Fujifilm has included an interesting feature on the X100F that I wanted to talk about. They call it a “Digital Teleconverter” which is a fancy name for zoom-by-cropping. It doesn’t sound all that useful, but it actually is.
As you are probably well aware, the Fujifilm X100F has a fixed 23mm (35mm equivalent) lens. That’s a great focal length for many types of photography; however, it’s not particularly versatile. Unlike an interchangeable-lens camera, you have just one focal-length to work with.
This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. You’d be surprised at the number of well-known and well-respected photographers who used just one camera and one lens for decades. Limiting oneself can be beneficial because it fosters creativity. Having only one focal length at your disposal is only a disadvantage if you make it so.
One great thing about the 24-megapixel X-Trans III sensor found inside the X100F is that it has a lot of resolution. Almost nobody prints at billboard size. Rarely do people print at poster size, and the X100F files are just fine for printing that big. Most people show their pictures on the internet and make 8″ x 10″ prints, and only occasionally print larger. Many find that this camera has a ton of headroom for cropping.
The Digital Teleconverter that Fujifilm programmed into the X100F isn’t just a way to crop pictures in-camera. It applies an upscale algorithm to the crop, and also applies some smart sharpening. It makes the crops look less, well, cropped. They don’t look so much like you used a “digital zoom” (which is what you used), but more like you had a couple other prime lenses at your disposal. Fujifilm really did an excellent job with how they designed this feature.
Sky Keepers – SLC, UT – Fujifilm X100F 75mm
You could do this all yourself with software. You could shoot RAW and do all the editing, cropping, upscaling, sharpening and so forth. Or you could let Fujifilm’s excellent JPEG engine do it automatically in-camera. This could save you some serious time!
The Digital Teleconverter has two options: 50mm (equivalent) focal length and 75mm (equivalent) focal length. This significantly increases the versatility of the fixed-focal-length X100F! It’s almost as if the camera has three different lenses built in.
The 50mm option uses 16 megapixels of resolution from the sensor, which is still plenty (the X100S and X100T had “only” 16 megapixels). 16″ x 24″ prints are no problem, and, if you have a good quality file, you can make nice looking 2′ x 3′ prints. Unless you are pixel-peeping or making poster-sized prints, you’ll have a hard time distinguishing the 50mm Digital Teleconverter images from full resolution files.
The 75mm option uses 12 megapixels of resolution from the sensor, which is still plenty for most people and most uses (the original X100 had “only” 12 megapixels). 12″ x 18″ prints are no problem, and, if you have a good quality file, you can make nice looking 16″ x 24″ prints. Unless you are pixel-peeping or making large prints, nobody will be able to tell that you cut out half of the picture.
In a sense, it’s like getting an X100 with a 75mm lens and an X100T with a 50mm lens packaged with your X100F. As good as that sounds, it’s actually even better because of the advancements and updates the new camera has that the old ones don’t.
Black Conduit – SLC, UT – Fujifilm X100F 50mm
Another advantage of the Digital Teleconverter is that it allows you to do macro photography with the X100F. The closest focus distance is about four inches, which isn’t quite close enough for macro at the 35mm (equivalent) focal length. But the 50mm and 75mm options allow you to achieve true macro, even if barely.
You can custom program many of the controls on the X100F. I have the Digital Teleconverter set to the manual focus ring, which I believe is the default setting. In auto-focus mode, turn the ring to the right and it zooms in and turn it left and it zooms out. It’s very convenient.
Some have complained that the Digital Teleconverter is a JPEG-only function. If you shoot RAW and you want to do a similar zoom-by-cropping, you’ll have to use a couple different software programs and spend awhile in front of a computer. Thankfully Fujifilm has included some excellent Film Simulation settings for camera-made JPEGs on the X100F. My favorites are Acros and Classic Chrome.
Here are some 50mm examples, all straight-out-of-camera JPEGs:
Drops On A Bud – Layton, UT – Fujifilm X100F 50mm
Rose At Ogden Depot – Ogden, UT – Fujifilm X100F 50mm
Cilantro – South Weber, UT – Fujifilm X100F 50mm
Kodacolor – South Weber, UT – Fujifilm X100F 50mm
K-Cup – South Weber, UT – Fujifilm X100F 50mm
Here are some 75mm examples, all straight-out-of-camera JPEGs:
Building Storm Over Ridge – South Weber, UT – Fujifilm X100F 75mm
Ball & Hoop – South Weber, UT – Fujifilm X100F 75mm
Elite – South Weber, UT – Fujifilm X100F
Coffee & WiFi – Orem, UT – Fujifilm X100F 75mm
Light Bulb Shadow – Ogden, UT – Fujifilm X100F 75mm
Hi, I know this is an older article now – but I just found it, and thought it was really helpful. I’m weighing up buying an X100F and wanted to see examples of images taken with the digital teleconverter. Your images have shown me that using the digital zoom doesn’t have to ruin the image quality. 🙂
The digital teleconverter is a nice feature that I use sometimes. It definitely adds versatility to the camera. I recommend this article, as well: https://fujixweekly.wordpress.com/2017/09/27/fujifilm-x100f-digital-teleconverter-high-iso/
Read your article, thank you. But unable to open the digital teleconverter on my X100F. The control wheel is assigned to it, but on the shoot menu ‘digital teleconverter’ is greyed out and stays on ‘off’. Any help greatly appreciated!
Make sure you are shooting JPEG. If you are RAW or RAW+JPEG it won’t work (unfortunately).
I know I’m late at the party but this was very useful information. This is something I will keep in mind by choosing a new Fuji camera. It looks like a great option as a travel camera when traveling light.
The X100F is such an incredible travel camera, you won’t be disappointed by it.
Hi, did you notice that the series picture modus does not work with the digital teleconverter? I wonder why…..
Great blog here. Greetings from Germany!
Carl
Thank you! I didn’t notice that, so I suppose I will have to keep an eye out.
Hi,
You made a mistake in calulating the megapixels for the different modes,
50mm 11.8Mpix
75mm 5.2Mpix
because there’s a square in difference between computing megapixels and digital zoom.
For example if you have a 2×2 sensor with 4Mpix, then 2x digital crop will use 1×1 of the sensor, giving you 1Mpix in the cropped image.
I’m not a mathematician, but we’re talking equivalent focal lengths. So we have 35mm, 50mm and 75mm. Roughly speaking, half of the sensor (or, really, just over half) is cut out on the 75mm crop.
Won’t multiplying the pixels of the image produced settle the number of megapixels employed in those crop modes?
Yeah, I have no idea. I’m no mathematician, and so I’m not confident in what the correct answer is. What I have decided is that the outcome is more important than whatever behind-the-scenes stuff goes on to get the outcome. The digital teleconverter is a nice feature.
I think you are right! For calculating the used sensor-size the crop factor has to be squared because it’s a 2D area.
Yes, but try thinking about it this way: Roughly half of the width of the sensor is used on the 75mm crop, which means also half of the height, which translates to using around a quarter of the resolution.
Just like crop factor for cameras, a Nikon DX has a crop factor of 1.5 because the ratio of the sensor widths are 1.5, not the areas.
Like I said, I could be completely wrong, but it’s about half of the total sensor area that is cropped, not three quarters.
Using images from the camera I made this illustration:
https://i.imgur.com/iZpoMAU.jpg
As you can see here, the 75mm crop uses one quarter of the sensor. While making the image I realized the 75mm mode is actually closer to a 70mm, so it uses very close to 6Mpix.
I found the images on:
http://zetterstrand.com/x100f/x100fvsx100t.html
(because I only have an X100S) 🙂
If it is indeed 6mp worth of data that is being used, Fujifilm is doing one heck of a job not making it look like it! It’s amazing how little the image quality degrades.
There are definitely people who are smarter than me that can calculate this, and perhaps you are one of them.
I was about to pull the trigger on an X100T but that digital crop added to the other features seems to have swayed me to the F. Thanks for the article.
You are welcome! I hope you enjoy the X100F! What color are you going to get?
I prefer the silver. It’s weird because I had the original X100 in 2011 and it was silver but I wanted black lol. Over time I think the silver just looks better. People will think it’s an old camera too so that’s always fun haha.
I love the silver version. I’d be interested in seeing the brown one person. I think I’d really like it, but maybe I wouldn’t.
Thank you my for the great explanation. Just got the x100v and was wondering if the resolution will be good enough at 50mm & 70mm, 16mp and 12mp are plenty. X100v has 26mp so the crop resolution should be slightly higher than x100f.
thanks again, cheers
Please see my other comments on this post! It’s only 11.8Mpix for 50mm and 5.2Mpix for 75mm. But that is still a lot of pixels, which is why it still looks fine.
I don’t know why the author hasn’t updated the post.
I didn’t update the post because I don’t agree. The X100V has 26MP. The lens is 23mm, but equivalent to 35mm. 75mm times 46% equals 35mm. 26MP times 46% equals 12MP. I don’t want to or intend to argue. You have stated your reasons for your conclusions, and I have stated mine. We disagree, and that’s ok. Readers can view both and decide which makes the most sense to them. But, in reality, whoever is right doesn’t matter because the out of camera results speak for themselves, and that is what matters most.
Decided to go back and read all your old articles. I never gave the digital telecom version a second thought before, however I tried it today and love it. It’s a real shame I can’t use it with RAW enabled, but there are different benefits, such as when using the OVF with 50mm crop, I can really make use of the framing.
That is, in fact, a real shame about RAW. It would be great if you got a teleconverted JPEG + a non-teleconverted RAW if you shot RAW+JPEG. Doesn’t seem like it would be too difficult for them to program.
Gets worse! The Digital TC reverts back to *off* every time the camera sleeps. And I use manual focus, which means every time I go to shoot I need to 1. Select auto focus 2. Use the focus ring to engage the digital teleconverter 3. Select manual focus again. Bummer
That’s too bad. I used the Digital Teleconverter regularly on the X100F, but on the X100V I use it very infrequently. I think there are enough obstacles that make a great feature inconvenient.
Hello there. Does the OVF display 50mm and 75mm framelines when using the digital zoom function? Do they behave the same way the 35mm framelines do?
I don’t remember, but I think it does, although I’m not 100% certain about that.
For info the X100V can take both a JPG and a RAW when it’s taking a digital zoom image (since firmware V2).
After the image has been taken, within the in-camera RAW editing options, you have the option of removing the zoom/crop and reverting back to the full image captured by the sensor.
So capture a 70mm equivalent image using the digital zoom but also have the option of producing the original 34mm image as well.
That’s such a great improvement! It definitely makes the Digital Teleconverter more practical. Thanks for sharing!
You’re welcome; hope it helps.
Looking back at the earlier comments I’ve got to say I agree with Morten from 2018. You say you’re not a mathematician. I am, of sorts, I’m an professional engineer, recently retired, with over 40 years of calculations behind me. The difference between a 35mm and 70mm lens (be it actual or equivalent, it doesn’t matter) is 70/35 = 2. So if the image you are seeing through a 70mm lens is 2x zoom closer then you are actually seeing 4x less of the image (4x fewer pixels) than if you were viewing the same scene using a 35mm lens. Morten’s image of Nov 7 2018 shows this really well. If your sensor is an X100V at 6,240 x 4,160 = ~26 MP then a half on each dimension (Width x Height) gives 3,120 x 2,080 = ~6.5 MP which is 4x less than 26 MP.
As you say it doesn’t really matter, as the X100V processor stretches the 6.5 MP image back up to 26 MP, and it does it really well. But for those of us that are mathematicians the details of what’s going on are of equal importance to the finished product.
I appreciate the input! Thank you!