With the launch of the new Fujifilm X100VI, it’s hard not to get caught up in the GAS and excitement of a new camera release. It’s new, it’s exciting, it has IBIS now and a 40MP sensor. There are so many reasons to love this camera, “Should I buy it? . . . I think I shall,” dopamine surges through your veins, you wiggle with excitement, load up B&Hphoto, and then . . . that moment hits you like a ton of bricks, oh-no . . . “which color do I buy, Black or Silver?”
We sit there, hovering over the pre-order button thinking, “If I don’t pre-order in the next 10 seconds I might not get the camera until Christmas.” This haunts, you, but the decision, “black or silver” weighs heavy on your soul.
It sucks, I know, I’ve been there four times now with the X100 series, alone, but let me help you.
X100VI What Color, Black or Silver?
I know many street photographers and they usually default go with black.
Why?
Well, because they’re creepers.
Should You Get A Black Fujifilm X100VI?
Don’t get me wrong, black cameras can be cool and you can accessorize them with some colored accents and that can be cool. If that’s your reason for getting the camera, great – literally 90% of all modern cameras are black, so can’t go wrong. Right?
But, if you’re buying the camera to be “stealth” because you’re a “street photographer,” then that probably means your style of shooting is creepy AF, and wanting to “sneak” photos in, is creepy. But, you can, by the way, take street photos without being creepy.
The thing is, from my experience, nobody is ‘not’ going to notice you because you have a black camera. First of all, you’re probably a white guy who romanticizes shooting street photography in Tokyo anyway, and let’s face it, every single Japanese person will watch you as you walk down the street, because you’re a foreigner in Japan, you make up 2% of the population, 1% if you’re white.
Then the funny thing is, most street photographers today are shooting with their flash – and by the way, it’s the current trend that you have to follow as a street photographer – so you get your creepy black camera, with your creepy black outfit, with your creepy leather strap that’s way too short, to go take creepy photos of people while documenting the whole process on your TikTok, but then you use a flash.
Should You Get A Silver Fujifilm X100VI?
Silver, on the other hand, is the gentlemen’s camera. It’s classic, it’s beautiful. It holds its color and ages wonderfully. It doesn’t get dull and ugly or look like a toy camera once it gets worn down in the same way a black camera does.
People will ask you, “is that a film camera?” or, “is that a Leica?” People are interested in you as a person, they see a gentleman and a scholar, not a mouth-breathing creeper with his stealthy black camera and shifty eyes intruding on the privacy of the kind Ojiisan that just wants to bring groceries home to his sick grandkids as he walks across the Shibuya Crossing in the rain with an old damaged umbrella that he bought from 7 Eleven three years earlier. Click – *FLASH*- congratulations, you’re the first person to take a picture of an interesting old man crossing Shibuya!
What I Like About Silver
I usually buy the silver bodies; I think they look better. Silver sparkles and gleams like the heavens and is the real reason the Fuji vintage style is popular anyway. I had a black 100T. They can be cool, especially if you end up color-matching all your Fujifilm X100VI accessories, but I have never liked black cameras as much as silver. I have a Black Leica M6 (I wish it was silver), and also a black Leica MP, which I love, because it’s black paint on brass which is cool because it ages with character.
If Fujifilm did a gunmetal grey with the X100VI, I would get that over black, and I would also buy it over silver since I’ve had so many silver cameras. But for me, Silver will always be better than black, it just is. Silver is my default unless there is a compelling reason to go black, such as a limited edition, a black paint edition, or a lighter build like with the Leica M11 (I still went silver).
At the same time, I’m not of the Gen Z breed making TikTok videos in Joshua Tree with my Reala Ace film simulators. So maybe black is right for you. I love Joshua Tree btw, one of the coolest places in California – you should go.
Good luck! And let me know what camera you buy and why!
*This is just written for light-hearted comedy with a twist of absurdism, I’m not being serious, even though I secretly kind of am.
Also, check out this guide if you’re shopping for the best memory card for the Fujifilm X100VI
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