Over the last fifteen years I have owned more cameras than some people will ever hold in their lifetime. I've been through half of the Fujifilm system, geared up for video with Sony, treated myself to two Leica Q models, bought the GFX medium-format system twice and sold it once — and yet, at the end of the day, in 99 out of 100 cases the same small camera lands in my bag. A Fujifilm X100. It's almost a little ridiculous.
But one at a time.
Graz, a charged battery and a sunny afternoon
When the original X100 was announced, I was electrified. A compact camera in vintage look, with a large APS-C sensor, a fixed 23mm lens (35mm equivalent) and that revolutionary hybrid viewfinder that could be optical and electronic at the same time — that was a small sensation in 2011. I didn't want to wait for it to be shipped. So my wife and I drove to Graz especially for it, several hours one way, an overnight stay accepted, just to hold one of the first Austrian copies in my hands on the same day.
I had even called Foto Köberl in Graz in advance with the polite request to please charge the battery so I could start shooting the moment I arrived. Said and done. As soon as I had taken delivery of the camera I started my first street shoot and spent the sunny afternoon in the old town of Graz. The vintage charm, the image quality, the whole feel — impressive for that time. Only the autofocus, the general speed and the accuracy of the hybrid viewfinder were, let's say, things to get used to. But in that moment, I couldn't have cared less.
How a camera system takes over a person
That first X100 was the beginning of a long story. The Fujifilm system had me in its grip, and in the following years a whole armada passed through my hands: X-E1, X-Pro1, X-T1, X-T2, X-Pro2, X-E2, X-T3 — and even the ultracompact XF10 found its way to me. I had long since sold the original X100 and upgraded to the X100F, the fourth generation with the 24-megapixel sensor.
And then there was medium format. That started with a Pentax 645Z, which really gave me a taste for the world of large sensors in the first place — 51 megapixels on a sensor area almost twice the size of full frame. Since Hasselblad remains financially out of reach for me to this day — and, a small hint with the post, still doesn't put a camera into my hands — the GFX system from Fujifilm became the perfect medium-format option. My very first GFX, by the way, was a second-hand GFX 50S, bought privately because that sensor simply floored me. Then came the GFX 100 and the GFX 100S, both with the full set of prime lenses.
It was, in retrospect, simply too much. Too many bodies, too many lenses, too much gear that wanted to be maintained, charged, transported and insured.
The detour through Sony, Leica and the great purge
When the need for video work grew, Sony came into play. I picked up the A7 IV, the A7R V, the FX3 and later even the A1 — and in a fit of decluttering determination, I sold off all my Fuji and GFX cameras in the meantime. I kept exactly one: the X100F. That alone should already have given me pause.
Because shortly afterwards I noticed something was missing. So medium format came back, this time as a GFX 100S II with a few prime lenses — but deliberately more reduced than before. And because the medium-format sensor is simply so brilliant, I later picked up, of all things, another second-hand GFX 50S — the very same camera that had been my entry into medium format. You almost don't want to admit it: the same camera bought twice, only because that sensor makes it so hard to let it go.
And because I had it in my head that I absolutely needed a compact camera with a full-frame sensor, I also treated myself to a Leica Q2. The 28mm of the Q2 was razor-sharp, the image quality beyond doubt — only the autofocus was awful, and above all: 28mm is simply too wide for me. I shoot most happily at 35mm. That's the focal length I'm comfortable with, and that stays the case, no matter how often I try something else.
So I sold the Q2 again. Later the Leica Q3 43 joined the family, which I still have today — and which I'm constantly debating whether to keep or sell. The image quality is top, the autofocus here too is not optimal, and 43mm is almost too much again. Because I keep ending up at 35mm.
And in the end, it's always the small one
Through all the back and forth, through all the system changes, through all the GAS — as the “Gear Acquisition Syndrome”, that collector's disease among photographers, is called — at the end of the day, in 99 per cent of cases, the same camera lands in my bag: by now the X100V, the fifth generation. And for one simple reason: it is, by a clear margin, the best compact camera you can always have with you.
It is small enough not to become a burden. The quality is more than good enough. And the Fujifilm film simulations deliver JPEGs straight out of camera that are immediately ready for social media without any post-processing — that is simply brilliant in everyday use. Add the leaf shutter that triggers silently, and an overall appearance so unobtrusive that nobody assumes you're a photographer. You don't stand out. You don't look like someone “working”. You just press the shutter.
That is exactly what I have come to appreciate on countless trips. It came along on a USA trip with Selina Ott (a story that deserves its own article — it's coming), and it's in every holiday bag. At the beach you can quickly tuck it away, and honestly, you feel more at ease when what's in the bag doesn't cost seven or eight thousand euros but under two. Especially in the US, where the safest place in the world looks different, that is not an argument to underestimate.
The perfect camera doesn't exist yet — but it's close
Let me be honest: the X100 series isn't perfect. I would like a full-frame sensor, and the aperture could happily be a touch wider. My dream camera would be an X100 with a 35mm field of view, an f/1.4 aperture instead of the current f/2, and 40 or 50 megapixels for even better bokeh and more headroom. That, for the way I shoot, would be the perfect tool.
The reason I have stayed with the X100V and haven't switched to the X100VI has exactly to do with this: the VI brings more megapixels and image stabilisation, but the big leap I'm waiting for — full frame, faster aperture — it doesn't deliver. For me, too small an upgrade to make the move.
Until such a camera exists, the X100 series remains, for me, what it is: optically and qualitatively, the best camera release of the past ten to twenty years. A camera I keep reaching for through a whole zoo of more expensive, larger, technically superior systems — not because it wins on paper, but because it feels right.
And that, after fifteen years and far too many cameras, I have learned, is in the end the only thing that really matters.
