Spring in the Langhe: Landscape Gallery with the Fuji X100s

Update: also check out our colours gallery.

Spring has finally made its appearance here in Italy. Keeping with our yearly tradition, Heather and I went to the Langhe region (Piedmont, Italy), famous worldwide for its wine and truffles. (In fact, many celebrities ranging from the likes of De Niro to rapper Jay-Z come here regularly to eat them!) It was a great opportunity to bring along my x100s and see how it would suit the landscape photography genre. The Fuji X100s was designed primarily for street photography, but the colour and tonal range capabilities of the X-Trans Sensor are very interesting for landscape shots as well. (You can read our x100s full review here).

I mainly used the Velvia Film Simulation mode, and Astia for high contrast scenes and sunsets. The richness of the colours produced by the Fuji Film Mode is wonderful. The first pictures were taken in the early afternoon and as you can see, the light is pretty hard. Then, in late afternoon, the colours and contrast became softer, revealing the true potential of the Fuji’s sensor. You can see the result in the gallery below. You will also appreciate the great sharpness of the lens (most shots were taken at f/5.6 and f/8).

All the pictures have been optimized for the web from the original JPGs on camera. JPGs on camera are very good on the X100s. I personally prefer working with the RAW files but in this case, I wanted to test the colour and saturation directly produced by camera. You will notice some clipping in highlights/shadows in a few pictures, but this is normal when you shoot a high contrast or backlit scene. The JPGs have a limited dynamic range compared to the RAW files.