Street Fashion Sydney: The Fujifilm X100 VI (SIX) Launch Party in Sydney

Launch parties are great. So great, that I am only recently beginning to appreciate how fortunate I've been over the last decade and a half to have been part of so many launches! Regardless of how much fun they may be, they can also be a little strange. Not due to some innate weirdness but due to the constraints of getting what a business needs to be done, done. I think a camera launch must be one of the trickiest launches of all. It's probably going to be night, so you can get everyone you need to attended after their day at work. And photographers are a notoriously picky bunch, they like this, they don't like that, they can be cliquey - they do like beer, and they love photography! But photography is predominantly a daylight activity, so how do you show off a camera at night!

Vivienne - White Caviar Life, at the Fujifilm X100 VI Launch Party in Sydney

The solution Fujifilm came up with for this event is to have their Brand Ambassadors put the new model through it's paces in the lead up to the launch, and share the results with those fortunate enough to receive an invite to the event. The X100 VI Ambassadors for Australia are Chloe Hayden and Leslie Liu. So after the informative speeches from the top people at Fujifilm, it was on to the photographers and showcasing the camera and we had a slide show. Or, as we no longer have actual slides, a talk with video and then stills projected - and it's a good solution to a tricky problem. Then after the talks, there were Fujifilm people with the actual camera, so you could give a X100 VI a try. I considered this a bit of a strange really. Nice, but what can I do in a bar at night? The lighting is a bit crazy, there's all this green in it, or blue. What can I do in a bar, nice as it is, at night? Well there was a solution to that too. In line with Ambassador Leslie Liu's Burlesque showgirl photography theme.

Showgirls by photographer Leslie Liu Shot with the Fujifilm X100 VI at 8000 ISO 125th F 2.0

There are two performers suspended in large hoops, (not the showgirls or the bar above BTW) one each side of the stage twirling around, kind of backlit, its nice and it is interesting. There is also a live 3 piece band doing great covers in an original way. So I ignore all of this completely - see I'm a fussy horror story of a photographer! But, but, it's a new X100 and I'm in camera lust of course like pretty much everyone at the launch, so I do get my hands on one, and pretty soon I'm wandering around the very nice luxury event space at Beta Bar snapping a few shots off, hoping I don't drop it - I'm sober but I always use a strap, no strap - realise the ISO is (still) a pull-up on the shutter dial, crank it up a bit (800?), not too much, and make some pretty nice pictures. If only I'd brought my own card! Or swapped it out of my XT1. That would have worked. Anyway, the thing I noticed first was that the back of the camera is very streamlined, seemed to have fewer buttons than I remembered from the X100F and the joy-stick joggle/moving of the focus spot was 'automatic' (no prelim action required) very quick and precise, I liked it. A lot.

Kent finding the ISO on the X 100 IV (same as the V...) Photo by Vivienne She

From reviewing on the back of the camera I see the stabilisation - or my miraculously stable hands, gave me a sharp in focus portrait of Viv (lost to the hosts memory cards of events and time) at (I think) 1/8th of a second wide open. Factor in 40 megapixels, more pixels makes hand holding even harder, and you have a magic picture right there. I prefer lower ISO. Stuff happens at higher ISO that is not always what you want to see in an image file. So if I can get away with a lower ISO and a lower shutter speed then its a huge win for me. There were sample images at 8000 & 5000 ISO in the media package - full size out-of-camera, and while these shots look good for screen use (which is everything these days, just-about) I would have tried avoid going up to 8K ISO and some of the effects that are apparent viewing at 100%. It looked like a few 'test' pictures were made in nightclub situations - the kind of place I call 'photography black holes' - and the pictures are good! No flash, and a very good picture, vs no picture at all, that's definitely a win. I've done shots in similar situations with no-flash and the pixels look like they are golf balls and the noise is from the Milky Way - so it's important to keep some perspective - a very good, clean clear shot at 8000 ISO is actually an amazing accomplishment.

Guests documenting the X100 VI, you can see how clean the back of the camera is.
Photo by Vienne She

My journey with Fujifilm began in 2012 with he fantastic X Pro 1, right here on Street Fashion Sydney. Read my first review of that camera here - for a little nostalgia... I've put my hand up for the a two week loan of an X100 VI - and should that dream come true there will be another blog or two or three or more. There is no substitute for using a camera yourself, as no two photographers use and handle equipment the same way. So no matter the results one photographer gets, it is always nice to see what you get with a camera.

The new Fujifilm X100 VI (six) with lens shade - as it should be! Image supplied.

Important new info about the new camera (as supplied).

"20 digital Film Simulations for stunning results straight out of camera"
NEW TO X100 VI is 40.2MP BSI XTRANSTM CMOS 5 HR for accurate & reliable image quality (previously 26.1MP so almost double)
NEW TO X100 VI is the X Processor 5 for precision & speed
NEW TO X100 VI is AI subject detect AF with eye tracking for capturing moving subjects
NEW TO X100 VI is 6.2K/30P, 4K/60P video recording to extend your creative vision
NEW TO X100 6 stops IBIS for stable hand-held shooting - Stress free connection and sharing with smartphones & transfer of images to NEW Fujifilm X App & frame.io

Available in 3 colours; Black, Silver & NEW Grey

NOW - Back in 2019 I was lent the X100F to document the Head On Photography Festival in Sydney - Read and see pictures Here And that loan was extended a couple of weeks so I could shoot more stuff, try the camera on other subject matter, primarily VIVID Sydney. Yet most of those pictures have been just snoozing on my hard drive and have never been. So while we wait to give the new X100 a proper spin; I think it's a good time to show some pictures I love, that made me think the X100F was every bit as good as the hype surrounding it, and that was there even before it went Tic Tok crazy and you couldn't get one at all.

Vivid by Day 2019 (Light Rail Nearly Ready to Roll) X100 V

Vivid by Day 2019 (Light Rail Nearly Ready to Roll) X100 F

VIVID Sydney by day. Well that is completely wrong - its pretty lights at night. So I've been documenting it for quite a while, by day - here are some done with the X100 V. Click pictures to View Larger!

Botanic Gardens, triangular light installation - VIVID by Day 2019 X100 F(out of camera)

VIVID by Day 2019 X100 F (post in Photoshop)

Botanic Gardens light installation - VIVID by Day 2019 X100 F(out of camera)

VIVID by Day 2019 X100 F (out of camera)

This series began a few years earlier in protest to all the barricades - everywhere - but then evolved into a documentation of the installation hardware as artworks in their own right. Click pictures to View Larger!