X100 · 2020 · discontinued
Fujifilm X100V review
Launch price 1,399 USD · 26.1 MP X-Trans IV sensor · 4K 30p video
Cult-favorite compact. The model that made the X100 series famous.
Verdict
Fujifilm X100V is the cult-favorite fixed 23mm f/2 compact with a 26.1 MP X-Trans IV sensor and a hybrid OVF/EVF. 4K/30p, no IBIS, 1399 USD, now discontinued and succeeded by the X100VI.
Fans of the X100 line who want a more affordable 26MP entry over the X100VI.
In detail
Most owners reach for it because of Fuji's well-tried 26 MP X-Trans IV sensor and the price point it launched at. Released in 2020 at 1,399 USD, the body is no longer in production. It sits in the X100 line, which is Fuji's fixed-lens compact line with a 35mm-equivalent prime built in.
Image quality out of the X-Trans sensor is solid for the price, with the usual Fuji color science baked in. At 26.1 MP, native ISO runs ISO 160 to 12800, plenty for low light with the faster XF primes, the files give you enough room to crop without falling apart. Face and eye detection is on board and works well for portraits and street. Burst at 11 fps is plenty for travel, family, and most outdoor work.
The video toolkit covers what most hybrid shooters actually use. 4K 30p covers the resolution most people actually deliver, and the bitrates are sensible. F-Log is there if you want to grade.
The body has the typical Fuji fit and finish: light, plastic-heavy in places, and balanced with the smaller XF primes. There is no in-body stabilization, so for low light or long lenses you will lean on stabilized XF glass. At 478g it sits in the comfortable middle, light enough for travel but solid in the hand.
Battery life is 420 shots per charge by CIPA, which translates to a full day of mixed shooting if you are not chimping the EVF constantly. There is a single card slot (SD UHS-I), which is fine for most people but worth knowing if you shoot events that demand redundancy. Bottom line: this is the X100 body to look at if you want the fixed-lens compact experience with a hybrid viewfinder without jumping to a flagship.
Pros and cons
What we like
- Cult-classic 23mm f/2 compact design
- Hybrid OVF/EVF viewfinder
- 26.1 MP X-Trans IV sensor with 4K/30p
- Tilting touchscreen on the back
The headline win is the cult-classic 23mm f/2 compact design. Film simulation count is 7, which is the older but still solid lineup, and the Fuji film simulations translate to video just as well as they do to stills. 4K 30p is more than enough for most hybrid shooters in this category.
Trade-offs
- No in-body stabilization at all
- Single SD UHS-I slot and no weather sealing
The honest trade-off is no stabilisation of any kind. The lens does not come off, so there is no stabilised zoom to fall back on — in dim light you are choosing between a slower shutter, a higher ISO and the f/2 you already have. The X100VI added IBIS for exactly this reason. Weather resistance is not standard either: you get it only after buying an AR-X100 adapter ring and a protective filter, which is a strange thing to leave as an accessory on a 1,399 USD camera. Single UHS-I card slot, so backup discipline is on you. And the fixed 23mm is the whole point of the camera right up until the day you need to be somewhere else.
Who is this for
Fans of the X100 line who want a more affordable 26MP entry over the X100VI. Travel videographers and YouTubers running a one-person crew can absolutely get by with this body. Street, travel, and everyday-carry photographers tend to fall in love with this format.
Image quality
26.1 MP X-Trans IV behind a lens Fujifilm rebuilt for this body — the first redesign of the 23mm f/2 since the original X100 in 2011, adding a second aspherical element.
The redesign is the reason to care about this generation. DPReview shot the two lenses against each other and the summary is specific: at infinity the new lens matches the old one in the centre and clearly beats it toward the edges, out-resolving the X100F's optic across most of the frame at f/5.6 and f/8, which is what makes the X100V usable for landscape and cityscape work in a way its predecessors were not. At the 10cm minimum focus distance the difference is larger still — the haze the old lens produced wide open up close is mostly gone.
It is not a perfect lens. Neither camera is bitingly sharp wide open at close range, and if you shoot portraits at f/2 from a metre away you will still see it soften. Stop down a stop and it disappears.
ISO 160 to 12800 native, and this is the X-Trans IV sensor at its most familiar: clean to 3200, workable at 6400. Seven film simulations including Classic Chrome, Classic Neg. and ACROS, and a JPEG engine good enough that a large share of X100V owners never open a raw file.
The built-in 4-stop ND filter matters more than the spec sheet suggests. It is what lets you shoot f/2 in daylight, or drag a shutter for motion at midday, without screwing anything onto the front of the camera.
Photos shot on the X100V
We shot and published 29 frames on the X100V, October 2022 to March 2024. The 24 below are spread evenly across that period. Click any thumbnail for the full-size file and its settings on masnun.photos. These are edited photographs, not resolution tests — read them as a record of what the camera actually gets used for.
Autofocus in practice
425 phase-detect points with face and eye detection, driven by X-Processor 4. There is no animal detection and no vehicle detection — the deep-learning subject recognition arrived with X-Processor 5 and the X100VI.
Within those limits it is quick and quiet. Single-shot AF at conversational distance locks without fuss, face detection holds a cooperative portrait, and 11 fps is more burst than this camera will ever be asked for. Street work at f/5.6 with zone focusing barely involves the AF system at all.
The ceiling is the lens rather than the processor. It is a fixed compact with a leaf shutter and a small focus group, so it will not keep up with an interchangeable-lens body driving a linear-motor prime, and owners who have both notice immediately.
The leaf shutter is worth understanding as an autofocus-adjacent feature. It is nearly silent, which changes what you can photograph in a quiet room, and it syncs flash to 1/2000s — no focal-plane shutter will do that. Combined with the built-in ND, daylight fill flash at f/2 is trivial here and awkward on almost everything else.
The hybrid finder changes the shooting more than the AF specs do. In optical mode you see outside the frame lines, so you watch a subject arrive before it enters the picture.
Video verdict
4K at 30p with F-Log, in H.265 or H.264. Adequate, and clearly not the point.
There is no stabilisation at all — no IBIS, no optical IS in the fixed lens — so handheld footage moves unless you do. The screen tilts but does not face forward. There is one UHS-I card slot, the slowest interface Fujifilm ships. And every shot is 23mm f/2 because that is the only lens there is.
What does work is locked-off video with the ND filter doing the exposure work, and the film simulations, which translate to footage as well as they do to stills. Cut travel clips between photographs and it holds up.
If video is a real part of what you do, the X100VI added IBIS and 6.2K, and an X-S20 costs less than either and was built for the job.
What makes this camera special
The X100V is the camera that turned a product line into a cultural object, and the ingredients are worth naming precisely.
The hybrid viewfinder flips between a genuine optical view with projected frame lines and a full electronic one, with an electronic rangefinder patch available in the corner. Nothing else on sale does it. The leaf shutter is near-silent and syncs flash at 1/2000s. The 4-stop ND is built in. The lens was redesigned for this body. And the screen tilts — the first X100 to manage it, on a hinge so well concealed that the camera still reads as a flat-backed rangefinder.
Put together, that is a camera with no obvious equivalent, which is why it survived four predecessors' worth of iteration to become the one people mean when they say X100.
The design also made it a fashion object, and that had consequences the engineering did not deserve. Digital Camera World's Kim Bunermann argued that the hype priced out the people who wanted to use it, turning a working tool into a shelf trophy — a camera more photographed with than photographed on. Both things are true at once: it is a superb small camera, and for two years it was almost impossible to buy one at a sane price.
What X100V owners actually say
The X100V has the strangest ownership story of any camera in this catalogue, and you cannot make sense of the used market without it.
It went viral. Between 2020 and 2023 the X100V became a TikTok object, appearing in outfit posts the way a watch or a bag would, and demand detached from photography entirely. PetaPixel documented used X100-series prices surging in late 2022. Digital Camera World reported the X100V selling above 2,000 USD used, with Amazon listings reaching roughly 3,000 — more than several new full-frame bodies. The camera had been on backorder essentially since launch, and by 2023 new stock was not findable.
Then Fujifilm announced the X100VI in February 2024, and r/fujifilm immediately got a thread pointing out that a flood of used and new X100Vs had hit the market. The comments underneath are the most useful pricing record you will find. The top reply was a dry observation that these were used cameras at or above the price of new ones. The next was a straightforward refusal — hold out until they come down to 1,000 to 1,100, and people asking 1,600 can wait. One commenter reported buying at 1,000 USD with three thousand actuations and said it settled a year of dithering between this and a Ricoh GR III. Another watched a listing drop from 1,500 to 1,200 in three hours.
Underneath the market noise, owners are unusually settled about the camera itself. One of the better-received threads on the subreddit is from someone who had an X100V boxed up to sell toward an X100VI, stopped, and asked whether anyone else was staying put — the replies are full of people shooting old bodies happily and putting the money into lenses instead.
The complaints owners actually raise are small and consistent: no stabilisation, weather resistance that costs extra in the form of an adapter ring and a filter, one slow card slot, and a battery that is fine rather than generous.
Is the X100V still worth buying?
The X100V is discontinued and was replaced by the X100VI in February 2024. The only question is what to pay.
Start from what it is against its successor. The X100VI adds a 40 MP sensor, 6 stops of IBIS, AI subject detection and 6.2K video, and keeps the same lens, the same hybrid finder, the same leaf shutter and the same built-in ND. That is a real upgrade, and if you are buying at anything close to parity the X100VI is the better camera. The X100V's argument is price, and only price.
So the number matters. r/fujifilm's own market-watching when the successor launched put fair value around 1,000 to 1,100 USD, with 1,500 or 1,600 treated as sellers not having noticed the news. Anything at or above the 1,399 USD launch price is you paying the TikTok premium for a discontinued body, and there is no reason to.
Buy an X100V if you want the hybrid finder, the fixed 35mm-equivalent lens and the leaf shutter, and you can find one honestly priced. Buy an X100VI instead if the gap is small or you want stabilisation. Buy an X-E4 or X-E5 if you want the rangefinder shape but would rather change lenses — you lose the optical finder and the leaf shutter, and you gain a system.
On condition: check whether the previous owner ever fitted the AR-X100 adapter ring, because without it there is no weather sealing and this camera has spent its life in coat pockets. Work the tilt hinge. Look for scuffing on the top plate, which marks like every other Fujifilm top plate. And ask for the actuation count — a lot of these were bought as accessories and barely used, which is the one good thing to come out of the hype.
Rating breakdown
| Dimension | Score |
|---|---|
| Image quality | 8 / 10 |
| Autofocus | 6 / 10 |
| Video | 6 / 10 |
| Handling | 8 / 10 |
| Value | 6 / 10 |
Sub-ratings are the author’s assessment of each dimension against the current Fujifilm APS-C lineup.
X100V release date and lifecycle
Announcement month is from Fujifilm’s launch announcement; the on-sale month is not recorded for this body. Launch price is MSRP at release, not a used-market price.
Full specifications
| Release year | 2020 |
|---|---|
| Launch price | 1,399 USD |
| Status | Discontinued |
| Megapixels | 26.1 MP |
| Sensor generation | X-Trans IV |
| Processor | X-Processor 4 |
| ISO range | 160–12800 |
| AF points | 425 |
| Subject detection | face-eye |
| Burst (fps) | 11 |
| Max video | 4K 30p |
| Codec | H.265, H.264 |
| Log profile | F-Log |
| Stabilization | None |
| Viewfinder | Hybrid OVF/EVF (3.69M dot) |
| LCD | 3" tilt touch |
| Weather sealed | No |
| Weight | 478g |
| Card slots | 1 |
| Card types | SD UHS-I |
| Battery | NP-W126S |
| Battery life (CIPA) | 420 shots |
| Film sims | 7 |
Highlighted rows are class-leading within the current Fujifilm APS-C lineup.
Film simulations (7)
- PROVIA
- Velvia
- ASTIA
- Classic Chrome
- Classic Neg.
- ACROS
- ETERNA
Compared with
Fujifilm X100V vs siblings
How the X100V stacks up against the closest siblings in the current Fujifilm lineup.
Fujifilm X100V vs X100S
The Fujifilm X100V and Fujifilm X100S are both Fujifilm X100 bodies. The X100V is the newer of the two, arriving in 2020. At launch the X100V was 1,399 USD and the X100S 1,299 USD, making the X100S the more affordable of the two.
Fujifilm X100V vs X100
The Fujifilm X100V and Fujifilm X100 are both Fujifilm X100 bodies. The X100V is the newer of the two, arriving in 2020. At launch the X100V was 1,399 USD and the X100 1,199 USD, making the X100 the more affordable of the two.
Fujifilm X100V vs X-S10
The Fujifilm X100V and Fujifilm X-S10 are Fujifilm APS-C bodies from different lines — the X100 and the X-S. Both launched in 2020. At launch the X100V was 1,399 USD and the X-S10 999 USD, making the X-S10 the more affordable of the two.
Further reading
Article
X100VI vs GFX100RF: why I would take the APS-C one
The RF's 35mm f/4 works out to an equivalent f/3.2. The X100VI's 23mm f/2 works out to f/3.0. Same look, $3,300 apart.
Article
A love letter to the Fujifilm X100 series
Bought the X100V before the hype, upgraded to the X100VI, sold it over a synthetic shutter click, and came back to a black one. Four years of my own photos.
Article
Quick Switching between Color and B&W profiles on Fuji bodies
The Nikon Zf has a B&W switch. You can build the same thing on a Fuji: FS slots on the film simulation dial, or a Recall C1 button on everything else.
Article
Fujifilm X100VI accessories: what to buy, and what to skip
SD cards, the filter that finishes the weather sealing, grips, straps, black mist, and the one accessory that keeps breaking shutter buttons.
Where to buy
The link below runs an Amazon search for this camera rather than pointing at one listing, because stock and sellers move around. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases — at no extra cost to you.
See it in the wild
Owner impressions and real-world photos from the Fuji community.
Sources and further reading
Specs come from Fujifilm. Measured results, other reviewers’ verdicts, and owner reports are credited to the people who did the work:
- Fujifilm — X100V product page and specifications
- DPReview — X100V vs X100F lens shootout (what the redesigned 23mm actually changed)
- Amateur Photographer — X100V review, "a camera great and small"
- Amateur Photographer — "TikTok sensation Fujifilm X100V officially discontinued"
- PetaPixel — "Used Fujifilm X100 series camera prices are surging thanks to TikTok", November 2022
- Kim Bunermann (Digital Camera World) — "How clout chasers ruined the Fujifilm X100V"
- Mirrorless Comparison — X100F vs X100V, the ten main differences
- r/fujifilm — "A flood of X100Vs (used/new) is now on the market" (what owners said fair value was)
- r/fujifilm — "I had my X100V all packed and ready to resell…"
- r/fujifilm — "Fuji X100VI and why, maybe, you don't NEED one"