Which Fuji?

Fujifilm X100VI accessories: what to buy, and what to skip

The X100VI accessories worth buying, by category: SD cards, filters and weather sealing, hoods, batteries, grips, straps, cases, black mist. With what r/fujifilm actually says about each.

By Abu Ashraf Masnun ·

I spend more time than I should in Fujifilm groups. r/fujifilm, a few Facebook groups, the odd Discord. And every single week, someone posts the same photo of a brand new X100VI on a desk with the caption: what accessories should I get? The replies are always a mix of genuinely good advice and people listing whatever they bought last month. I got tired of typing my answer out again, so I wrote it down here and now I just paste the link.

One thing to get out of the way. The X100VI is a camera you buy because it is small and you want to carry it. Every accessory you bolt on trades a bit of that away. I own a fair few of these and I still leave most of them at home.

The short version, if you only want three things

  • One SD card. A plain UHS-I V30 card from SanDisk or Lexar. The camera cannot use anything faster.
  • A strap you trust, attached through the metal lugs, not the leather pads.
  • An adapter ring and a 49mm protector filter, which is also the only way the lens is actually weather sealed.

That is the whole list. Everything below is optional, and on r/fujifilm the people who own the camera longest tend to say the same thing.

"You just need 1 SD card and a wrist strap, IMO. If you need anything else, get it afterwards."

Storage: buy the cheap card on purpose

The X100VI has one SD slot and it is UHS-I. That single spec decides this whole category. A V90 UHS-II card will physically fit and it will run at UHS-I speed anyway, because the bus in the camera cannot go faster. You would be paying two hundred dollars for a card that behaves exactly like a thirty dollar one. Video tops out around 200Mbps, which is roughly 25MB/s, so even a V30 card has headroom to spare.

Fujifilm's own recommended card list is mostly SanDisk and Lexar, and that is more or less what people repeat in the SD card threads.

"SanDisk Extreme Pro UHS-I V.30 in whatever size you need. They recommend SanDisk and Lexar cards."

In the same thread, someone asked whether the fancier Sony Tough cards were the move. The answer was blunt, and correct: they will be overpriced and overpowered for this camera. Spend the difference on a second small card instead. One commenter in a first-camera thread made the point that several smaller cards are more reliable than one big one, which is a lesson people usually learn the expensive way.

Protection: the adapter ring and filter that finish the weather sealing

This is the one accessory I would call close to mandatory, and it is not because of scratches. The X100VI lens is not sealed on its own. Fujifilm sells the AR-X100 adapter ring and the PRF-49 protector filter, and the camera is only weather resistant with both of them fitted. The adapter is not just a cosmetic spacer either, as one commenter explained when someone tried to skip it.

"The reason you need the adapter ring is to act as a spacer so that the lens does not smash into the filter glass while moving to focus."

The clever alternative that keeps coming up is the NiSi filter made specifically for the X100 series. It is one piece rather than a ring plus a filter, it protrudes slightly so the glass never touches the front element, and the original Fujifilm lens cap still fits over it. That last detail is why people keep recommending it.

"If anyone is looking for a filter that is compatible with the lens cap, check out the Nisi UV filter made for X100 series."

The cheap route works too. A Haoge or JJC adapter ring plus any decent 49mm UV filter gets you the same seal for well under twenty dollars. Fuji X Weekly went that way on the X100V and has been running a $10 adapter and a sub-$10 UV filter about ninety percent of the time.

Does a filter save your lens? The arguments never end. In the UV filter thread, one person pointed out that the filter glass is weaker than the front element, so a shattered filter does not prove the lens would have broken. Someone else replied that they had just knocked a lens over and the filter took the hit, and that ten dollars beat a repair bill. Both are true. The weather sealing argument is the one that actually settles it.

"Most people will need a filter if they want to complete the weatherproofing of the camera."

Hoods: mostly for looks, and that is fine

Once the adapter ring is on, a hood screws straight into it. Be honest with yourself about why you want one. The most useful summary I have read was a list where three of the six reasons given were simply looks, protection came with the caveat of the camera getting bigger, and flare reduction was rated as unlikely to matter.

"Protection at the cost of being bigger."

Practical notes from the Haoge thread: the metal cap that comes with the square hood is friction-fit over the hood and holds solidly, but silver is not one colour. Third-party hoods are anodised a darker, greyer silver than the X100VI's top plate, closer to the shade Fujifilm uses on the X-T5, and one buyer in that thread returned his because the mismatch bothered him. If you shoot the black body, none of this applies. If you shoot silver, buy from somewhere with easy returns.

Power: a spare battery, and no charger in the box

The X100VI runs on the NP-W126S and Fujifilm rates it at 450 frames with the optical finder, closer to 310 with the EVF. Real-world, if you shoot the EVF and chimp a lot, you will want a second battery. There is no wall charger in the box either. You charge over USB-C, from whatever laptop or phone brick you already own, which annoyed a lot of new owners.

On third-party cells, the sub is split in a useful way. Nobody argues that the generics match Fujifilm capacity. The argument is whether the gap matters. The cheapest no-name packs are where the swollen battery stories come from, and there are plenty of those.

"I am partial to the wasabi and smallrig ones, I have dozens and they are great."
"I got this K&F Concept battery charger and 3 batteries which only cost $32 on amazon. They have worked brilliantly so far."

The other answer, and the one I like on trips, skips spare batteries entirely: carry a power bank and top the camera up through USB-C while it sits in your bag. One commenter put it plainly, that a 20,000mAh bank costs about what a spare battery does and charges your phone too. The catch, as someone else noted in the same thread, is that a dangling cable catches on everything the moment you are actually walking around.

Handling: thumb grips and hand grips

The X100VI is a slippery little brick and a thumb rest fixes that. It also plugs your hot shoe and adds a few millimetres to a camera you bought for being thin. Lensmate made the reference grip for years and has since shut down, so the aftermarket has moved to SmallRig, with Haida, Freewell and Squarehood filling in. On the DPReview forums, one owner who went hunting on eBay for a used Lensmate explained why: the SmallRig grip sits further along the body and lacks the padding of the original.

SmallRig also makes an L-shaped hand grip with a silicone side and an Arca plate built in, which is the one people who shoot the camera all day tend to keep. But the most honest comment I found came from someone who bought both and then took them off again.

"I bought the L-Shape Grip and Thumb Grip from SmallRig. They are very popular here, and for good reason, but I have since removed them."

One thing to check before you buy any thumb rest: how it sits against the AEL button. If you back-button focus, a grip that overhangs it will annoy you every single frame. One owner on the sub ground his Squarehood grip down specifically because the AEL button was, in his words, almost impossible to press otherwise.

Straps: the accessory people get wrong most often

Two threads on r/fujifilm should be required reading before you buy a strap. In the first, someone hung their X100VI from an Apple crossbody phone strap and dropped it. Nine hundred upvotes' worth of people pointed out that a strap built for a phone is not rated for a 521g camera. In the second, a brand new X100VI came back with a cracked screen because the strap had been threaded through the little leather pads instead of the metal lugs.

"That leather part is just to protect body from scratching. It is not meant to be used as anchor."

The consensus pick is Peak Design, either the Leash for a thin neck or sling strap or the Cuff for a wrist loop. The anchors let you swap between them in seconds, and the anchor cords have coloured wear layers so you can see when they need replacing. Not everyone is sold on the system, and the pushback is worth hearing: one commenter called it over-engineered and would rather have a plain leather strap with a simple clip.

"Get a peak design leash. Smallest camera strap that is trustworthy."

If you want the traditional route, Gordy's is the name that comes up every time, usually from someone who has owned X100 bodies since the original and wears theirs cross body. Leather, one length, no hardware, patinas over the years.

Cases and bags

A half case adds grip, protects the base, and makes the camera about a centimetre thicker. Buy one made for the X100VI rather than the X100V, because the VI is roughly 2mm deeper thanks to the IBIS unit and the older cases fit tight enough to fight you at the battery door.

SmallRig's leather kit is the value pick and has a trick the boutique cases do not: the front section detaches, so it is a full case in a bag and a half case in your hand.

"I have the small rig, which has the advantage of being a full leather case when you need it to be."

Above that sit Gariz and Lim's, and the split between them is practical rather than aesthetic: Lim's builds in a tripod plate, Gariz does not. If you use a tripod, that decides it. Fujifilm's own LC-X100V leather case is the safe fit but comes in black only, and one owner in a long thread about keeping the camera pocketable noted it makes the body considerably larger, which rather fights the point of an X100.

Black mist filters, and picking the right strength

A diffusion filter bleeds the highlights into the frame and takes the clinical edge off 40 megapixels. It is the least necessary thing on this page and also the one people enjoy most. The important part is strength, not brand, and the numbers lie.

"1/4 and 1/8 are not universal standards and can vary dramatically in strength from brand to brand."

The practical guidance in that thread, repeated by several people who own both strengths, is to start at 1/8. It is close to invisible in daylight, shows up on specular highlights, and gets pleasantly obvious under streetlights. A 1/4 is very noticeable at night and, on a 35mm-equivalent lens like the X100VI's, a fair few owners find it too much.

"The 1/8 is barely noticeable during the day, unless there are specular highlights. At night, it is noticeable but not over the top."

On brands, Tiffen is the reference and K&F is the cheap one people keep saying they cannot fault, with the caveat that K&F strengths run stronger than the Tiffen number on the box and the coating gives a slightly warmer cast. Remember these are 49mm and screw into the same adapter ring, so you are choosing between the filter and your weather sealing unless you buy a stacking setup.

Conversion lenses, if 35mm is not enough

The wide converter turns the 35mm equivalent into 28mm, the tele converter into 50mm, and the camera detects both automatically and corrects for them. Until recently Fujifilm's own WCL-X100 II was the only option at $399. Viltrox now makes one for $159 and the reviews are unusually consistent: same optical result, marginally more vignetting, half the money.

"The Viltrox lens is only 50% of the price than the fujifilm, so I can easily live with the vignetting."

The real cost is not money. With a converter on the front, the X100VI stops being the camera that disappears into a coat pocket, and the tele version makes it noticeably front-heavy. I would only buy one if you already know, from your own photos, that 35mm keeps letting you down in the same direction.

The cheap stuff that is worth it anyway

A tempered glass screen protector costs a few dollars and shows up on nearly every essentials list on the sub, usually in the same breath as the strap and the filter. The X100VI screen tilts, which means it also gets pressed against things. A rocket blower and a microfibre cloth belong in the bag too, because the leaf shutter design means you will be cleaning the front element rather than a sensor.

"Essential: Wrist or a neck strap, a filter to make the camera weather resistant, and screen protector."

What I would not buy

The soft release button is the one that starts fights. It looks lovely, it makes the shutter feel better, and Fujifilm even shipped one with the Limited Edition X100VI. It also sits proud of the top plate, which is exactly why repair threads keep filling up.

"A repair tech told me that 99% of the Fujis he sees come in are due to soft shutter buttons breaking the shutter button."

In fairness, the counter-argument is good. The most upvoted reply in the Limited Edition thread argued the threading is a standard size and the button itself is not the problem, that the risk is a taller button snagging on a strap or a seatbelt and levering the mechanism sideways. In one of the horror stories the button had caught on a seatbelt, which is a different failure from the button being fitted at all. I still leave mine off, because the upside is that the shutter feels marginally nicer and the downside is a repair bill.

"Risk is greater than reward with these useless soft shutter buttons."
  • V90 or UHS-II cards. The slot is UHS-I. You are buying speed the camera throws away.
  • A screw-in ND filter. The X100VI has a four-stop ND built into the camera, on a menu item.
  • No-name battery packs from marketplace sellers. This is where the swollen-cell stories come from.
  • An X100V half case for an X100VI body. The VI is about 2mm deeper and the fit fights the battery door.
  • A full accessory bundle from a marketplace listing. It is a card, a cheap bag and a filter you would not have chosen.

How I would actually spend it

  1. Day one: SD card, strap through the metal lugs, screen protector. Under fifty dollars all in.
  2. Week one: adapter ring and protector filter, or the one-piece NiSi. Now the camera is sealed.
  3. When the camera annoys you: a thumb grip if it feels slippery, a spare battery if you run out, a half case if you keep putting it in a bag with keys.
  4. When you are bored: black mist at 1/8, or a wide converter if your own photos keep telling you 35mm is too tight.

Note that steps three and four only happen after the camera has told you what it needs. That order is the entire point. The X100VI is already finished, and the fastest way to ruin it is to spend six hundred dollars turning it into a small, awkward X-T5.

Amazon links here are affiliate search links, so if you buy through one I get a small cut at no extra cost to you. They point at search results rather than single product pages, because listings rot and I would rather send you somewhere that still works in a year.