Kolarivision has disassembled the Fujifilm X100VI that they pre-ordered back in February and have just received recently.
You can see the teardown in the video above and access the article at kolarivision
The “Surprise”
Three screws fastened the sensor cover to the frame
This turned out to be a huge surprise. We thought we would be able to access the sensor after removing those screws, but we found that this part, the sensor cover, was just another layer of removal that needed to be done. What’s more—there is a PCB right behind the sensor! We have never seen this in a camera before
Lo and behold, the PCB part was simply a part of the sensor itself
The Simplicity
Fujifilm mirrorless cameras are typically hard to disassemble due to complex internal designs.
The Fujifilm X100VI is an exception, with a quick and easy teardown process.
Modern fixed-lens mirrorless cameras are generally simpler in design compared to older fixed-lens models.
We have a major third party lens roundup for you today. This time we do not concentrate only on autofocus lenses, but we will include also manual focus lenses.
What’s the best lens you can buy for $50? And what makes the lens cap of the ArtraLab 11mm f/1.8 so unique? (Spoiler: you can screw filters on the lens cap, you’ll see below)
Thierry Gibralta shared a follow up autofocus test video which you can see above. I will provide a quick summary, but seeing with your own eyes is always the best option.
VIDEO AUTOFOCUS
previously constantly pulsing and hunting. Now much less pulsing. Overall for static talking had the X-H2S video AF can be used now
walking away and towards the camera, the AF overall sticks to the person. When walking away, it can lose focus for a second or two, but that’s not relevant for his work, because he does not need to film people who walk away from the camera. Focus is not really smooth, there are some steps in the focus, but it is still for sure usable footage. A client would not really notice those AF steps.
when running towards the camera, the AF steps are more visible
when moving around with frequent turns, with eye AF, as long as the distance does not change too much it is good. If distance changes a lot and if you move out of the frame and then back, the focus can have a hard time. But with face detection he did not have this issue, so if you shoot people dancing, better use face detection
in the past, when people passed by in the background, the AF would jump to the person passing by. With new firmware, eye/face detection did not get distracted by people passing by. He tested it with people passing behind and in front of the camera, and it would occasionally lose him, especially if he placed himself on the very side of the frame. If he stays in the center, the camera usually picked him up. But if you are on the side of the frame, it can jump to a person more in the center of the frame
camera on the table with objects on the table and camera moved to focus on one object or the other. Multi Mode without subject detection. This gives the biggest problems. The camera did not detect the objects close to it on the table. Multi without subject detection is the worst performing
STILLS AUTOFOCUS
tracking is working very well and most pictures are in focus (people walking around and on bycicles)
success rate is pretty good
not perfect. he had instances like tracking a person on a bicycle but then the AF jumped to 2 kids walking by nearby
CONCLUSION
Autofocus is drastically improved over previous firmware
It is not perfect
for his work (wedding etc) and what he does, now he can use it for his work
he’d like smoother focus transitions and eliminate the times it jumps to another person. Also Multi mode with no subject detection should be improved
I have been testing the latest firmware on the XH 2 wide open on my bordie.
My dog is a good and difficult subject to test focus performance.In the past quite some miss focus on the nostrils , black-white high contrast transition zones.
Even when eyes almost closed and the eyes being surrounded by black fur, the AF performance is now very good! Using the XF 50/1 wide open here with good results, is quite an achievement!
My Nikon Z8 cannot manage this!!
Andrea Cimini
Andrea Cimini was very critical about the mess with Fujifilm’s AF. Now he tested the new version, especially for stills photography tracking mountain-bikers jumping and racing around, side by side with an X-H2S with older firmware.
old firmware 93% hit rate (perfectly super sharp images)
new firwmare 98% hit rate (perfectly super sharp images)
with subject detection
old firmware 95% hit rate (the ones not in focus are totally out of focus, NOTHING was in focus at all)
new firwmare 99% to 100% hit rate (the totally out of focus does not happen anymore. It can focus on something else)
with car/bike detection
old firmware: 87% in focus
new firmware: 93% in focus
NOTE: the new firwmare started tracking the subject from more far away compared to the new firmware
using wide tracking (not subject detection, but you put the focus box on anything and it will keep tracking it)
condition: biker suddenly appearing in the frame
old firmware: 85% in focus
new firmware: 96% in focus
Conclusions so far
it’s not at level of competition, but the autofocus is usable again
now he feels a bit safer and he can go shooting an assignement without fear
electronic shutter gives better results. With mechanical shutter the percentage drops by 10% (at 20fps)
To make it clear: while there was an improvement, for his type of (very challenging) sports shooting conditions (bikers racing inside forests), he thinks Fujifilm must improve even further. But it is workable again.
