you would need to turn your exposure compensation dial to C. However, the front dial would become weird and unusable if you set DRO to Auto.
Aside from these issues I mentioned, it was an enjoyable experience during my first week trying it out. Coming from Fujifilm X100S, the jpeg processing of X100V has improved tremendously! It's worth it to dive into it and play with the settings. You can often get some interesting color tones trying out its various film simulations. I will give myself more time to shoot with the camera and come back to share more thoughts in the future.
