Last time, I talked about how the Fuji X100 performed as a travel and landscape camera. This week, I’m going to talk about using this camera for street photography.

Benefits of Using the X100 for Street Photography

The major benefits of this camera for travel still ring true when you’re using it in the streets. It’s small and light, which makes it an unintimidating camera when you train it towards your subjects.

And because it is practically silent, subjects are unlikely to hear you snap their photo. There’s no loud mirror slap typical of SLRs. Plus, it’s also a lot more silent than other cameras I’ve used to far.

However, I found this silent operation a little disadvantageous sometimes because there are times when I’m unsure if I really got a shot. There’s no mirror black out when I’m using the optical viewfinder (OVF) and there’s no tactile feedback from the camera, meaning that I sometimes find it difficult to distinguish a half press to a full press on the shutter button. I have to check the light at the back of the camera to see if I indeed had a shot being saved to my memory card. I missed a few shots because of this but that’s not much of an issue for me. I just keep on walking and look for more subjects.

It’s 35mm focal length (in 35mm format terms) is also at home in the streets. It’s not too wide that I have to move really close to my subject, and not too tight that I have to step back often.

Using the X100 on Manual for Street Photography

Let me say that I prefer using most of the Fuji X100’s settings on manual when doing street photography. But why do that on a camera that all has the automated functions of a modern camera? My reason’s simple: I can simply work faster that way.

Here’s what I do, I set my aperture at f/4, f/5.6 or f/8, put the focus mode on manual and scale focus between 4-7 feet, set the appropriate ISO (usually 400 or 800) and I’m good to go. I sometimes set the shutter speed manually too so I can get consistent exposure or to freeze movement.

Having a dedicated aperture ring on the Fuji X100 helps setting it up for street photography faster.

Let me explain a few bits a little further so you’ll understand why I choose to set my camera like this.

Let’s start with my choice of aperture. I choose the range of f/4-f/8 because I can get subjects in focus without needing the autofocus (AF) that much. I just point and shoot, helping me work a lot faster.

That brings us to why I shoot on manual focus too. By scale focusing, I no longer have to depend on the X100’s notoriously slow AF. This is how you work with a camera, not complain about it, especially if it’s a great one like the X100. But I digress.

What if you want to use the AF mode but you’re on manual focus mode? The quickest way is to simply press the AFL/AEL button at the back of the camera and it will AF. Nice.

Set your camera on manual focus? Just press the AFL/AEL button on the upper right part of the camera to engage the AF.

Color and Black and White Photography with the X100

Some people like shooting street photography in the classic black and white mode. Others take fantastic shots in color. I, on the other hand prefer to work in between. Some shots are just better in color, while others in black and white.

So how does the X100 fare in color and black and white photography?

I prefer having deeply-saturated colors in my photos. That said, I still haven’t found the sweet spot in my X100 when it comes to the colors that I want and I often have to tweak them a bit on Photoshop.

The colors here are where I usually want them, though this isn’t always the case with most of my shots in color.

The same thing goes with the black and white mode of the camera. I personally find the in-camera black and white settings unremarkable, but this isn’t really a problem since I usually shoot in color and convert photos into black and white later on.

A lousy shot I accidentally set on the camera’s B&W mode. Nothing remarkable there.

Keep in mind that these are just my personal preferences in color, and yours will certainly be different.

Conclusion

All in all, the X100 is really at home in the streets. And you’ll know that it shares a lot of its characteristics with classic rangefinders, such as having to scale focus when you’re in manual focus mode, something that DSLRs cannot do at the moment. Also, the ability to just set the aperture at f/8 and go is something I really love with the camera.

Of course, doing these things also means you need to be willing to adjust to how differently it functions from a DSLR. Before owning the X100, I had practiced a bit with my brother-in-law’s Yashica rangefinder, so I knew what to expect.

But if you want a great camera for street photography, go ahead and get the X100. You get the best of both worlds of rangefinder compactness with DSLR capabilities.

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