The X100VI, In One Hour.

Before any menus, hold the camera. The X100VI's great trick is that almost nothing important lives in a menu — it lives on a dial, a ring, or a lever. If you know where your hand should go, the menus become optional.

The top plate

The back

You know the exposure triangle. What makes Fuji different is that the triangle is on the camera rather than buried in a menu. This means the mode you're in (P, A, S, M) is implied by which dials are on A:

What aperture to pick

The lens runs f/2 to f/16. A working heuristic:

• f/2–f/2.8 — portraits, shallow depth, indoors. Softer corners; the lens is at its most "characterful."
• f/4 — the sweet spot. Sharp enough, still some subject separation. A terrific default.
• f/5.6–f/8 — street, travel, anything where you want most of the scene in focus.
• f/11–f/16 — landscapes on a tripod. Diffraction starts to soften things past f/11, so don't stop down without reason.

Exposure compensation — the dial you'll actually use most

The right-hand top dial (marked -3 … 0 … +3) overrides the camera's meter by stops. In bright snow or backlit scenes, the camera wants to expose for the middle gray average and clips your subject dark. Bump to +⅔ or +1. For dark moody scenes (a dim bar, a shadowy alley), push to -1 so the camera doesn't lift shadows into mush.

Do this once and forget it. These are the settings that differ from factory defaults in ways that matter for how you plan to shoot.

Image quality & RAW

Auto ISO — so you never have to think about it

Auto ISO lets you shoot aperture priority and let the camera handle sensitivity, but within limits you set. The critical number is the minimum shutter speed — the slowest the camera will go before it raises ISO instead.

A few menu hygiene items

There are three focus modes, selected by the switch on the left side of the camera:

Focus area modes

Inside AF-S, there are sub-modes. Via Q menu or AF/MF SETTING → AF MODE:

• Single Point — one movable box. Precise. The right default.
• Zone — a larger cluster of points. For erratic subjects (kids, pets).
• Wide/Tracking — whole-frame, camera decides. Good for "just get it."
• All — lets you swap between the above with the rear command dial. Also useful.

Face / eye detection

For family and portraits, turn this on:

Fuji's film simulations are not filters. They're factory color profiles baked into the JPEG engine, designed by the same people who spent decades making actual film stocks. They change the character of the image in ways that are very hard to replicate later. You set the simulation before the shot so you can see it live in the viewfinder.

There are around 20 of them. You do not need to learn 20. You need to learn four or five, well.

How to change it

Three ways, in order of speed:

• Press the left button on the rear D-pad (default shortcut).
• Press Q, navigate to the film roll icon, scroll with the wheel.
• Full menu: IMAGE QUALITY SETTING → FILM SIMULATION.

Recipes, not rules. Set these once, shoot, adjust.

1 · Street & everyday carry

2 · Travel & landscapes

3 · Family & kids

4 · JPEG-only run-and-gun

Out of the box, the X100VI has defaults that are fine, not great. The single best investment you can make — after setting RAW + JPEG — is to teach the camera which controls matter to you. The payoff is that your most-used functions land under your fingers without a menu dive.

There are two ways into the remapping screen:

• Fast: press and hold DISP/BACK for about two seconds. Lands you on the full list of Fn buttons, dials, and gestures.
• Surgical: press and hold the specific button you want to change (e.g. the front Fn button) for about two seconds. Jumps directly to its assignment screen.
• Menu path: SET UP → BUTTON/DIAL SETTING → FUNCTION (Fn) SETTING.

The philosophy here borrows from how Fuji ambassador Kevin Mullins configures his: use a small number of buttons deliberately, disable the rest to prevent accidental presses. Below is a configuration tuned to your shooting mix — street, family, travel, low light. Walk through it once and the camera stops fighting you.

The recommended mapping

Disable the touch controls you don't need

The X100VI has seven custom settings banks — C1 through C7 — which together hold a complete snapshot of image-related settings: film simulation, grain, color chrome, white balance, highlights, shadows, noise reduction, dynamic range, and more. You flip between them via the Q menu or by assigning recall custom to a button. It's the closest thing a digital camera has to loading a roll of film.

Here's the plan for your four scenarios:

How to save a custom slot

Dial in every image setting the way you want it (film sim, grain, WB, DR, highlight, shadow, color, sharpness, etc.). Then:

To load a slot while shooting: Q → base selector at top-left → scroll to the slot you want.

Two recipes worth programming

These are two widely-loved community recipes from Ritchie Roesch's Fuji X Weekly, adapted for the X100VI's X-Trans V sensor. Copy the settings into the corresponding C-slot.

For the other two slots

Rather than prescribing a specific community recipe for Family and Landscape, start with Fuji's own simulations and tune by eye. These are solid starting points — save them, then adjust based on what your actual pictures look like:

Fujifilm practices what they call Kaizen — continuous improvement. They push meaningful updates to cameras years after purchase, including autofocus algorithm revisions, new film simulations, XApp feature additions, and bug fixes. The X100VI has received several firmware releases since launch, including a notable autofocus accuracy improvement (v1.20) and wireless security enhancements (v1.30 and beyond). As of early 2026 the public version is around 1.31, with some cameras shipping with 1.32 or later pre-installed.

Check your version

Turn the camera on while holding the DISP/BACK button. The screen shows your current firmware. Alternatively: SET UP → USER SETTING → FIRMWARE VERSION.

The two update methods

Every X100VI owner hits a handful of these in the first month. Filing them here so you don't spend an afternoon searching forums.

"The framing in my OVF doesn't match my photo"

That's not a bug — it's how optical viewfinders work. You're looking through a window offset from the lens, so what you see is roughly the frame, not precisely. The bright-line frame inside the OVF approximates the capture area, and even shifts as you focus closer (parallax correction). For precise framing, switch to the EVF via the front lever. For street and general shooting, the OVF's approximation is a feature, not a flaw — you see context outside the frame too.

"My lens is hunting in low light and missing focus"

The X100VI's AF is much improved but not miraculous, and the lens is known to hunt at f/2 in dim scenes. Fixes, in order:

• Stop down to f/2.8 or f/4 if possible — the lens focuses more decisively at smaller apertures
• Switch from AF-S to AF-C with Single Point — faster acquisition in many low-light cases
• Turn on the AF assist illuminator: AF/MF SETTING → AF ILLUMINATOR → ON
• Enable Boost mode: POWER MANAGEMENT → PERFORMANCE → BOOST — eats battery but speeds AF
• As a last resort, manual focus with peaking — the lens's focus-by-wire response is quick

"My ND filter won't engage / engages when I don't want it"

The built-in 4-stop ND has three modes: Off, On, and Auto. Auto kicks in when the camera decides it's needed. For predictability, set it manually:

• SHOOTING SETTING → ND FILTER → ON or OFF
• Or, if you followed this guide: push-hold the front lever to the right to toggle the ND
• Or, with the touch gesture assigned in Chapter VIII: swipe right on the LCD

"The EVF goes dark when I put my eye to it"

Normal — the eye sensor dimmed the LCD and switched to EVF. If the EVF itself is too dark: SCREEN SET-UP → EVF BRIGHTNESS. If the eye sensor triggers at the wrong time (your hand passing in front of the viewfinder), you can disable the automatic switch: SCREEN SET-UP → VIEW MODE, and pick EVF-only or LCD-only.

"My custom C-slot settings are reverting"

This trips up everyone. When you load a C-slot, any changes you make afterward are temporary. Switching to another slot and back loses them. To make a change permanent:

IMAGE QUALITY SETTING → EDIT/SAVE CUSTOM SETTING → SAVE CURRENT SETTINGS → pick the same slot → OK. This re-saves with the modification. It's a feature (experimental tweaks don't wreck your preset) but a confusing one at first.

"Battery dies way faster than I expected"

The X100VI's NP-W126S battery is small (~310 shots CIPA). Real-world figures: 400–500 with OVF use, 250–350 with EVF/LCD-heavy use. Mitigations:

• Use OVF whenever possible — it's not drawing a screen
• Set POWER MANAGEMENT → AUTO POWER OFF → 2 MIN (you did this in Chapter III)
• Turn off Boost mode unless you need the AF speed
• Buy two spare batteries. Third-party (Wasabi, Neewer) work fine and run ~$25 for two

"I can't connect to XApp / keeps dropping Bluetooth"

This is one of the most common community complaints, and it's usually fixed by: (1) updating both camera firmware and the XApp to current versions, (2) removing the camera's existing pairing in both the phone's Bluetooth settings and the camera's CONNECTION SETTING → Bluetooth/SMARTPHONE SETTING → PAIRING REGISTRATION, then (3) re-pairing from scratch. If still dropping, toggle the phone's airplane mode on and off.

"Shutter sound — can I make it silent?"

Yes. SHOOTING SETTING → SHUTTER TYPE → ELECTRONIC SHUTTER (ES) for fully silent operation. You did the MS+ES setting in Chapter III which is usually preferable — mechanical by default, electronic above 1/4000 or when silence is needed. For a library, a quiet dinner, or a NICU round: switch to ES-only for the duration.

The X100VI is a complete camera out of the box. You don't need anything else to start shooting. But a few accessories meaningfully change the experience — and one of them converts the camera from "not weather-sealed" to "weather-sealed," which matters more in Oregon than most places. The camera will see rain, sea spray at the coast, and misting-through-forest conditions — and the lens barrel is a dust-and-moisture entry point without the adapter ring and filter in place.

The adapter ring + protective filter (weather sealing)

The X100VI becomes weather-sealed only when you attach the AR-X100 adapter ring plus a 49mm protective filter. Without these, the lens barrel is a moisture and dust entry point. For PNW use — hikes in the Cascades, the Oregon Coast, forest walks in drizzle — this is the first accessory to buy.

• Fuji AR-X100 adapter ring — official, ~$25, screws into the lens's filter threads (actually uses the 49mm thread once you remove the decorative front ring)
• 49mm UV or clear protective filter — B+W, Hoya, or Tiffen brands. A Tiffen Black Pro-Mist 1/8 (also 49mm) doubles as a mild diffusion filter for a soft highlight glow that pairs beautifully with Classic Negative

Conversion lenses (rare but transformative)

The X100VI's 23mm (35mm equivalent) fixed lens accepts two optional conversion lenses:

• TCL-X100 II — converts to 50mm equivalent. Useful if you find 35mm too wide for portraits. ~$400
• WCL-X100 II — converts to 28mm equivalent. Useful for interiors and landscapes. ~$400

Both maintain image quality well but add size and weight. Before buying: shoot at 50mm equivalent via the digital teleconverter (SHOOTING SETTING → DIGITAL TELE-CONV.) to decide if you actually want the focal length.

Straps

The stock Fuji strap is fine but stiff and loud. Common upgrades:

• Peak Design Leash (~$40) — quick-release, packs flat, widely loved
• Wrist strap instead of neck strap — many X100 owners prefer the Gordy's or Peak Design Cuff, since the camera is light enough to dangle from the wrist
• Leather half case — adds grip, protects the body, stays on while you shoot. Gariz, Arte di Mano, and third-party options on Amazon from ~$40–150

Memory cards

The X100VI takes a single SD card (UHS-I compatible; UHS-II not supported, so don't pay for it). For RAW+JPEG shooting, a fast UHS-I V30 card is the sweet spot:

• SanDisk Extreme Pro 128GB UHS-I or equivalent — ~$30, plenty fast for the X100VI's buffer
• Format in-camera, not on a computer: SET UP → USER SETTING → FORMAT

Spare batteries

Covered in the troubleshooting chapter but worth repeating — buy two. The NP-W126S is the right model. Third-party (Wasabi, Neewer) work well for a fraction of Fuji's price; ~$25 for a two-pack with an external charger.

What to skip

• L-brackets — unnecessary unless you use a tripod heavily
• Lens hoods — the X100VI's built-in lens barrel provides adequate shading; Fuji's LH-X100 hood is more aesthetic than functional
• External flash — the built-in pop-up flash is capable, and external flash defeats the camera's compactness. Skip unless you have a specific flash use case

Primary references

• The official X100VI manual — searchable, web-based, better than the PDF.
• Fujifilm's own Quick Start Guide — official, concise, well-illustrated.

Settings guides from working photographers

• Kevin Mullins · Setup for speed and efficiency — Fuji ambassador, street and documentary focus.
• Roman Fox · Day-to-day X100VI settings — clean, practical, well-organized.
• David Fleet · Travel setup guide — real-world-tested, thorough on travel scenarios.

Film simulations & recipes

• Fuji X Weekly — the definitive encyclopedia of community-made film simulation recipes. Searchable by stock, by mood, by era.
• Andre Pel · Complete Guide to Fujifilm Film Simulations (2025) — honest, image-rich walkthrough of every sim.
• Amateur Photographer · Film Simulations guide — with sample images for each.

The companion app

• FUJIFILM XApp — phone transfer, remote shutter, firmware updates. Install it today.

Companion documents

• Workflow Primer — processing RAW files from the X100VI. A second field manual, this one on what to do with your RAW files in Lightroom or Capture One. X-Trans files need different treatment than Bayer sensors — this covers it.
• Field-Use Quick Card. One page, printable, fits in a camera bag. Just the settings tree and scenario recipes. Print this and keep it with the camera.