Report: Fujifilm X100VI will have the Old Battery
Fujirumors is reporting which battery the upcoming Fujifilm X100VI will use: the old NP-W126S.
A lot of Fuji X Weekly readers frequently visit Fujirumors. There’s some crossover between the audience of both websites; however, I’m not a rumor site, and I don’t personally have inside information on upcoming gear. I can only comment about what other people report, and Fujirumors has a reputation of being correct a whole lot more than incorrect. If you want the inside scoop, that’s where you need to go. But I do get asked to comment on the things that Fujirumors reports. Just within the last couple of hours, three different people reached out to me for my opinion on the latest rumor.
I think a lot of photographers—myself included—speculated that, since the X100VI will have IBIS, it will also have the new WP-235 battery. Between the 40mp sensor and the in-body-image-stabilization, there’s a lot of potential battery drainage, so the old battery would be insufficient, and the new battery would be a requirement. In order to use the bigger battery, the camera would need to be larger, at least a little. Plus, the new battery is a tad heavier. The assumption was that the new camera would be a hair bigger and a little heavier to accommodate IBIS and the WP-235 battery.
The X100VI will indeed be a hair bigger—but literally just a hair—as apparently the lens needs to extend just 1mm further out to make room for the IBIS, but otherwise it will be basically identical to its predecessor. I’m sure the camera will be just a smidge heavier, too, but not much at all. By using the old battery—the same battery that the X100V takes—Fujifilm prioritized size and weight on the new model. It seems as though more will be the same than different between the X100V and X100VI, and that’s not bad whatsoever. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
But it definitely raises some questions regarding battery consumption. The expected battery life on the X100F was 390 pictures, and it increased to 420 on the X100V. Those numbers are decent enough, but not necessarily impressive; plenty of battery life most of the time, yet occasionally insufficient. Of course, battery life depends on a whole host of factors, so your mileage might vary. I used to own a Sigma DP Merrill camera that got between 35 and 40 exposures on a battery—about as many frames as a roll of 36 exp film. So it’s nowhere near that; however, it’s also not particularly close to the 580 shots that the X-T5 is rated at. The X-S20, with the old sensor and new battery, can apparently get 750 exposures, which illustrates that the new sensor drains the battery significantly more than the old sensor. So what kind of battery life are we looking at? I’m sure that the Fujifilm programmers worked some magic to maximize efficiency, but it would be pretty shocking if the X100VI can get more than 350 shots… it might even be less than 300. I have no idea, this is mere speculation, and I could certainly be wrong. I’ve been wrong plenty of times before, so definitely take all of this with a grain of salt.
There are, of course, some things that one can do to mitigate battery drainage. For example, on my X-T5, if I know I’ll be shooting all day and need the batteries to last, I’ll turn Image Stabilization Off, and only use it when I need it (most of the time I don’t need it). On my X100V, I like to keep the rear LCD off and use the Optical Viewfinder, which not only gives a film-like shooting experience, but also saves battery. It’s possible to make the battery last quite awhile if you need it to. And, as always, you can keep a spare or two nearby. If you are in a studio, you could always use a tethered faux battery that plugs into the wall.
I think it’s clear that the X100VI—much like the X100V—is a photographer’s camera more than a cinematography tool. With the heat issues and battery drainage—sure, it’s possible to use it for video with much success, but it is far from ideal for that purpose. I don’t use my X100V for video, and don’t anticipate using the X100VI for video, either, even with IBIS. Can you? Absolutely. Is it the best option? Absolutely not.
I’m actually a little glad that the X100VI will take the old NP-W126S, and that Fujifilm prioritized size and weight over battery life. The way I use the camera, I get significantly more than 420 exposures on a fully-charged battery. I can turn IBIS off, and only activate it when I need to, which I’m sure won’t be very often. It’s good to have IBIS as an option, but the reality is that it’s not all that important on a camera like the X100. Size and weight matter more to me. I don’t think Fujifilm’s battery choice will be a big deal for most people (it won’t be for me), but for some it might make the X100V an intriguing choice over the X100VI, just depending on how long the battery will last on the upcoming camera.