I guess every music venue has rules for cameras and photography, and the nice thing about the X100VI is that it manages to avoid the “no interchangeable lens cameras” and “no lenses over 4 inches long” rules while also avoiding scrutiny as a “professional camera” because it’s small and vintage-looking. And it’s great for carrying along because it’s easy to cinch the strap up and have it close without a lot of bulk or weight.
I took it to see X a few weeks ago and it was fine from the front row. There was a guy standing a bit forward of me who also had an X100VI, and he was doing a lot of double-exposure stuff that involved waving the camera around for a slow exposure, then taking a faster one. I’m sure the effect is neat, but one drawback of the X100VI is that the rear panel doesn’t fold in, so if you’re a “preview via the rear panel” person, everyone’s getting a face full of that unless you turn off the rear display, which I will do once I remember all the possible combinations.
Anyhow, I got a lot of shots I was pretty happy with for being behind a rail, and the 40MP sensor lets you crop a ton.
I also took it to see Mutoid Man at the Twilight Cafe, and that was a much bigger win for the small size. It was a pretty crowded, excited room and I was pressed against the low stage, so I kept the camera close with an eye out for the mosh finding me. I guess, as that picture shows, I also liked that the small size let me do some discrete documentary shooting waiting for the show to start.
The stage at the Twilight Cafe was much less well lit than the Crystal Ballroom, and I keep auto ISO set to go as high as it needs while holding the shutter speed to 200. That meant an ISO of 3200 for most shots, which is noisy but fine for the subject matter.
I experimented a little with face detection AF and got mixed results. I was much closer to Steven Brodsky than I was Jeff Matz, and sometimes – maybe due to the lighting and motion – the AF would target Jeff, which wasn’t great with a wide open aperture. I think I may map one of the buttons to toggling that on and off if I see it getting flaky. I don’t tend to trust AF much beyond “set to a small point, set that point manually, don’t do subject detection.”
Then there was Silver Lake, who performed in a small bar/guitar shop. It was super crowded and I hadn’t meant to take many pictures, but Al asked me to for her friend. The light was mixed and it was super crowded so I had to shoot over peoples’ heads. I was glad for plenty of megapixels to crop because I was so far away, and I was glad for the small size because it was a pretty intimate setting and there was already a videographer at work. Face detection was much more reliable in that setting, too. Every now and then it sort of hunted between the lead singer and the bass player because they were right next to each other.
For both Mutoid Man and Silver Lake I could have brought along either my Olympus with its f1.4/20mm or my Fujifilm X-T5 with its f1.4/33mm and might have liked having a little more light-gathering, but the X100VI works fine for what I’m doing and doesn’t look threatening to security. I just want to work on quieting down that rear screen.