Pen-F vs X100F in Real Life
- Fabrice Lamidey
- 11 mai 2017
- 8 min de lecture
Given that I have been using both a Fujifilm X100F and an Olympus PEN-F for a bit over a month, I thought I'd write a short non-technical comparison of the two great cameras in real life use.
Preamble I am an amateur photographer, mostly attracted to street and landscape photography. I occasionally will shoot portraits and concerts, but almost never any action. I am also heavily biased towards B&W. I have gone through X100, X-Pro1, X-T1, X-Pro2 and went finally back to the X100F as I felt it was a perfect match for my style. I'll go through what matters to me and compare the two cameras, but feel free to ask if you want info on something not covered here.
Looks I was definitely attracted to the X-Series in part for its unique appearance. The X100F is stylish, sober and classic. The PEN-F (I have the black version) is less classic but sober and stylish enough. I’d have preferred the silver version but I got a very deal on a black one and it wasn’t a deal breaker. Materials look and feel good on both. The only fault in the PEN-F in my opinion is the visible difference in the thumb rest material (maybe for better resistance in the long run) which is visible when closing the articulating screen on its blind side.
Grip & Form Factor Both cameras are essentially the same form factor, the Fuji being very slightly taller and “visually” thicker. The PEN-F lack of front grip is well compensated by a perfect thumb rest. Despite having large hands, I don’t have a problem with either camera when it comes to holding them and shoot for prolonged periods of time. The PEN-F feels a bit heavier with my always-on 20mm 1.7 Panasonic lens (533g / 18.8 oz vs 473g / 16.7 oz for the X100F).
Side by side comparison of the PEN-F and the X100F
Ergonomic philosophy Fuji’s unique physical dials for aperture is something I dearly miss on the PEN-F. It feels so much better to use an aperture ring on the lens than turning a nondescript knob. I’m used to it, but think one shouldn’t have to… The front dial of the PEN-F has often been described as a gadget but I use it all the time as I use Monochrome Mode and sometimes even the infamous Art Filters. The ISO dial has been vilified on the X100F but as I shoot auto-ISO 90% of the time I don’t care. The rare times I need to use it I admit it’s a pain to see what you’re doing. The PEN-F will allow you to change ISO with the front or real wheel.
On/Off Ideally, I would blend Fuji’s perfectly placed on/off switch and the PEN-F's perfect handling of the switch. I find the X100F hard to turn on and off but I can still do it with one hand where the PEN-F requires the left hand for on/off operations.
Build Neither of those two cameras are weather sealed. Both have a solid feel in hand, a lack of apparent fragility, good quality materials. The PEN has no visible screws. Both have so-so side doors for covering ports. Buttons and dials feel solid and reliable.
OVF Obviously, the PEN lacks any kind of Optical View Finder. I confess the quality of EVFs in recent cameras have reduced the interest of OVF, except for framing. I’ve learned to live without and not cry, so unless you have a photo style a la Cartier-Bresson, I don’t feel it should impact you that much.
EVF I prefer the Fuji’s EVF. It’s more responsive, has a higher visible resolution and marginally better colors. For people wearing glasses it’s not as good as the X-T1 (and presumable the T2) but slightly better than the X-Pro2. The PEN-F is fine in this regard. The PEN's EVF is pretty good but as soon as you choose a picture effect, the frame rate will drop. It’s not awful but still a bit disappointing. The EVF activation lag with the eye sensor is approximately the same in both cameras, i.e. not very good.
Menus Wow. I’ve been a user of digital cameras starting with the Sony Mavica FD5 through Canon, Nikon, Minolta, Fuji. The Olympus menu structure is just plain awful. Its groupings are illogical, some functions are buried 5 levels deep, some are split in not just two menus but two completely different menu categories. It would be laughable if it wasn’t what Olympus users must endure as “normal”. I hope Olympus changes that someday before I lose my sanity. The Fuji menus aren’t perfect but I’m used to them and they somewhat make sense. A lot of functions depend on some others and it’s sometimes annoying to try to guess why an item is greyed out.
User Manual The Fuji’s manual is straightforward and not extremely helpful if you need anything else than a description of the menus. But at least it’s a physical manual. The PEN-F is about as unhelpful when you need to solve a problem, plus it’s only a pdf.
Customization The Custom Modes are about as painful on both cameras. Not being able to rename them only adds to the frustration. The infamous “Base/Cx” of the Fuji makes sense once you grasped how it works but obviously only covers functions that are not set using physical buttons and dials. It’s limited and, honestly, I almost never use them as I prefer to take advantage of the physical settings of the X100F. On the PEN-F, it’s almost the opposite. It remembers EVERYTHING. Including the aperture of the lens or the image definition. You really need to be thorough when you record a preset and double check settings before taking a shot the first few times you set the C1-C4 presets. As for button and dials customization, the PEN-F obviously has more (9 vs 7), because the Fuji cannot change the way its dedicated elements work. It requires a bit more mental agility to work with the PEN-F but as you can pretty much fine tune almost every button, it becomes natural after a while.
Remote Control & Connected Apps Both remote apps feel clumsy to me, especially the connecting part. It’s a bit better on the PEN-F as you can scan the QR code that comes up on the LCD when activating wifi. After that, the functions are similar except the Olympus app has a dedicated Geotagging mode that will record a route you can then easily sync with your photos, in Lightroom for example. The Fuji app cheats and only records a GPS coordinate on the first sync with the camera. Both apps allow transfer and remote control of the camera.
Lens Offer The X100F has a nice fixed 23mm (35mm equivalent) f:2 lens. It has a weak point at f/2 in closeups, where it gets extremely soft, but is a remarkable lens otherwise. Having the possibility to switch lenses is of course a major advantage for the PEN-F, altough I have the Panasonic 20mm 1.7 stuck on it 90% of the time. A remark on the Micro Four-Thirds lens offer (that is irrelevant to the X100F comparison): when it comes to interchangeable lenses, Fuji wins big time here. They almost all have better quality/price ratio. The best M43 lenses are as expensive as the Fujinons (with 40% less surface to cover). They are somewhat smaller and lighter of course. You can use any m43 lens on the PEN-F and the range is really impressive, although sometimes the offer is ridiculous. There are four or five different wide angle zooms with 3.5-5.6 apertures for examples. You can find some cheap and pretty good lenses for the PEN-F while you need a bit more investment on the Fuji.
Image Quality The PEN-F has a 20MP micro four thirds sensor when the X-Trans III of the Fuji is 24MP APS-C. As long as you don’t get over 1600 ISOs, you won’t notice any major difference between the quality of both sensors. The Bayer sensor of the PEN-F makes it easier to use raw format in full confidence and the ugly worms sometimes present in green grass or leaves on the Fuji don’t exist on the Olympus.
Gadget (or not) features No in-camera panorama mode on the PEN-F but a high res mode that can be quite impressive on still scenes (80 MP Raw files/ 50 MP JPEGs). The live bulb is really useful for long exposures, allowing you to see what the picture will actually look like and when to stop exposing.
High ISOs Clearly the X-Trans wins here, no discussion. Over 1600 ISOs, the PEN-F struggles to render shadow details without blotching. And that would certainly have been a deal breaker for me a couple of years ago. BUT! Yes, there is a big but here. The incredible efficiency of the in-body image stabilization almost makes this difference irrelevant. Of course, there is still the case where you need to boost the ISOs to freeze movement. But as I don’t shoot sports, I don’t feel too limited. And I have clean shots at 1.6 second exposure. 1.6 second! I’ve yet to shoot a concert with the PEN-F but I fully expect it to be almost useless in those conditions unless you heavily post-process the images with excellent noise reduction software.
JPG vs Raw I’ve always shot RAW. Even on the X100F where the ACROS is excellent, I always need to post process in Silver Effects to get the kind of look I want in Black and White. It’s frustrating because when I shoot RAW on the X100F I lose the ability to use some features, like film simulation bracketing. And if I want to use an advanced filter or shoot a panorama then I lose the RAW file. The PEN-F has a miracle mode. It’s what Olympus has labelled Monochrome Mode 2. It delivers exactly the kind of shots I want in Black and White. The in-camera noise/grain that’s added (if you chose to) to the X100F Acros mode is way too coarse to my taste. But the PEN-F’s artificial noise in mono mode is amazing. It gives a fantastic texture to the images, warm and analogical. Furthermore, the Acros is still too flat for me at +4 Shadow / +2 Highlights (anything over +2 Highlights is unpleasant for me). The Mode 2 pushes the shadows and highlight in a very beautiful way. Of course, this is not a mode everyone will enjoy but it perfectly suits my style.
So, for the first time, I can shoot JPEG in full confidence. The best thing is that I don’t even have to sacrifice the RAW.
Video I don’t shoot video on a regular basis and if you do I wouldn’t recommend either of these cameras.
Little quirks and annoyances The PEN-F can’t charge the battery through USB unlike the X100F. The X100F comes without a hotshoe cover but the flash is integrated, while the PEN-F is sold with a basic external flash which runs on the camera’s power and includes a hotshoe cover. The PEN-F will stay on when connected to a USB cable for as long as it has power. It should turn off itself after a certain time without any use. The PEN-F also has a stupid proprietary USB plug that requires a special cable to connect to a PC.
Conclusion For me, the PEN-F is the perfect camera for Black & White street and landscape photography. I can live easily with its small annoyances. Although I could live with a 35mm fixed lens, having the option to go wider or longer is always nice, especially since I don’t need to sacrifice portability or compactness.
I love them both I must say and am tempted to keep the X100F for high ISO situations, at least until I can put the PEN-F to the test in a concert or badly lit action. Both cameras end up being about the same price when you factor the need for a decent lens on the Olympus.
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