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What is the Truth about X100 AF Performance?

barjohn

New member
Kyle Barrow on DPR and a photographer from Japan I have corresponded with rated AF performance about the same as the GF-1. Some posters on the ePhotozine Blog site attending Focus on Imaging 2011 are reporting slow AF performance. Much slower than a GF-1 according to the posters. My question is how can this be? The only rational explanation I can arrive at is that the demo cameras at the shoe are earlier firmware versions which might explain why they were not allowed to insert their own SD card to take pictures. I know that Kyle's and the photographer in Japan's cameras are version 1.0.

Does anyone else have another explanation? Can the perceptions be that far off? If the other site's photographers are correct, then Fuji has a serious problem it will have to address quickly. If they don't they stand to see orders cancelled left and right as people postpone their orders while the wait to see if Fuji will fix the issue. On the other hand, if Fuji has already fixed the issue, they really should update cameras they take to trade shows to avoid this type of issue.

Does anyone have any better data or more current information?
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Terry

New member
Well camera setup is important....

View attachment 41256

.....I think you just need to wait and see. I wouldn't get too hung up on it right now. We won't have it in the US for several weeks. That is plenty of time for more people to get production copies and perhaps test it out some more.
 

barjohn

New member
I am aware of that but they had images of the menus and it showed it being off. What they didn't show was the version (I noticed the date showing on the camera back was 2011 . 1 . 1 1141 PM and that makes me wonder if the camera was a prototype that had not been updated). Another explanation would be that they were not in macro mode but were close to their subject and on the border between 70 and 80 centimeters or they were in macro mode and the camera is noted to be slower in macro mode.
 

Terry

New member
I just looked at the link. I think you are reading way too much into what they have to say and you can't draw any conclusion about the camera settings. The person saying it was slow was not the same person showing the screen shots of the menus. So, there is no way to tie together those settings and the comments.
 

Terry

New member
just relax a let things play out. Seems like there are a good three weeks before the first cameras hit the US. Plenty of time to get more information from users that have more than 15 minutes of experience using the camera.
 

tom in mpls

Active member
just relax a let things play out. Seems like there are a good three weeks before the first cameras hit the US. Plenty of time to get more information from users that have more than 15 minutes of experience using the camera.
Now don't spoil our fun, Terry. I suspect we are all members of the OCD club (at least I am), so obsessive speculation makes us happy.
 

Godfrey

Well-known member
Now don't spoil our fun, Terry. I suspect we are all members of the OCD club (at least I am), so obsessive speculation makes us happy.
LOL ... For my use, I'd probably just turn AF off most of the time anyway. I think it's only turned on about 10-15% of the time I'm using the E-5. ;-)

One of the big reasons I am interested in the X100 is that the viewfinder and controls looks like they will be great to use for manual focus ...
 

bowlachili

New member

tjv

Active member
I handled one today and it was a great little camera. I didn't have a problem with the AF, especially compared to the competition, e.g. the GF2, NEX etc. I'd definitely buy one if I could afford it. Seems the perfect little camera to haul around everywhere I don't want to carry my bulky gear. It takes a lot to impress me these days so this is high praise indeed.
 
J

jorgeAD

Guest
More fuel for your furnace...

"it is certainly the most responsive compact camera i have ever used. The files at 6400 are outstanding in my humble opinion. Don't think much of the buffer when shooting in burst mode but out on the street fixed focus @ F8 it appears to be great as a street camera. Much quicker than the old Hexar AF which i own and still love...."

"I've had some 'computer says no' situations in low-light where the X100 doesn't want to focus, but have managed to overcome these by changing my focus to a higher contrast area. Speed has generally been impressive. It's not as good as my 5DII's but it's pretty close."

"Another really impressive thing is the range of focus points. As someone who is used to the craptastic AF point layout on Canon's 5DII, 50D and 20D, the coverage is awesome. There are 49 focus points arranged in a rectangle that literally stretch from one corner of the frame to the other. It really is full frame coverage. Very impressive."

All from comments after the review at:

http://www.tony-hart.com/files/x100_initial_review.php
 
Hey guys, I wrote the hands on that Terry linked to. As I said in the write-up, the AF speed was great, close to that of the GF-1 w/the 20mm 1.7.

I hope to do a side by side test tomorrow to confirm but it felt good.

Also, if you have the camera set to silent mode it will deactivate the AF assist lamp, which could affect the focus in lower light situations. As Terry said, relax and let this play out. Based on my time with the camera I'm confident it is going to be a big winner.
 

Helena

New member
Hey guys, I wrote the hands on that Terry linked to. As I said in the write-up, the AF speed was great, close to that of the GF-1 w/the 20mm 1.7.

I hope to do a side by side test tomorrow to confirm but it felt good.

Also, if you have the camera set to silent mode it will deactivate the AF assist lamp, which could affect the focus in lower light situations. As Terry said, relax and let this play out. Based on my time with the camera I'm confident it is going to be a big winner.
When you say close to GF1, do you mean slightly faster or slightly slower? I was hoping that it'd be clearly faster, because GF1 with 20/1.7 isn't particularly fast, so I'm a bit worried now.
 
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