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In my search for meaningful reasons to upgrade from the X100V to the X100VI (besides just IBIS), I’ve tested the two cameras to compare how much more detail the 40MP sensor provides over the 26MP sensor.
By going with the 40MP, Fujifilm also had to incorporate IBIS to resolve an APS-C sensor at that resolution. From my experience, the IBIS introduces some drain on battery life, so you gain some stability and resolution at the cost of some battery life. But if you’re a street photographer shooting at fast shutter speeds or with a strong flash, that alone might not offer much value. Well, we’ll see, let’s look.
Fujifilm X100V vs X100VI Sensor Detail Comparison
Both cameras were on a tripod and shot Raw, and I zeroed out the settings. Since this was a quick test, I used autofocus instead of manual focus. However, I took multiple shots to ensure no anomalies with bad focus. Overall, it seems like this X100VI is a little softer than my X100V. I don’t know if the X100V has some more baked-in sharpness or if it’s just a copy-to-copy variation. The contrast is a little higher on the X100V, though, so maybe that’s what I’m seeing. Again, I took multiple shots of this board on AF-S, so I don’t think it’s autofocus. I consistently was getting the same results.
Fujifilm X100V vs X100VI Aperture Comparison
This is with a 100% crop on both sets. I tried to match the colors and exposure, but the X100VI has noticeably different colors, and the X100V has a stronger contrast by default.
If you click these and view them in full size, pay attention to Higuchi Ichiyo’s clothes. There, you can see the etching much more clearly on the collar of her Kimono, whereas with the X100V, it’s just smudged out. Also, the lettering and etching around the lettering are a little cleaner with the X100VI.
(Fun fact: Higuchi Ichiyo was Japan’s first professional female writer.)
Fujifilm X100V vs X100VI Resolution Comparison At F2
These next samples are scaled 200% from the X100VI, so the X100V has even more than a 200% scale. For the scaling, I used Photoshop with the Nearest Neighbor (hard edges) setting. This gave me the best results without introducing too much of a sharpening effect.
I tried to match the color between the two, but it’s still imperfect, so ignore the WB shift. Exposures also aren’t perfect between these as well. Again, this is just a quick test.
At f2, the Fujifilm X100VI shows some detail improvements—it’s a little crisper. However, the f2 portion of this lens seems to introduce a slight bottleneck in the detail the X100VI sensor can resolve.
X100V vs X100VI Resolution Comparison At F4
The difference in detail is a little more apparent here at f4. The Fujifilm X100VI is now noticeably crisper and resolves more micro details in the toy Yen replica.
Fujifilm X100V vs X100VI Resolution Comparison At F8
At F8, we’re now starting to see diffraction limitations on both cameras, the X100VI is slightly crisper with slightly more detail but not by much. The X100VI is exposed slightly bright here, so some of the contrast looks nicer, but don’t let that distract you from the detail it outputs.
Fujifilm X100V vs X100VI Resolution Comparison At F11
The X100VI again has slightly more detail here, which is the opposite of what I expected. Due to diffraction, I expected to see closer performance at f11, but the X100VI is still much nicer.
X100V vs X100VI Sensor Resolution Performance Conclusions
There is a noticeable improvement in detail between the X100V and the X100VI when on a tripod. I wasn’t expecting to see as much of a difference at the higher apertures, but the X100VI still pulls ahead, and it’s noticeable enough to justify the upgrade if you’re doing tripod work.
For casual photography, I would say the difference isn’t game-changing, and you probably wouldn’t even notice it in real-world shooting conditions with motion blur and the IBIS shifting the sensor around.
In real-world shooting, I really don’t notice much of a difference in resolution between the two cameras.
However, the biggest thing I always noticed is that the smaller, tighter grain of the X100VI is a lot nicer to work with than what we had with the older camera bodies. So even if you aren’t always getting better sharpness, in your sloppy day-to-day shooting, you do always get a tighter grain pattern – which was probably everyone’s biggest complaint about those 24MP and 26MP Fujifilm sensors.
But is all this worth the drop in battery life? I can’t decide for how I’ve been using these cameras.
I think passionate street photographers might just want to stick with the X100V due to the better battery life. They’re typically shooting at a faster shutter speed and won’t really need the IBIS or extra resolution. The weak battery life would be just one less thing for them to worry about, and honestly, they would probably never see this extra detail of the X100VI in real-world shooting conditions, although they might like the tighter grain.
However, a more lifestyle and travel photographer would probably welcome the new sensor, especially IBIS.
Check out my list of Must-Have Accessories For The X100VI or see which memory cards are best for the Fuji X100VI.
Fujifilm X100VI Sample Images
Images are shot RAW with the Firecrest Bloom Gold filter. Colored with my Core presets layered on either some of the Fujifilm Sims or Adobe Color. I’m doing something new with the grain, where I mostly add the grain to the highlights to simulate more of how real film works. You can do this in Lightroom by using a Gradient Mask set with grain and a Luminance Range set with a highlight Bias.
