FUJIFILM FinePix X100 at f/2 in Bright Daylight
The wide f/2 aperture, was one of the reasons I decided to get the X100.. It allows for an acceptable bokeh with its APS-C sensor. I was too distracted with the aperture, that I missed reading about a limitation, the X100's shutter cannot go faster than 1/1000 at f/2.
Hold on.. 1/1000 is too fast, why would I even need it? Well, at f/2 and bright daylight, 1/1000 will allow too much light to get in, resulting in an over exposed photograph. So, what are the options?
You can chose one of the following solutions:
- Reduce the aperture to f/4 or tighter... Or
- Enable the built-in ND (Neutral Density) Filter.
Reducing the aperture is an easy and straight forward solution, but it will sacrifice the shallow depth of field of a wide aperture, allowing more elements of your composition to be in-focus.
The second solution is to enable the built-in ND filter, which will reduce the exposure by 3 EV.. To me, this is better.. I can keep my beautiful bokeh, without any sacrifices.. Perfect.
So, how do you enable it? Just go to the menu, and switch it ON
To reduce the hassle of navigating through the menus every time I need to use the ND, I can just program the Function Button (Fn) to active/deactivate ND. You can program the Fn from this menu options
Now you're ready to access the ND Filter whenever you need
I hope you found this little tip useful.. If you have any question, please leave a comment..
Enjoy :)